Medical update

[annathepiper]

Until I can make myself a decent icon of either Leetah or Mender from Elfquest (or perhaps Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender) doing an act of healing, I think The Doyle is going to serve as my icon for further updates on the BFFN.


Had my appointment with Dr. Taylor, the radiation oncologist, on Friday afternoon. That went about like I expected; he didn't have anything much to tell me about radiation treatment that I haven't already either heard about from those of you fine folks listening in who have briefed me, or read about in the literature I've been given. Two things of note that I will mention though are that 1) my left breast is confirmed clean, and 2) as I expected, Dr. Taylor confirmed that radiation therapy would not be any kind of a fertility risk for me, and that indeed, the fact that I am pushing 40 would be more of an issue with any future childbearing concerns than getting zapped would. So.

An overall more interesting topic of conversation during our consultation turned out to be more on the MRI results--because apparently Dr. Taylor had also seen them and had new data. According to the MRI, there is a second, smaller area of concern a few centimeters in front of where Dr. Towbin did the first biopsy. This place is apparently registering with a richer blood flow than normal, so Dr. Taylor says that they'll probably want to do what they call an MRI-guided biopsy to go in there and check that out, and see whether there's any DCIS there or whether it's something that can be safely ignored. However, Taylor was also echoing what Dr. Kohn was saying, which seemed to indicate that Towbin's already gotten out most of the big lump (Kohn was calling it an "excisional biopsy"), and that the only concern there at this point was that the margins around the surgical cavity were less clean than they'd like. So I need to get him to clarify that, still.

So it's sounding like the game plan will be to find out first of all whether I'm interpreting what both Dr. Kohn and Dr. Taylor were saying correctly, and verify with Dr. Towbin how much of the big lump is left and whether more than just margin cleanup has to happen there. Then do the MRI-guided biopsy thing on the little area and find out if it's a problem, and whether it has to come out too.

If the little area is not a problem, then that means just cleaning up where Towbin went in before on the big lump (however much is required there), followed most likely by radiation therapy and some tamoxifen to minimize risk of a recurrence in either breast. If the little area is a problem, that starts raising issues of how much of my breast can be conserved, which would be annoying. As I am generally pro-boobie, it'd be nice if I can keep it more or less intact. So cross your fingers for the little area not being an issue, folks.

More on this tomorrow after I talk with Dr. Towbin.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*oh*, you didn't say what sort of biopsy he'd done, I figured they'd just done a needle sample, instead of actually going in with a scalpel and snarfing a big hunk of the thing.

Hm. I'm surprised they didn't think that was dangerous, breaching this thing's containment and not going for clean margins from the get-go. OTOH, they may have done preliminary pathology right there... they did for me.

*nods* I'm generally pro-boobie, and just generally pro-Anna, myself... I hope this doesn't turn into a problem.

How's this put us for gaiaconsort on the 13th? Any clue yet?

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I think when I heard "biopsy" I heard "something similar to what they did with my thyroid". There were two needles involved, and I'd thought he was just going in to take out a sample. From what I'm hearing from Dr. Kohn and Dr. Taylor, it sounds like he's gotten a good bit if not most of it. Hence the need for clarification.

I would expect preliminary pathology was done; after all, that's what got me the prognosis of DCIS in the first place. But we'll see what happens when I speak with Dr. Towbin this morning.

No word yet as to what effect this will have on my weekend. Much will depend on whether any interesting procedures get scheduled for later in the week.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

Pro-breast is good, pro-you is better. Hope they got it all, and if not, hope they can conserve lots of you in the process of getting it!

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I'll make the call once I have all the appropriate data. We'll see what Dr. Kohn has to say to me this morning!

[janne.livejournal.com]

Fingers still crossed!

[annathepiper]

Thank you. :)

[prettyshrub.livejournal.com]

Well it all sounds encouraging at this point.

*HUGS*

*MOJO*

[annathepiper]

Thanks! Less sure after today's update, but. *hugs!*

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

I see you're going through a lot... a bunch going on over the last month, eh? Let's hope it stops here. Thinking about you!

[annathepiper]

Thanks much! Yeah, this past month has been way more exciting than I'd like.

On the other hand, your icon is HYSTERICAL, and utterly appropriate. ^_^ Thanks for the laugh!

[cruisedirector]

*hugs* and fingers crossed for you.

[annathepiper]

*hugs* Thank you very much!

