New Doctors and a Surgery Date!

Both of my new doctors are at the Huntsman Cancer Center. This is a VERY pretty building! Very plush and nice inside. I met with the plastic surgeon on Tuesday and the general surgeon yesterday. First I'll talk about the surgeon, as he'll be doing the beginning part of surgery. This surgeon's approach will be a little different than than of Dr.Lloyd. He will do whichever surgery I decide to do, and I'm still leaning toward bi-lateral mastectomy. He will be removing  ALL lymph nodes on the side that had cancer, this is different than Dr. Lloyd. Remember she was going to take a few and check for cancer and only remove those that were positive? This doc believes that if he were to do that we could get a false negative because I've already had chemo. Not knowing which nodes were infected to begin with leaves us now knowing which ones may have cancer cells lurking. This news was very shocking to me. But now that I've had time to think about it I'm comfortable with the decision. The surgeon had not had time to review my imaging to see the before and after pictures of my tumor. He is going to have a radiologist review them and  get back to me on whether he thinks I'm a candidate for nipple sparing. If the cancer was to close to the edge then I will lose them. If it looks like I'm in the clear he will still do tissue testing during surgery from under the nipple to make sure there are no positive cancer cells, if there are then the nipples will have to go. Overall I thought this surgeon was nice, not as friendly as Dr. Lloyd, but I think he'll do a good job.
The plastic surgeon Tuesday. I thought he was a nice enough guy. I'm going to have to get used to have a resident Dr. and extra nurses in tow though. That's how the U and Huntsman work, they are training grounds. He'll place my expanders and do all my follow up visits, which means I'll be seeing him on a weekly basis for a while. One week after surgery I'll have my 1st set of drains removed (there are two drains on each side), and then at the 2 week appointment he'll remove the last two. Around 3 weeks after surgery will be when they start filling my tissue expanders, and this will continue on a weekly basis until we get to where I want to be. Depending on healing time and how long it takes to fill the expanders will determine when I can start radiation.

Surgery was scheduled for September 15th. They'll call me the Friday before and let me know my surgery time and instructions. I can expect a one night stay at the 4 Seasons resort called the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, which means I'll come home some time Tuesday. The only reason I would stay longer would be if there were complications or I am having pain management issues.

The surgery info has been sent over to my insurance to be preauthorized. There is a chance that they won't cover a bi-lateral mastectomy. Dealing with the Insurance is a big head ache!! I should know something before surgery I hope!!

I have moved my herceptin chemo to September 5th at 9am. I will not need a driver to this appointment.
I have also rescheduled my echo cardiogram to September 11th at 9:30am. Again, I can drive myself and won't need a driver.
It'll be nice to have those done before surgery for comfort sake :) Depending on how I'm feeling I may need to push my September 26th chemo back a week. For that chemo I most likely will need a driver, but I'll ask for help when it gets closer.

I am enjoying having my kids back in school! I plan on getting my house back in order and organized better while they are at school and before surgery. Cleaning makes me happy! And feeling good enough to clean is awesome!

Thank you for your continued prayers! My journey is far from over! This next part is very scary for me! Keep praying for me, your faith and prayers will help carry me through this!

I love you all!