Christmas Biopsy #2

Let's see.....the last week has been a little action packed.

Last Tuesday I was called by a nurse at my new breast surgeon's office. My surgeon was scheduled for surgery on Friday at the Royal Jubilee Hospital so I was booked at a clinic for 07:45 to get the little bump biopsied. Uhhhhhhh.........07:45? I haven't been out of bed before 10 am in about 2 months. It is one of those suck it up, buttercup, and get it done moments. At least I am getting the biopsy done really quickly.

Later on Tuesday my wonderful bestie, Keetah, arrived for a visit with her mum, a couple of super cute pooches, and her long lost brother. It was a couple days filled with lots of food and drink and laughs. Orchid was awfully glad when they left. Miss Satori, the puggle, really wanted to practice her cat chasing skills much to the amusement of the humans.........our entire house is hardwood. There was a lot of running with no forward movement from the puggle.

Thursday afternoon I got a call from my oncologist. She had received the results of my biopsy (!!!!!). That was unexpected. The biopsy showed that the enlarged node was due to breast cancer. Yay! I haven't suddenly got lymphoma or melanoma. But, there was not enough sample to confirm the estrogen receptor and Her2 status. It is possible that the cancer has mutated and one or both of those markers has been lost. Fingers crossed that isn't the case.
If the cancer becomes ER negative then the letrozole will be ineffective and if it becomes Her2 negative the herceptin becomes ineffective. If the cancer loses both there will be a lot of chemo in my future.
So, because there was not enough sample to complete the testing, I am booked for a repeat biopsy on Tuesday afternoon. Joy.
My onc also told me that she has been in touch with my radiation oncologist and most likely I will be going for radiation on the lymph node at the beginning of January. The question now is how many treatments will I need?

Friday morning, dark and early, and rainy of course, I trundled off to the Jubilee. I got to the clinic where the biopsy was to be done and it was all closed up. The clinic was actually not supposed to open until after my scheduled appointment time. I waited a couple minutes and my surgeon showed up. She told me to just take a seat and she would be back to get me in a few minutes after she had set up.
A clerk showed up then and called me up to confirm my name and birth date then I waited a few more minutes.

My surgeon came back and showed me to the procedure room. Normally there is a nurse in the room to assist but the appointment was so early there were no nurses yet so we were on our own trying to figure out how to turn on the big light needed for my doc to see what she was doing. I had to change into a gown and my doc came back with a resident. He got to be the assistant.
The area around the bump got frozen with lots of freezing but I barely even felt the needle for the freezing go in. Goes to show just how numb I still am from my mastectomy.
Then I got sliced open and the bump was cut out. My surgeon was nice enough to show me the piece of tissue she removed. There was a clip attached from when my mastectomy was done. Possibly the bump was just due to me reacting to the clip. Sure hope that is the case.
I got sewed back up, the end result was a 2 cm incision in my chest. I got a few dissolving stitches, a few steri-strips, and a bandage on top just in case there was any residual bleeding. Results should be back in a week or so.
I felt alright when I left but I suspect that I was just slightly in shock. I had a little bit of lightheadedness and felt just a little icky. On the whole scale I was ok though.

I went home and went back to bed for a couple hours. After I got up for the second time that day I stocked up on fluids and got myself ready to back to the Jubilee, to the Cancer Agency to be precise, for my herceptin. Ahhhh, such a good day.
Only 1 poke was needed to get the IV and I was in and out pretty quick. Needless to say I was in bed before 8:30 that night.

I spent the weekend relaxing and socialising and enjoying the Christmas season. Next week the medical fun continues.