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Well, good fortune to you, and it does sound as if you are following the most forthrightly aggressive path under the circumstances. It's really astounding how much can be done now while still conserving one's breast tissue -- they did the same sort of excisional approach for me, followed by radiation and tamoxifen. The only problem with tamoxifen, for my biochemistry, was that it left me in an interestingly neutered state for a while: I don't imagine that this will be an issue for you, though.

Goddess bless the Yew trees, anyway, for giving us that new direction!

Angharad Lewis,
anticipating that you will muddle through this okay.

[annathepiper]

Dr. Towbin seems pretty certain at this point that if the smaller area is an issue, I'll be looking at a mastectomy. So we'll see what happens. I expect to be more or less okay either way--it'll just be an issue of how many procedures are involved over the next month or so.

Goddess bless, indeed. I'm generally agnostic, but I have felt a recent urge to break out my Brighid pendant lately.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Must be said that you are lucky to have caught up with Dr Towbin. I've been blessed with having two good oncologists: one in Canada and one down here in New York -- and the two of them know each other well enough to not be engaging in any sort of professional turf wars.

Am waiting for confirmation on my most recent ticket-punch (right breast, this time). After a while it gets to be a bit blah-inducing, maybe because there are fewer and fewer surprises.

I suppose that the cautious approach would be to go for the mastectomy; one of the women from our old collective in Aldergrove made a similar choice, and as it turned it, it was the best choice for her, since she found herself in possession of an unexpected bonus of another twelve years. Every morning is a bonus, quite frankly.

Hangeth in there. Brighid pendant cannot hurt. I often suspect that, on such subjects, Rene Descartes was right.

A.

[annathepiper]

I'm kind of applying the same philosophy to this that I do to sending out manuscripts: practically expect the worst, but hope for the best. So. I expect a mastectomy, but hey, I might luck out, and that would not suck.

Heh. It's kind of nice to see that I'm less stressed about this after an afternoon of playing music. Making Brighid doubly important; she is, after all, a goddess of music as well as healing. :)

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

I'll flag this now, for later. A friend from California sent me a yew-tree meditation which was helpful; it is, regrettably, not in my travelling-book, but when I am safely back home in the land of wind-chimes I'll dig it up for you.

Good old Taxus brevifolia, a fine tree indeed.

[annathepiper]

Thank you, I'll look forward to it. :)

[genkitty.livejournal.com]

Fingers still crossed for you. Be sure to partake of kitten therapy :)

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much, and indeed, much appreciation of kittens has happened this evening.

I <3 your icon.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

thanks for the update!

[annathepiper]

You're welcome. :)

[stealthcello.livejournal.com]

Just now read your journal and learned about your DCIS diagnosis (a little late, but better late than never). I'm *so* sorry you're having to go through this. (I've done the breast cancer thing twice now -- once in 1998, and again this year; I've had two mastectomies, been through chemo 2x, radiation, Tamoxifen, etc. BTW, I'm also hypothyroid and am on Levoxyl, which didn't seem to interfere with any of my treatments, including the Tamoxifen.)

If your Dr. Taylor is Dr. Eric Taylor at Evergreen, then you are in excellent hands. He was my radiation oncologist 9 years ago, and I was very impressed with the level of care he provided. I also just really, really liked him. He came highly recommended by both my oncologist and surgeon (both of whom were at Swedish, but who nonetheless sent me to Dr. Taylor at Evergreen because they felt he was the very best in the area).

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you re that new "area of concern" they've identified. Hopefully it's not a problem.

On a happier topic, I hope you can make it to the Gaia Consort concert this Saturday (although I think I saw, in another post, that you were hoping to get some writing done instead).

[annathepiper]

Hello there and very glad to make your acquaintance! Thanks for sharing your past statuses with me; it's good to know that thyroid treatments won't mess with the Synthroid and Cytomel I'm currently taking. And thanks for the crossed fingers!

Dr. Eric Taylor at Evergreen is indeed the radiation oncologist I spoke with. I'm pleased to know he comes so highly recommended. technoshaman was very pleased that Dr. Michael Towbin is my surgeon, and from what I'm hearing from the other staff at Evergreen I've been speaking with, he's highly regarded among them as well.

Indeed, as I'd mentioned to technoshaman elsewhere on this thread, I'm on tap to finish up editing the second draft of a short story to hand off to aerialscribe, and I really need to get that done. I have eight pages left to go. If I can finish that by Friday, I'll see about the concert. :) I'd really like to see you guys perform; I'm acquainted with solcita via GBS fandom, and I've heard one or two of your free download ditties as well.