New treatment plan coming together

Biopsies of 2 Sons of Chucky successfully completed yesterday, one on each side. These were deeper lesions than the biopsy of Chucky (main lump), which is right at the surface, so were somewhat more of an ordeal. Imagine someone poking a needle the size of a mechanical pencil into your fleshy parts. On second thought, don’t imagine it because it’s not very fun, but at least I was well numbed up for it. The sampling of each mass basically removed them due to their small size. Of course this was not a surgical removal so some cells still remain. Biggest problem was my iPod running out of battery just on the way to the appointment, so my plan to listen to a Harry Potter e-book and zone out during the procedure was thwarted. (I blame Steve Jobs. Any of my lawyer friends want to sue him for me?) Felt quite worn out afterwards, and freaked out when one of the wounds started bleeding a few hours later, but that stopped with some pressure and it’s okay now, though bruised. Results due in a few days.

Significant news is that today when I was in the oncologist’s office getting blood drawn for some tests she asked to talk to me. She spoke with my surgeon yesterday and they concur on a new treatment plan, which is to do chemo first and when that’s finished, have the surgery. The advantages of doing chemo first are:
- Quickly start systemic treatment to eradicate any cancer throughout the body, regardless of what we find through various biopsies and scans.
- Keeping Chucky in actually provides a feedback mechanism to see if the chemo is working. If Chucky gets smaller from session to session, we keep going. If it doesn’t shrink, then we know that particular type of chemo isn’t working on me so I don’t have to go through the whole course of it unnecessarily. If Chucky was removed, we’d have to hope / assume the chemo was working and do all 8 sessions no matter what.
- This will give us plenty of time to get the results of all possible tests, including the 6 weeks needed for genetic results, which may impact the decision of lumpectomy vs. mastectomy – single or double. The surgery decision can then be made without rushing into things.
- If mastectomy is required, allows plenty of time to identify a plastic surgeon I would prefer to do the reconstructive surgery at the same time as the mastectomy. Obviously this requires a bit of coordination of schedules at the very least.
- If lumpectomy is still the plan in the end, it will be much easier for the surgeon to remove the small lump and leaves more tissue behind for me.
- And they only had a limited time offer on the cherry flavored chemo drugs.

Since this was new news, we didn’t make the final decision today so I would have a chance to talk to Colin and let it sink in. However my oncologist is recommending I start the chemo the week of March 10th so things are moving quickly. Now I’m feeling really sad about losing my hair in the imminent future and looking at ugly wig and hair wrap catalogs that in no way resemble my own copper tresses. But knowing a plan is in place at least provides us a future around which to plan.


Coming soon: what you can do to help