"Have a Great Weekend", They Said.

Let's get the whining out of the way first. I still don't know if the cancer has spread to other parts of my body (making it the incurable stage of cancer).

Also unknown is when is my first day of chemo. The answer to that is contingent on some more tests coming back because those results determine my particular "cocktail of drugs." I don't know when it is going to start or exactly how often and for how long either, for the same reason. I did find out I'm getting this groovy little device called a "Mediport" this next Wednesday.

It is disc about the size of a quarter that is surgically placed in my chest just under my skin with a tube that connects to a large vein. Chemotherapy meds are given through a special needle that fits right into that little sucker. Bonus is that blood can be drawn from same port, which will be happening quite often during my treatment. The images of being a human pin cushion have been eliminated.

Now to move onto the non-whiney portion of this post.

As my friend next door as well as my surgeon told me, my oncologist is awesome. He just oozes with gentle strength and keen intelligence. You can see the compassion in his eyes as well. Kinda everything you want in a doctor. I seriously dig the slight Indian accent too. He is in complete agreement with my surgeon's recommendations regarding treatment, so that is good.

He explained that yeah, I have a super aggressive type of cancer. It probably wasn't even there 2 months ago. (I had worried my procrastination of my mammogram I screwed myself.) Because it's inflammatory, I can see the changes that happened just in a week to my breast just looking at it.

Which, on the plus side, because it is starting to look kinda gross the last couple of days, not so sad now to think about it being cut off. Having it replaced with a new one rather than having what I have now is actually preferred.

The way they treat cancer with chemotherapy has changed radically the past 25 years. There are so many, many medicines that target all the different aspects of a person's cancer. Which is something I also hadn't fully grasped. It's not just the kind of cancer that determines what drugs you get, but also these variations to what is happening on cellular level that vary from person to person. Which is why it's important that he get the results from this one last test on the sample taken on biopsy called a FISH test. They also want to make sure there's not something going on with a kidney or my heart that a certain therapy might make worse, which is why I spent my day at Reston Hospital going from lab to lab.

Speaking of my day at Reston Hospital, when you walk into the lab that you didn't book an appointment or is closing soon, upon hearing (as instructed) "I have inflammatory cancer and my doctor said I have to have these tests done ASAP", instead of getting more put out, they become extremely nice and I get right in. Thanks Cancer!

And in the middle of my marathon of meeting with doctors and various tests I had that PET scan, which turned out to be the oasis of my day. The two women who conduct it were so jovial. Sure, you're getting radioactive sugar injected into your veins (it apparently attaches to the cancer cells so you can see if it has spread beyond my nodes) but these ladies made that even pleasant. Then, unlike that MRI machine, the CAT scan was downright pleasant to me. I got wrapped in blankets and inserted into the tube where it was just a quiet hum. I fell asleep and woke up feeling so much better as a result.

I know those ladies are the ones who know if the cancer has spread but aren't allowed to tell me so I didn't bother to ask. Also, tried to get out of there ASAP so as not to start analyzing their behavior towards me now that they know. But they wrote a little note at the bottom of some paperwork that I saw later that afternoon: "Have a great weekend!" My mind started churning about what that meant.

But before speculating lead to a trip to Crazy Town, I decided that I really should just have a great weekend. Aside from my weird looking boob, I feel great. I have been blessed with so much that I am losing track! So thank you PET Scan ladies, I will have a great weekend.