Phase Two

Well, I've had a few weeks since I finished chemo and I must say I haven't missed it! I am slowly regaining my strength - and my hair!! (yes, it has started to grow back - so exciting) just in time to start all over again with phase two - surgery. I am scheduled for surgery on Wed., December 17 at 7:30 am at Baylor Irving. I'll be off work for the remainder of December and possibly the first week or so of January. So right now I am feverishly busy at work, trying to get everything organized and wrapped up. I will be able to do some work from home via laptop once I'm a week or so past surgery, and fortunately things will be slow at the office during the holidays. But still...can they live without me?! Do I want to find out?

I have met with my surgeon and plastic surgeon recently, and actually am meeting with them again this week for pre-op appointments. The only real drama that's going on right now is the radiation issue. My surgeon and chemo doctor both said in passing that they didn't think I would need radiation, but the radiation oncologist said he thought I should do it. :-( The bottom line is that I am a borderline case for radiation since my tumor was 3.5 centimeters (they typically give radiation if the tumor is 5 centimeters or more) and I only had one positive lymph node (they typically do radiation if 4 or more lymph nodes are positive).

After talking to all my doctors, we have agreed to go forward with surgery and then see how the results of the pathology look after surgery. If all the tissue and lymph nodes come back clear and cancer free, as we expect them to, then I will forego radiation. Yea!! (Remember that the chemo did such a great job shrinking the tumor to almost nothing - so I am expecting that it got rid of any other cancerous tissue as well.) If we get a bad report, which I am not even anticipating, then we will re-visit radiation at that time.

SO, PLEASE be in prayer for me and the results of the surgery pathology from the tissue and lymph nodes. I am expecting to be finished with all treatment once I get surgery behind me. I am ready to be cancer free in 2009!