My "Give a Moose a Muffin" life . . .

[Ms. Toad]

Why is it that when you go see a new cancer doctor they always want to show off their new toy to a half dozen of their friends?

I decided to switch doctors. The doctor I'm leaving is fine, but her staff (employees of the hospital, not her) are creating far to much stress for me to remain a patient there.

So I picked up copies of all my records and trundled off to my mother's moose (er, doctor) and handed her a muffin (er, records).

After pondering my muffin offering, she decided she needed some jam to go with it (a new biopsy, since she disagreed with the assessment of the physician I'm leaving that my lymph nodes were normal sized and symmetric), and she's begging for another mufffin (an MRI guided biopsy - because she sees a suspicious spot on my MRI that the physician I'm leaving didn't see) and, if today's jam comes back tasty and positive, she wants more jam (a biopsy of a lymph node on the other side) to be sure it hasn't metastasized.

Sigh.

TLDR: lymph node biopsy today since my lymph nodes look larger than average & the cancer side is slightly more enlarged. MRI guided biopsy next Wednesday to check out a suspicious spot that is too far away from the tumor to just excise along with it. If today's biopsy comes back positive, she wants to biopsy lymph nodes on the other side.


So - I'm back in waiting mode until Monday. If everything new is negative, I'll have a partial mastectomy (lumpectomy) on the 24th, followed by radiation. If anything is positive, I may need chemo before surgery.

[MADem]

1. I hope everything goes well and smoothly for you. nt

[Ms. Toad]

4. Crossing my fingers until Monday -

And then until Friday or so.

Good thing I have enough things to keep my mind busy between now and then!

[Solly Mack]

2. I hate waiting and I really hate waiting for doctors/tests/surgeries.

I wanted it over and done with it.

Course it doesn't work that way, so I grinned and pretended to have patience.

My doctor told me the hardest part for me would be the recovery, because he could tell I had no patience and I am the type of person who doesn't like feeling weak or helpless.

The good thing about the new moose is the new one saw things the other moose missed. The other good thing about the new moose is her insistence on getting the full jam experience. She wants to fully know what she is putting in and on her muffins.

I may never look at muffins or jam the same again. (or moose)

Keep us posted on your jam. I'll keep the tea warm.

[Ms. Toad]

5. I would love to have delayed the last couple of weeks of appointments -

I'm so far behind (with a drop dead deadline on Tuesday) because I have so many doctor's appointments - and because even when I have only one - the moose effect takes over!

My boss wanted to prepare for me being out by creating a bunch of training tapes. I said perhaps, after Tuesday . . . she was hoping to be done with them by Wednesday. Not much chance.

[PennyK]

3. Well, let's just hope all comes back well

If..IF...I'm currently doing the chemo-first route, and after my second cycle, I'm finding that it's doable.

I will most likely have a mastectomy and reconstruction when my chemo is done.
My best wishes that it all goes as well as it possibly can, and I hope you have good insurance!

[Ms. Toad]

6. Glad to hear!

I hope to avoid chemo but - I'll have a smidgen better idea on Monday.

I had better insurance (no premium, no out of pocket) until I switched jobs a few years ago. Now we've got about $9000 out of pocket each and every year (we raise medical unicorns in our family). We'll just hit the cap a bit earlier this year than usual - spending it on my, rather than our daughter.

[PennyK]

7. I sort of lucked out

...in that I turned 65 last December. We both went for the Plan F for our supplemental, which is basically the most expensive and covers the most. That was seriously a brilliant move on our part! I've had two surgeries, myriad tests, and the two chemos so far, and I've paid $10 out of pocket toward one surgery.
The Medicare drug plan isn't quite as good (thanks, Georgie-Boy) and we will probably hit the doughnut hole soon.

[Ms. Toad]

8. Thursday's biopsy was negative -

Tomorrow the MRI guided biopsy to check out the shadow they see on the MRI that's too far away to just get taken out during surgery.

They are going for an entirely purple-toned breast. The quarter or so they decorated with Thursday's biopsy just wasn't enough.

[PennyK]

9. Good so far!

Hope today's Deep Purple exploration goes well.

[Ms. Toad]

10. MRI guided biopsy - done.

Just waiting for the results.

If my far-lighter-than-normal research is accurate, the spot the biopsied yesterday has a 50% or greater chance of being another cancer. I hope that result is available tomorrow. If it is another cancer it will be a race against time to complete the 2nd tier testing to find out what kind it is before my scheduled surgery on Tuesday,

In other news, my brother died yesterday. My medical nonsense, combined with the end of the semester kept me from making a trip out to visit him. I was going to scramble to add a trip between the biopsy yesterday and surgery on Tuesday - but he lapsed into unconsciousness early yesterday, and died about 11:30 last night. It is a relief to not have to squeeze the trip into a very small window of time - but I am sad that once he finally asked to see his siblings, I was unable to get there in time. (He has been in prison for 36 years - so we gave him complete control over when he was ready for visitors, since there was very little else in his life he was able to control).