Sunday, October 26, 2008

Pre-Surgery Madness & Doctor Selection

(Still actually written in November)

A couple of days after my diagnosis, my mom flew out to help take care of me and Miles. The three of us together formed an awesome, unstoppable team! The only way it could have been better is if my dad hadn't been so far away. In the 3 weeks that followed my diagnosis, I had a flurry of doctor's appointments and medical tests. My brain absorbed more information in a 3-week period than ever before. I read and re-read every pamphlet and breast cancer brochure. I read stuff on Internet that was informative, and I read some stuff on Internet that I had no business looking at. Three days after my diagnosis, I met with my assigned surgeon, Dr. Peter Richards (but let's call him Dr. Awesome!) and he was finally the first to make us feel at ease with my diagnosis. He just had this great way about him; he was completely confident, yet he didn't dodge any of the hard questions. The first thing he said after "hello" was that we'd better get on the ball and see a fertility doctor because of potential infertility from chemotherapy. And that made us feel so good... that the first thing this doc was telling us was that we had a FUTURE. (Incidentally, our fertility doctor later said that we had a wonderful surgeon to have been so quick on the draw regarding fertility.)

After Dr. Awesome we covered our bases and got a second opinion from a UCSF surgeon. All he did was confirm that Dr. Awesome was something special.

Then I got a breast MRI and a full set of mammograms (which I'd never done before). For the breast MRI, they first put an IV in my arm. I laid face-down on the sliding platform, with my face hanging down into a shiny white toilet-bowl looking thing. My breasts hung down into two holes in the platform. Then they slid me into the tubular machine. Luckily, since I was face-down I couldn't see how claustrophobic it was. They gave me earplugs because the MRI machine is very loud. I was in there for 30+ minutes, and about halfway through I got the contrast liquid in my IV. They warned me I would feel coldness running up my arm (which I did). It made me feel strange. Then, the mammograms were fine. They took a regular set, and then did a few close-ups of my lump. The nice mammogram technician lady let me know afterwards that they didn't see anything suspicious other than my original lump. That was so nice to hear.

Dr. Awesome also discussed the BRCA genetics test with me, I went ahead and tested for it, and 2 weeks later I learned I was thankfully negative!!

In the meantime, I saw UCSF fertility doc. He was "not my favorite." When I showed up with My Team, he made us feel like we put him out by needing one extra chair. Also when we asked questions, he made us feel like we were putting him out then too. So we went to a second fertility doc at the Pacific Fertility Center. They impressed us with their care and attention. Since I was a chemo/cancer patient, they put me on a special "fast track." All the pre-treatment stuff that takes normal couples 2-5 weeks to do, they were able to do for us in a matter of days. We had a 5+ hour appointment (!!!) with PFC during which they bombarded us with info.

So all of this info-gathering happened in the first couple weeks after diagnosis. Then we had the task of trying to juggle and schedule everything to happen at the correct time, and somehow it all worked out perfectly! My dad wanted to be here for my surgery, but was only available to come to California during one particular week. Miles and I decided we wanted to get married while my dad was here. We also wanted to do my lumpectomy as soon as possible. And lastly, we had to schedule the fertility/freezing cycle someplace in there at the proper time, which in turn depended on my menstrual cycle.

Somehow, miraculously, everything worked out so perfectly. And then the next thing I knew my Dad was here, I was planning a last-minute wedding, I was doing last-minute pre-surgery prep, and I was giving myself subcutaneous injections in the stomach everyday. Whew!

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