My Bald Head

So I'm checking my head on a daily basis for some hair growth. Depending on the light I think I've grown some, and then the next day - hmmmm.... not so much.

Tuesday this week, I received a call from the Breast Surgeon, Christina Foley.  She confirmed the MRI results again as our meeting with her didnt go so well and we didnt seem to get all of the information.

She did confirm that my lymph nodes are normal again!!!!  This is the most important information she should have told us, but neither John or I can remember her saying it. It was only a passing comment by the fill-in oncologist, so I wanted to hear it from my breast surgeon first hand before I got too excited.

It is so important because it means that the cancer cannot spread into my body any further, it is contained within the breast!!!  The lymph node is connected to the blood circulatory system. The MRI shows no cancer in them anymore, my 2 nodes show normal tissue.  Chemo has worked!!! She said that this is one of the best results they've seen. She did incorrectly tell me that 2 tumours had disappeared, there is actually only 1 has disappeared. I'm not that disappointed considering that my lymphs are clear.

It means that I can mentally re-stage myself from stage 3 back to Stage 1 - even though they wont do that. They will continue to treat me as per my original diagnosis, but it is a huge mental weight removed from my thoughts.

I did promise you a bald photo........he, he.. I even look that chubby in the face straight after chemo and the neutrophil injection that poor John has to give me.

Bald Photo of me I promised

Appointment with the plastic surgeon on Tuesday. So the plan is for a 2 staged mastectomy.

WARNING - TMI What this means is I will have 1 boob done in January using a skin sparing technique.  This means they just empty out the mammary contents but keep the pouch of skin and fill it with a saline bag. Kind of like an immediate reconstruction but not the final result. The reason they do that is so it saves my skin rather than cut it all off. The saline bag is used rather than a proper reconstruction because I have to have radiotherapy everyday for 6 weeks on the chest and armpit and it doesnt go through silicone and it would shrink the skin slightly and damage the reconstruction.

Then when that's done, the final part of my journey is the second surgery, where they will remove my other breast contents and either use some tissue from somewhere else on my body or use silicone implants and get both breasts even and complete their final look.  Those options will be discussed at the meeting on Tuesday.

I found an interesting article on fibrocystic condition (lumpy breast). It explains how these lumps can mask cancer or and further investigation can be dismissed to menstrual conditions. The article explains how they can turn from benign to cancer. Anyone with lumpy breasts, in my opinion should have an ultrasound as a double check. I believe that this is how I developed breast cancer.

http://www.medicinenet.com/fibrocystic_breast_condition/article.htm