My latest lab tests came back without all the red flags this time, so surgery on June 19 is a go.
A lumpectomy is considered an outpatient procedure; so I will be home that same day. I expect to be pretty groggy and my surgeon prescribed some pain medication, which is also supposed to make me groggy; so it will probably be a few days after that when I update this blog.
I spent some time with the radiation oncologist this past week, getting a lot of information. I am not happy about being blasted with radiation five days a week for five to six weeks; but lumpectomy without radiation would leave me with a 40% chance of cancer coming back. The odds drop to 10% with radiation (same as if I had a mastectomy). That treatment will start a month after surgery and the exact details will be determined after the surgical pathology report. Short-term side effects are supposedly not awful…a "sunburn" on the skin and fatigue, especially toward the end of the treatment. Long-term effects can be a bit more serious, with possible lung and heart damage. The doctor is confident he can avoid heart damage with careful aiming of the rays, and says any decrease in lung capacity will be minimal and not noticeable. I sure hope he is right!
By the time I have finished treatment, I will have spent a year dealing with this cancer… which is what everyone warned me would be the case. And after that, I still have to have oral medication and twice-yearly checkups; so it's really never over. Having cancer strikes me as similar to being an alcoholic. Instead of going to AA meetings, one goes in for regular checkups and counts the months and years of being cancer-free.
To deal with the pre-surgery anxiety, I am following my naturopath's recommendation to stay very busy. I have been filling every waking minute with activity, and I still have a long list of things to do…some of which will probably not get done. Seems like the time is going very fast, and I hope that applies to the day of surgery, too!
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