This past week I had two full days of post-chemo/pre-surgery appointments at the Mayo Clinic. It started on Tuesday with lab work, an echocardiogram, an MRI, meeting with the trial coordinator and a final appointment with the nurse I saw every time I had chemo. It wasn't a very exciting or enlightening day, but it was long. We made it extra long when we agreed to meet with someone from the Center for Innovation at Mayo to talk about our experience at the Clinic and give suggestions for the new space they are building at the hospital that will house most of the stuff offered at the Clinic.
Then on Thursday, I had a mammogram first thing in the morning and then we finally got to meet with my surgeon, Dr. Pockaj, again to talk and plan for surgery (she was the first person I met with at Mayo back on June 12). First off, she was really pleased with the results from chemo. Looking at the scans from the MRI, there was only one small area that she thought could be cancerous because it was highlighted by the contrast they used during the MRI, but there was also a good chance that it could be scar tissue too. They won't know until after they send the tissue to pathology after surgery. Either way, everything on the scans looked great. She also joked and asked if they had really given me chemo because all my blood work looked pretty good (still not all back to normal range but on it's way) and I hadn't lost any weight. If only it wasn't for my bald head...
Before we met with her, Dr. Pockaj talked to the reconstructive surgeon I met with back in June and they figured out a date that worked for both of their schedules, and happens to work for us too. My surgery will be on December 21. I'm not sure what time and won't find out until after 4pm the day before but we know the date now. We also know that they will be able to do both surgeries at once, the mastectomy and the reconstruction, so I'll only have to have the one surgery.
The one bit of news that was kind of a bummer was the fact that they are recommending radiation. In the beginning they talked a lot about what was best for each individual case and whether it was more helpful or harmful. In her opinion, and the other doctors that meet to review my case, they felt that radiation would be beneficial for me for 2 reasons. One, my tumor(s) grew like tinker toys and were smaller masses linked together. They find that this type of tumor breaks down kind of like Swiss cheese with holes in it and even though they are removing the tissue, they'd rather make sure the radiation is used to ensure all cancerous cells are gone. The other factor was my age and the fact that I have a LOT more years to go, radiation will only help. We don't know any details besides the fact that it will start about a month after surgery but we've heard the standard is 6 weeks of radiation treatment (5 days a week, so 30 treatments). We asked for a consult with the radiology oncologist to get some more information but unfortunately they scheduled it for the afternoon of my surgery because it wasn't yet in the calendar so we'll have to get that moved. I don't know that I'll be conscious at 1pm, in fact, I might still be in surgery.
After we met with that surgeon, I had a ECG (for the anesthesiologist on the day of surgery) and then we met with the reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Bash. She went over everything they are going to be doing on surgery day but no need for me to go into those details.
Both teams will be in the operating room at the same time and it the surgery will take at least 6 hours from what Dr. Pockaj said. Surgery will take place on Friday and depending on which surgeon you ask, I'll either go home Saturday or Sunday but it really depends on how I'm feeling. Either way, I'll be home for Christmas and that's all that concerned me!
It sounds like Tres is coming out before Christmas and is going to stay for a while to help us out and then possibly Angie, Ginni, Dad and Cris are going to come at various times over the next few weeks. Nothing has actually been finalized so I don't really know but we're working on it. So it doesn't sound like we'll be getting to NC anytime soon with post-surgery recovery followed by the radiation but we'll be back sometime!
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