The Results Are In....(drumroll)

This morning I had my appointment with my oncologist to get my PET scan results and ultimately find out if I will need to do chemo or not. I've been feeling pretty good about this - kinda like a new year, fresh start. I mean seriously - at some point your luck's gotta turn right?

My PET scan came back with the following findings:
Physiological activity is present within the brain, oropharynx, GI and GU tracts. Bilateral breast implants present. There is a 9mm lymph node adjacent to the posterior left lateral aspect of the breast implant demonstrating a mild FDG activity. Overall, no hypermetabolic findings within the head, neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis.
Impression:
Mild FDG activity associated with a 9mm lymph node adjacent to the left breast implant. the CT portion of the exam demonstrates a normal fatty hilum within this nose and is felt to represent a benign lymph node. Overall, no hypermetabolic findings to suggest local or distant metastatic disease.

FDG has to do with the radioactive glucose they injected into me. My doctor isn't concerned with this lymph node finding - he also said my labs were great. He prescribed Tamoxifen and I go back in 4 months for blood work and another PET scan. We also talked about me moving forward with my breast reconstruction, which as soon as I see my PS I am hoping to be able to do just that. He suggested mentioning this lymph node to him, so when I go in to surgery to have the expanders replaced with implants he can take a look at what is there and see if it's a lymph node, scar tissue or possible tumor and either test it or remove it if needed. It's possible it could have been swollen or infected because of a recent cold or something and could be absolutely nothing at all. To be honest, I'm not really concerned with it. I am confident with my army of doctors and regular tests, that if it were anything to be worried about that it would be taken care of correctly and timely. So tomorrow I begin my Tamoxifen, today I just hope the side effects aren't all bad! Things are good! Tomorrow I'll call my PS and schedule an appointment and see when we can start my fills again now that I am finished with treatment. I'm anxious to get these boobs over with!

I want to thank everyone who has been praying for me or even keeping me in their thoughts. I appreciate all your concern! I'm positive this year is going to remain on a good course....besides, our luck is usually bad every other year - so this year should be good for us. I'm really hoping that now I can finally finish reconstruction and start a new chapter in my book of life...the one I've been waiting almost 4 years for - so fingers crossed that I get there.

Gotta make this quick today

Today my schedule is packed full. I see my medical oncologist Dr. B and will hopefully find out what kinds of chemo program he will have me on. I'm really hoping to retain my hair this time - so cross your fingers for me. I just got it cut yesterday and I so badly wanted to get some color put in it....for one my roots are coming in a rather different color, and I'm not sure if radiation is having an affect on it - but I see a significant increase in grays. Jesus people, I am only 34 - first cancer, now grays? Gimme a break! My mom always wanted the gray hair my grandma had and never got the grays - now it looks like I will be the silver haired 40 year old. Aren't family genes just great sometime? The other reason I wanted to do some color, is because I wanted to do something slightly funky like add dark tips - instead of the usual highlights I would get. But I just hate to spend $60+ dollars just to lose my hair in another month. Though I don't mind being bald, I really don't want to lose my hair cause it just grew out a bit from chopping it off last summer - and I want to go long in hope of my curly hair turning more wavy - like the sexy beach wavy hair that is the trend now, instead of the spirally 'fro I have now. The stylist seemed to think it was possible because the weight of my hair (cause it's so damn thick!) causes a portion of about 2-3" from the roots to be straight, then the ends spiral. It's very weird and I hate the massively curly hair I have, but I can't blow dry it straight here cause the humidity just won't allow it to STAY straight. So really, why waste an hour with the dryer in the heat of the summer when 15 minutes later it's just going to frizz and kink up? So I'm slowly trying to learn how to re-style my hair - and it had just grown out to be able to put back in a ponytail, but after the cut yesterday I can tell it's going to be hard to get it all to reach back for a tail. I told her not to shorten it, but to layer it and thin it out some, but I think in the process I lost some of the length anyway.

Also today I have to do blood work, then of course radiation, then a trip to the dentist. Needless to say I won't make it home till probably 6 or even later due to traffic. But I did find out yesterday what the number of treatments will be. After getting my hopes up about a possible 28-30, and knowing yesterday was #23 and maybe only having 5 days left, I was told that the final number will be 31. Still better than 35, but the thought of being done in a week got me so excited!

Yesterday on the way to treatment I noticed that gas was down 20 cents - $3.99 to 3.79, and I thought that was rather odd considering we just had a HUGE oil spill here on the Mississippi that has royally effed up our port. Supposedly it is costing like $250 million a day - that we have about a 100 ships waiting to dock....and the barge that spilled the 419,000 gallons of oil was still sitting on the river leaking. The Carnival Cruise ship couldn't even dock here Sunday - instead it left out of Mobile, AL. Carnival had to provide transportation for all the passengers, which I bet was lovely considering it's a 3 hour drive - either that or they flew and I'm sure that was no picnic either with TSA and all the requirements now. I doubt when it comes back to port on Saturday that it will be able to dock here then either, as clean up crews are still working on it. It's also triggers being potentially dangerous for our drinking water, which is usually rather great instead of the crud you'd get in Vegas. Hopefully they will get it cleaned up soon - it would also be nice if the gas prices would continue to drop some....like another dollar, LOL!

Oh and if you have time, check out my sister's blog : Perfection is Boring. She's still working on it - but let her know your thoughts on perfection. To me the title is a catch 22 cause I think that I am rather boring, yet I am far from perfect!