Surgery, genetic tests & fatigue ... oh my!

Earlier this week I had a check in appointment with my breast surgeon, Dr. Grissom. She wanted to see how treatment was going, wondered how I was feeling, and asked if I had noticed a change in my tumor. My answers … treatment was going well (almost done!), I’m feeling pretty good (tired, but good!), and I think it’s getting smaller (hopefully!). She did a breast exam and immediately said there were huge improvements in how it felt. She mentioned that it felt much softer, which was a good thing. Before any treatments, the tumor was very hard & the fact that it’s feeling softer means that treatments are working. After she did a breast exam, she did an ultra sound and took measurements of the tumor.  Pre treatment, the tumor measured approximately 3cm & now it’s a little over 1cm. She said it has reduced in size by about half and I still have two treatments left which means it’s only going to get smaller! She was very pleased with the progress … yay!

After my exam we talked about surgery. It’s the next step after chemo & we currently have a lumpectomy scheduled for August 6. It’s an outpatient surgery and the procedure will take about an hour from start to finish. She’ll remove what’s left of the tumor as well as some of the surrounding tissue and also a lymph node or two.  She said recovery from surgery should be pretty easy and once I’m fully healed, I’ll start radiation.

A few weeks ago I also had genetic testing done to see if I test positive for a gene mutation that makes me more susceptible to developing breast cancer. With no gene mutations, 12% of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their life. For those with the gene mutations, it increases from 12% to 60-80%! I still don’t have the results yet but I should be getting them within the next week or two. If they come back positive, my doctor and I will have to revisit what kind of surgery I’ll have. At that point, a bilateral mastectomy is also put on the table.

My second to last treatment is on Wednesday and my brother & dad are coming with me. Dr. Jeske and the nurses who work in her office all think it’s so great that I have a rotating list of chemo guests. I can sort of see why some people would like to be alone during chemo sessions but having people with me really helps pass the time. I hope they’re both ready to color :)

Like I mentioned before, I’ve been feeling pretty good. The Sunday after my last round was definitely the worst & I had fatigue like I’ve never had before in my life. Some of my girlfriends from Bako came up to visit for the weekend and we did brunch at our place on Sunday at 11am. I woke up at 10:50am and when they left at 1pm, I was back in bed until about 5pm. You know when you’re really tired and desperately need to take a nap? And then you wake up from that nap feeling refreshed and ready to go? Yeah, it didn’t work like that. My whole body felt heavy and even the thought of walking from my bed to the bathroom sounded hard. I was worried that the fatigue had finally gotten the best of me and prepared myself for more days like this. The good news is, they didn’t come. I am more tired than normal but nothing that compares to that Sunday. Dr. Jeske did warn me that with the last two rounds I should expect to have more days like that. Instead of just one day of really bad fatigue, it might be two or three. Only time will tell! In the meantime, I’ll just keep kicking this cancer’s ass.

Xo,

Ali