Surgery Scheduled - Tentatively Monday (Oct 11)

We met our surgeon, Dr. Michael Wynn today. He comes very highly recommended, and has a lot of respect for our beliefs. He doesn’t see any need for concern with regard to blood loss, and expects Christina to recover quickly enough to go home after just a few days in the hospital. He is confirming the schedule, but as it stands now, Christina will have her surgery on this coming Monday, October 11.

We also met with the Oncologist, Dr. Sawhney again today. It was a tough visit; Christina had a melt-down when they tried (and failed) to get a blood sample from her. She hates those things, and she’s had enough of them that she’s developed scar tissue that makes it even harder.

Frustratingly, we’re still waiting on both the BRCA and the hormone receptor tests to be completed. I half-way expected the BRCA test to be delayed, as they have to ship it off to Utah (?) and the process is pretty sophisticated. The other test I thought would have been ready.

In any case, we’re moving forward, as the important data is already in place. Due to Christina’s youth (pre-menopausal), family history, and the aggressive, fast-growing nature of the tumor, it’s been decided that she’ll have a double-mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy. This might seem a bit drastic, but the chances that she’ll have a reoccurrence is very high, and this will give us the best shot at knocking the cancer clean out of her body and making sure it never comes back.

The chemo will start a few weeks after surgery. Christina is really anxious about it; there are so many horror stories about how rough it is to go through. However, a good friend of ours who’s wife had cancer just a couple of years ago reassured us that it isn’t as bad as some make it out to be; the anti-nausea medications helped his wife a lot, and there are a lot of treatment options that can help. Christina is going to have a port put in that will allow the doctors to inject medication and draw blood without having to stick her each time, which should make the process a little more bearable.

Tomorrow we will meet with another Oncologist, Dr. Joseph Szumowski, to get a second opinion on Christina's case. I don't expect any issues to arise from that, but if so we'll handle them as best as we can. Also tomorrow we're going to meet with our family doctor, to go over the medication that Christina is on and what (if anything) we should modify in her usual regimen. Then, we will start stockpiling supplies for the apartment for the next week or two (oh what fun).

Thanks to all who have left comments here and on Facebook, and for all of the phone calls. Please call! Please comment! We need the encouragement of our friends! Thanks also to those that have helped out with dinners, cleaning up around our apartment, and giving Celia some extra attention; without you this would be so much harder.