November 15, 2018
I met with my oncologist, Dr. Bonnem on Monday for a follow up visit and unexpectedly he mentioned that I will need radiation after surgery. I was like woah woah woah Dr. Patel said there was a chance I would need radiation but made it clear we wouldn’t decided that until after surgery. He said because your tumor was 7cm to begin with your local risk of it returning are high. He said anything bigger than 3cm we recommend surgery with radiation. He said even with a mastectomy the tumor can still grow within the chest wall. I wanted to reply.. WTF! haha but don’t worry guys I didn’t. He said Kel, it’s like crossing the highway.. you would do everything it takes to not get hit by a car right? I said right. He said well it’s the same thing.. we are doing everything we can to prevent this tumor from coming back. Oh Dr. Bonnem… I want to be angry but your cute analogies and your big heart make it difficult LOL!
On my drive home tears just started falling. Not necessarily because of radiation… but this whole “cancer thing”. It is so physically, emotionally and mentally exhausting. And some days I just need to let a few wet ones fall! …wet ones lol I love how I can make myself laugh even on the tough days!
I met with Dr. Patel today and once again the ultrasound showed NO sign of cancer! Yippee!! See its a rollercoaster… I go from wet ones to yippees lol. I also mentioned to her what Dr. Bonnem had said about needing radiation and she disagreed. She said your case is a little different.. when we originally measured your tumor it was in a “C” shape and you also had lactation changes that made it very difficult to see/measure. So we can’t go by size. She said we will wait till after surgery when the pathology results come in to determine whether you need it or not. I trust her opinion 100% as she has been with me since day 1. So I guess radiation is still up in the air at this point!
Hard to believe surgery is only a week and a half away!! I am feeling really good especially because I have 3 wonderful women who are helping in a HUGE way. My mom is staying with me for the first 2 weeks to take care of me and knowing her she will also be cleaning my house, doing laundry and dishes lol. My Mother-in-law will be taking the kids which is one of my biggest blessings. I worry about them SO much and want things as normal as possible for them. They absolutely LOVE Gram & Pops so I know this will be an easy transition for them and an easy one for Mommy. My sister has been helping out like crazy and set up a meal train for us and also placed donation boxes at Pizza Market, Putnums and Apotheca!! A special thank you to these 3 gals 😍 Couldn’t do it without you! I also want to say thank you to all my friends and family who have done so much for us. When they say it takes a village… it really does and I have the best village in the WORLD!
I have a funny story to share… so Jamie and I went to Lebanon yesterday to finish up some imaging for the research study I am in (which ended up being pointless because the machine broke half way through). Anyways.. on our way up we started to slip on black ice and by the time we were on the highway it started snowing a little bit. Jamie used the windshield wipers and noticed we ran out of fluid!! So now our entire windshield is smeared with white salt and we can barely see!!! Jamie thought it would be a good idea if I poured my water bottle onto the windshield. I could barely get my hand out of the damn window with the 70MPH wind LOL so Jamie was like try from the sun roof. I was like SURE great idea! I started pouring the water and it came right back in my FACE and into the car hahaha! It was quite the adventure to say the least..
TID BITS
Thank you Dad for all your hard work on the front steps!
Love you Black Barb!
Thank you Steph/LLR, your the best!
Congrats Sam & Timmy on your NEW home ❤
Hope everyone has a great Friday/Weekend! Love you all!!
KPOWPOW
Kelly’s Breast Cancer Blog 🎀 