More Information about today's Dr's Visit

Now that the email has been sent out and all appropriate people have been contacted, I can take a minute to go over in more detail today's visit. We got there at 2pm and left at 4pm. It was so nice, to not be a phone call, but to be a patient.

We started off with Kathy, a very nice nurse that asked me SO many questions, that was tedious and nice at the same time. A few of you will remember a few years ago when my dura spontaneously combusted and I did some time at Memorial (Hollywood hospital)and that they were never really able to explain why it happened. She even paid attention to all of that (and believe me it's a long and tedious story!) So she took my blood pressure, it's usually 98/69 (I know I wonder too if I'm really alive) and today it was 138/72 call an ambulance, that is WAY too high for me. She smiled and patted my leg and said "it's actually good for our office"

Dr. New (not her real name) came in and said let's get to it. My dear friend who got me in had already talked to her the day before and told her about my experience with Dr. Suave and his phone manners and she literally spent the next 20 minutes in "uninterrupted eye contact" with me and explained in words I actually understood, exactly what would happen.

But I forgot to say, before she came in she and Kathy met and went over ALL my history (LONG) I know this because Whitney went to get his parking ticket stamped (fidgety-it's ok I was seeing prisms on the side of my eye) and he could see them going over everything we had just talked about and pulling records from the computer and looking at films (can't believe I'm actually THAT important!) before entering the room. It gets graphic here if you want to stop reading and go to the next paragraph.

The night before my surgery I will have radioactive dye injected into my breast (and apparently it hurts) to prepare for a lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy after the partial mastectomy or lumpectomy the next day. They call this the breast-conserving surgery. The lumpectomy removes the tumor and some of the tissues around it and the second surgery that day is the axillary node dissection, this is a procedure in which the lymph nodes in the armpit (axilla) are removed and examined by a pathologist to find out if breast cancer has spread to those nodes. The radioactive dye and sometimes a blue dye travel along the lymphatic ducts in your breast to the lymph nodes under your arm. The first node they reach is called a sentinel node, and this is usually the first node that cancer cell will go to if they have traveled outside of your breast. The surgeon uses a special machine that makes really loud noises activated by the radioactive dye or the blue dye to find the sentinel node and remove it, they also mark it. If for some reason they can't find the node, they must remove all nodes in the underarm area of the side that has the cancer. It is a two week recovery, no DRIVING for two weeks (this is when I will need some help for sure local driving friends) and no lifting at all. Then I move onto chemotherapy once the biopsy results (and healing from the surgery) have returned. Radiation follows chemo to make sure that all cell surrounding the lumpectomy are cancer free, incase one of those little guys cuts lose, they nuke 'em!

SO, there you have it, nothing held back. I don't have any answers about the chemo, but I knew that I wouldn't. She is requiring I get a pre-op physical and many tests run-blood work, etc and I must get a clearance from my neurologist before the anesthesiologist will clear me also. That made me feel so much better, Dr. Suave didn't even pay attention when I brought it up.

So your thinking I really paid attention today and really became suddenly very smart, not the case, Dr. New gave me a FOLDER with tons of information, even a page with a glossary. I'm so happy, praise Frannah, she is just so awesome!!!!! Also, I really need to thank Luann, I hated my obgyn the first time I went and Luann talked me into staying with him, he was so stinking persistent, and look what happened I caught it so EARLY!!! Thanks Luann and thanks Frannah, key people who the Lord has sent to watch over me.

I can't wait to call Carmen, I really want to jack with her bad, tell her that I think I will go the herbal route or maybe tell her I'm going to Mexico for a case study, but she'll probably have a tough time just finding my record.

The new scheduler Patricia, she had me scheduled, a list of Dr's close by (I don't have a regular Dr I usually just go to specialists and you know we just moved here (I know it was almost 4 years ago but I'm pretty healthy minus spontaneously combusting dura's) and I haven't needed a Dr. anyway she had four dr's lined up and I was able to get a new patient appointment and she already faxed them my orders from Dr. New. Isn't that cool, she rocks and she knows my name, she even called me Mrs. Wheeler and said I love your name, CALEDONIA, where did it come from??

So I left there with orders to get clearance from the neurologist, a new patient pre-op appointment, a folder with lot of reference materials and a huge boost of "it's going to be ok!"

Favorite cancer quote "Dr. New- Don't listen to anyone who isn't a Dr because they are idiots and while trying to help, they only spawn little idiot comments!" LOVE HER!!!!