I feel bad that I left the story of what happened concerning my mastectomy up in the air for so long. The picture does get better (I think). On Tuesday morning I had my appointment with Dr. Johnson. Right away I asked her what was so worrisome. She explained that she had expected more cancer cells to have been killed off than was the case. She had removed 42 lymph nodes from around my right arm, and of those 42, 25 were still alive. She then explained that this was because I was more estrogen positive than they had thought. Well she said something like that. I'm not good at getting medical facts just right. But she also said that this was not such a bad thing, because there is a very good medicine that they can give me to suppress the estrogen. They only hitch is that I have to take the medicine for seven years. Now I'm not to happy having to take an antibiotic for 10 days, so what will seven years feel like! I asked her what were the side affects, and she said hot flashes. Great! I make it all the way through menopause without hot flashes, and now I get to contend with them for seven years. But then, I never had morning sickness while pregnant, and I didn't get nauseated on chemo, so maybe I'll be okay. Actually, I will be so grateful to be able to take that pill for seven years. I think Dr. Johnson talked with me for about a half hour, which is a long time for such a busy doctor - and the waiting room was absolutely jammed. She made a big point to tell me that I need to not worry, explaining that she herself has to work on that, and she quoted a Bible verse that she likes to keep in mind.1 Peter 5:6-7
"Humble yourselves, therefore,
under God's mighty hand,
that He may lift you up in due time.
Cast all your anxiety on Him
because He cares for you."
Luke 12:24-26
"Consider the ravens:
They do not sow or reap,
they have no storeroom or barn;
yet God feeds them.
And how much more valuable
you are than birds!
Who of you by worrying
can add a single hour to his life?
Since you cannot do this very little thing,
why do you worry about the rest?"
She was very emphatic that I must not spend any time worrying. And concerning my anemia, she said I need to concentrate on eating right and getting exercise. I've got the eating right down pretty well, but I'm quite lacking on the exercising.
I forgot to mention that while she was talking with me a young woman was watching on. She is a naturalpath. After she and the doctor left, the young woman return, saying that she noticed that I was dehydrated. This was true. We talked with her for a while. She said that she had worked for many years with her husband, who is an oncologist. This implied that she had expericence with cancer patients. She gave us her name and number, and we thought might go see her the next week.
the nutritionist
That evening we were sitting around thinking about things when it occurred to me that Dr. Brouse, the nutritionist, was more stress than I could handlte, and I just didn't need it. So Riley called his office and left a message that we were cancelling the appointment. That felt like just the right thing to do. He's probably a very good doctor, the problem was that his extreme approach to my health matters was just too much for me. After that we settled into a good baseball game and then went to bed, much relieved.
the oncologist
So on Thursday I had a morning appointment with Dr. Look, my oncologist. He's a very mild mannered person of Asian descent. Dr. Johnson had picked him for me because of his mild manner. I asked him a lot of the same questions that I asked Dr. Johnson. But in the conversation a funny thing happened. I said that I was a lot more anemic after the operation. And he said, "What operation?" Now on the one hand I was gald that he hadn't noticed that my chest is flat on one side. But was he paying attention to things. He quickly realized his mistake, and gave his little quiet chuckle. He then went to get all the current tests on my, including the pathology report. He agreed that I was definitely quite anemic, but he said "You'll be just fine." He explained that the chemo and the operation were strong factors in my anemia, but if I paid attention to eating well I would soon recover. That was so much better that the nutritionist wanting to send me to Mexico for treat of my anemia. Dr. Look seemed pretty confident that I would get over the anemia fairly soon, and that I was not in grave danger. You never know all together what the doctors are thinking, but I did have a confidence that I could handle the anemia.
the drainage tube
The next day my drainage tube was being bothersome. It was leaking all over me instead of going into the bulb at the end of the tube. So we went into Dr. Johnson's office to have Andria look at it. She noticed that there was some "tissue" stick in the tube. She got it unstuck, and rebandaged me and said that the tube should come out by Monday or Tuesday. That was a great idea - having the tube out. Having a tube coming out of you with a bulb hanging on the end of it that you have to hang from the belt loop on you pants or pin to the outside of your nightgown is rather unpleasant. The nurse did say that it wouldn't accidently come out, as it was stitched to my body. That seemed like good news - bad news.
Well by Monday it seemed like a good idea to get the tube out. So we called the doctors office to make sure they knew I was coming, and headed out. The process didn't take long, but it was a bit creepy. It was a bit like having a worm pulled from your body. The stitch seemed to be right on my skin. Andria just snipped it, and then pulled slowly on the tube until it was completely out. This was followed by a piece of gauze being taped to my side to soaked up whatever that was that was coming out of my body. Then I was told that I could take a shower the next day. YAY!!
So the next day I needed to convince Riley to remove that gauze that was over the whole in the side of my chest. I don't know what he imagined the whole to be, but when I finally got him to remove the gauze he was greatly relieved to find only a very small mark, which he put a little waterproof bandage on. So at this point the only bandages from the surgery that were left were little strips looking like small gift wrapping take running all along my incision. They didn't run along it so to say, but are little bits placed at fairly even intervals. They are mostly still there, as I don't like the idea of removing tape placed on me by a doctor.
Then, late the next day, I finally took a shower. What a delight that was! And you know, I can take a shower any time I want, because I don't have to worry about getting my hair wet and having to dry it. I still don't have any hair to speak of, just little bits you can feel.
recovery time
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