Barely Awake, but Getting There
Aug. 26th, 2009 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wickedwords No food or drink after mindnight the night before, only a small sip for my regular pills after waking. I went to work for a couple of hours as a distraction, then Lar took me to the hospital. I arrived and registered on time, but they were about a half hour late getting to me in pre-surgery. Once the IV site was ready, then we rushed down to Diagnostic Imaging for the sentinel node biopsy injection or fun with radioactive materials. After signing the paperwork and getting the Lidocaine and the radioactive material injection, Lar, of course, was using his IPhone to read up on the material while I was doing aerobics to get the stuff to move into the lymph nodes, and thought about Jim and Blair.
(What? It was a Sentinel node biopsy. Where else would my mind have gone?)
Two baseline scans, then down to mammography at the Evergreen Breast Center, where, yes, I had to register yet again and sign yet more forms, so they could put the guides in to pinpoint the tumor. More Lidocaine, a few xrays, a couple of incisions, and the hook was set so they could go in and cut the tumor out.
Back in surgery again, this time filling out more forms for the port implant for my chemo therapy. (We'd hoped it wouldn't be necessary, as the tumor is small, but because it was an aggressive triple negative, that was a no-go. )
Sidenote: While in the mammogram room (which I love, BTW. The Evergreen Breast Center is an awesome place), I learned a couple of things: 1) Seattle has had the highest number of breast cancer cases in the united states for several years, and 2) Evergreen has a 2% re-occurrence rate, compared with a 17% nationally. I found it reassuring to know they treat a lot of breast cancer, and it doesn't come back. Even though that does mean that I have to go through chemo.
The surgery itself went well, and I woke up okay but with the shivers. (I love the blow-dryer pillow-blanket thing that you get covered with, but pre-warmed blankets are still the best.) Juice, graham crackers, more drugs and more juice, and then I was on my way home. I managed some soup and ginger ale, then I basically crashed; Lar woke me up to take some more pills, and then I was out for the rest of the night.
Today my arms ache, as does my chest, so I'm not typing for long. I have slept, ate, and watched bad tv for most of the day. As things go, I feel pretty good: they only took the one lymph node, and that looked clean, but we'll get the full pathology report later. Chemo will suck, I know, but I will be doing 4 rounds of TC (Taxotere/cyclophosphamide) with a 3 week cycle, so it will be a matter of small, deeply sucky steps.
(What? It was a Sentinel node biopsy. Where else would my mind have gone?)
Two baseline scans, then down to mammography at the Evergreen Breast Center, where, yes, I had to register yet again and sign yet more forms, so they could put the guides in to pinpoint the tumor. More Lidocaine, a few xrays, a couple of incisions, and the hook was set so they could go in and cut the tumor out.
Back in surgery again, this time filling out more forms for the port implant for my chemo therapy. (We'd hoped it wouldn't be necessary, as the tumor is small, but because it was an aggressive triple negative, that was a no-go. )
Sidenote: While in the mammogram room (which I love, BTW. The Evergreen Breast Center is an awesome place), I learned a couple of things: 1) Seattle has had the highest number of breast cancer cases in the united states for several years, and 2) Evergreen has a 2% re-occurrence rate, compared with a 17% nationally. I found it reassuring to know they treat a lot of breast cancer, and it doesn't come back. Even though that does mean that I have to go through chemo.
The surgery itself went well, and I woke up okay but with the shivers. (I love the blow-dryer pillow-blanket thing that you get covered with, but pre-warmed blankets are still the best.) Juice, graham crackers, more drugs and more juice, and then I was on my way home. I managed some soup and ginger ale, then I basically crashed; Lar woke me up to take some more pills, and then I was out for the rest of the night.
Today my arms ache, as does my chest, so I'm not typing for long. I have slept, ate, and watched bad tv for most of the day. As things go, I feel pretty good: they only took the one lymph node, and that looked clean, but we'll get the full pathology report later. Chemo will suck, I know, but I will be doing 4 rounds of TC (Taxotere/cyclophosphamide) with a 3 week cycle, so it will be a matter of small, deeply sucky steps.
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Date: 2009-08-27 04:19 am (UTC)