We Heart Dr. S

General surgeon Dr. S so generously made time for us Friday on a non-clinic day to talk about my sketchy surgical pathology results. To re-cap, the pathologist found DCIS up to the very edge of one of the outer pieces of tissue that was removed from my chest. Dr. S finally got together with him to talk a little more about that finding. Unfortunately it's still sketchy, but I still have a fantastic likelihood of getting rid of this and living to annoy Mark for a really long time.

The DCIS on the edge was small, a few millimeters and impossible to see. Also, my Plastic Surgeon Dr. L, took out some more skin after they sent off the pathology to make my chest close prettily, so it may have even be removed by him. We can't tell or otherwise find it though, because all the healing that's going on would obscure any tiny cancer in any kind of imaging we tried. So, Radiation seems our most likely next step. Dr. S thinks that may even be overkill, but we can't just sit around and let cancer get comfy on my chest again. Most people tolerate radiation treatments very well. But they can complicate reconstruction, so we have to talk to Dr. L before we go further with the reconstruction and radiation therapy.

It was wonderful seeing Dr. S's confidence and lack of apprehension about all of this, and that he's made himself so available to us is wonderful. We're so glad we picked him, he's just been fantastic. And really this is not bad news. It's still not chemotherapy. So I don't know why, but I'm just getting sick of all of this. I know I can still do it, but it's really not fun being the Patient and I'd love to be done. I think part of it is feeling so much better from surgery. I'm really anxious to get back to my life, and another delay is not greatly welcome. I yearn to be a healthy, boring person. But with Mark home again next week, we'll try to add some fun to all the medicine going on around here. I promise we'll share.