The Current Plan

Met with my new female doc yesterday. Both Ruben and I very much agreed on liking her. She seemed very understanding to my wanting to keep my expander if possible - she even did an ultrasound of my chest where the suspicious scar tissue had been found.

After arriving home, she called (not a nurse, but the doctor herself!) me asking if I had done an MRI of the chest, to which I replied no, just the other tests. She'd like to get an MRI done as it gives her a better picture and she's not going into the surgery blind. It also will allow her to see where the cancer was so that she can place markers there so when I have radiation they know where to point it for maximum effectiveness. So far it sounds like we've got a good plan. She's not all set on just removing all the muscle, she wants to remove only what is needed and will have pathology there to test what she removes along the way to know if clear margins were obtained. Obviously I am happy about that. Don't want to lose more muscle than what is necessary, especially since I only have about half to begin with -my modified radical mastectomy in 2005 took a piece of my chest wall along with my breast tissue. Muscle doesn't just grow back, it'd be nice if it did. then we could regrow things like the little lizard who lost it's tail. Although that might be a bit creepy, and honestly sounds super hero-ish. LOL.

Anyway, her office scheduled me an MRI for the 20th - and for the moment, surgery is tentatively set for the 22nd. See we ain't wasting no time! I like that! A doctor that realizes and appreciates the need for speed - unlike one who tells me I need it yesterday but then waits 3+ weeks to get me in. But anyway the sooner I do surgery, the sooner I can move on to radiation, then chemo, then get my life back on track! I'm sure it will still take the majority of this year before I am done, but at least I have a good doctor - one who I googled and couldn't find any malpractice lawsuits against unlike the last prick!

So tomorrow I head to the dentist. Fun! Then Friday I head back to my new surgeons office to sign my pre-op paperwork.
This new doc even took one look at my latest stress induced acne breakout - Hard for her to miss since the area above my right eye looked horrid. Seems every time for the last 3+ months that I tweeze my eyebrows I hit a nerve, get a lump on my head and suffer the embarrassing ugliness for a week. Either some major ingrown hairs, or an abscess pocket. Maybe I should go back to waxing - or maybe waxing is what got me here? In any case, she gave me some potent anti-bacterial antibiotics to help clear this up ASAP. It's cool she did that, but up till the drama of last week I was proud that I had been acne free for nearly 2 months and my few scars were clearing up. Ah well, maybe I will again soon be acne free - or when all this drama calms down I will be able to fit in an appointment with a dermatologist! 34 and acne just is not right, and I've tried more than half the crap out on the market and none of it works! In fact Pro-Activ made my acne worse! What a waste! So anyway, you know the plan - hopefully surgery next week if all goes well. Wish me luck!