Are we there yet, Are we there yet, Are we there yet???

I feel like I am being long winded, and I apologize that this is taking so long. I am going to try to wrap up the history today and get on to the current story.

August 4th was the day of reckoning, I waited all day and at the end of the day got the call, the nurse didn't take long, she just told me, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.  I cried, we cried. It was a long, long night.

August 10th was the follow up appointment with Dr. Smith.  When we got to the office it was again very quiet, not crowded at all.  I see all my doctors at the Breast Care Center, it is an office at the MD Anderson Center specifically just for Breast Care patients to go to. So, I do the change clothes thing and go again to the women only waiting room.  I wait............I wait..........I wait.........  then I hear that they are running behind.  Well at this point it has already been a very long week and I am tired of being alone with my thoughts so I decide to march my myself with my hospital gown top out to the main waiting room to wait with my husband.  After about ten minutes we are taken to an exam room.  Dr. Smith came in talked a bit about the diagnosis and the plan.  Plan was at that point Lumpectomy (LX) with Sentinel Node Biopsy (SNB).  We then went into the US room to get a look at the tumor (I really need to give it a name, feel free to submit names) and to look at the lymph nodes.  My original Panini and US report enlarged lymph nodes.  The Doc said the lymph nodes didn't look especially alarming so I got dressed and we left.

ISN'T IS IRONIC (NEEDLES, PART TWO)

I have never had an MRI, but everyone told me it was not bad if you are not claustrophobic, just very noisy.  They also told me the noise wouldn't be an issue because they would give me headphones to listen to music. Sorry, but you were all WRONG!!!!!  I got into my MRI attire and walked into the room and the tech asked me some questions, pacemaker?metal in body? jewelry?.  Then came the news no one told me about, "Sit down here sweetie so I can start your IV. OH MY GOD!!!! I was not ready for that!!!! I verbalized my displeasure and the tech said I could leave now and reschedule if I want but I just sucked it up and did it.  I hurt a little, but I got through it.  So I laid down on the table a put "the girls" into two cut out holes, the tech put some headphones on my head and the table was slid into the tube. The tech put the music on and though it was a little low and I could hear it, the song was Ironic by Alanis Morrisette and I thought "Isn't this ironic".  At this point, I was upset, crying a little, mostly because this had been a long week.

NEEDLES, PART THREE (YOU THOUGHT I WAS DONE, NOT HARDLY)

Alrighty, lets get this show on the road, I was ready for the noise and prepared to be uncomfortable for thirty minutes. The tech comes around to the front of the machine to hook up the IV bag.........."Oh no, your vein blew".........OMG!!!!!  He called in another tech to start a new line in the other hand, I am slid back into the tube and away we go.  Well I have learned a few lessons from this adventure, the most important being that the headphones are lousy and I will just bring ear plugs next time. One side slipped off and I couldn't even hear the music. After about forty five minutes (not thirty) I was done.  I got dressed and went out to the waiting room to wait for my films.

CONDENSING

I will never get caught up if I don't condense a little bit so........
Tuesday August 17 got MRI results, it said tumor is much larger than originally thought and lymph nodes are most likely involved  Dr. Smith didn't believe this was correct, had ORMC radiologist review films. August 18, Dr. Smith tells me chemo first may be an option if tumor is larger than thought. He will call me Friday or Monday when he knows more.