THE THING REMAINS

The Thing remains, but we now have a plan that has been formulated. I visited the oncologist last Friday. I liked him VERY much. He was very caring and spent a long time with me and Linda (my other set of ears) to make me understand where I am and where I am going. The March report from the ultrasound showed a tumor around 4cm in size, which is Stage II. After he examined me he said he feels it is now approximately 5-6 cm in size, which is Stage III. He said we need to get started immediately.

I have been learning toward a mastectomy, or possibly a double mastectomy. I DON’T want to go through this again. And, I also wanted to have reconstruction immediately following the surgery. The doctor informed me that he will be recommending radiation after the surgery. I didn’t think I would have to have radiation after a total mastectomy, but he said I will be having chemo before surgery, maybe after surgery, and I will definitely have radiation. So the reconstruction will have to wait. This also gives me another eight weeks or so to gather more information about a lumpectomy versus a mastectomy.

THE NEW GUY IN MY LIFE

Meet “Phillip,” the new guy in my life! He’s not much fun on dates as we never go ‘out.’ He just sits around (the hospital) all day. He’s really into photography and takes tons of photos of me! I have not seen any of the photos, but I know he’s shared them with my doctors! Phillip is my new best friend because he’s great at assisting with diagnoses! Many thanks to Phillips and Toshiba for their state-of-the art diagnostic equipment.

ANOTHER ‘HAIR RAISING’ OCCASION

I start chemo tomorrow (Friday, July 31). Today, I brought my new wigs to the office and everyone (almost—everyone) tried them on! This was great and provided me with a lot of laughs. Vince Thompson looked like the 40-ish Elvis and Kevin Morgan—well, we’d never seen Kevin with hair! Todd Bell did his impersonation of “Cousin It” from The Addams Family movie and Renee Clayton went RED. It was great to have a good laugh and relax for a few minutes before having to think about chemo tomorrow. I dread the ‘unknown’ of it all!

(Below Vince, Kevin, Todd, and Renee, in that order.)