One year later

well, well, well - a year ago today was my 2nd of 3 operations, the one I lovingly refer to as the "good news/bad news" surgery. It was an axillary node dissection - in non-doctor terms that means that Dr. Chang went back in and removed a clump of lymph nodes from under my arm. (I asked why it couldn't be done with arthroscopic/robotic (DaVinci) surgery and she looked at me like I was crazy. Well...why not? I have this image of her taking a big huge spoon in there to scoop out the lymph nodes but logically believe it can be a more specific procedure. What do I know.)

The good news: no cancer in the 15-20 lymph nodes, the bad news: the surgery was not really necessary. HOWEVER, if I had not had the surgery, I would have had to have chemo to make sure there was no cancer in these lymph nodes. So the balance goes to the GOOD news side.

After the beauty contest for oncology doctors (the first doctor told me nutrition did not play any role in the process, the second doctor said that cancer loves sugar - which encouraged me to stop having any until after my first surgery at least! - one of the doctors worked at a place that seemed like Disneyland for cancer, and the USC doctor who was in pole position going into the final lap made us wait over an hour), I am happy to have chosen Dr. Glaspy another Bruin(!). He made us laugh when he walked in the room the first time and prints his email address on his business card.

Based on the results from the mastectomy and axillary node dissection, there was no clear recommendation from either Glaspy or Chang with regard to chemo or radiation. There were pros and cons to both (i.e. whether or not to have these protocols), and in the end, I chose not to do either. So it's tamoxifen once a day for 5 years, and I'm on my own daily regimen of vitamin C ("Cancer and Vitamin C: A Discussion of the Nature, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment of Cancer With Special Reference to the Value of Vitamin C" Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron. http://www.bronsonvitamins.com/84A/vitamin-c-crystals-buffered )

It took 6 months to work through physical therapy and regain full motion in my arm, after concerns of frozen shoulder freaked me out and I worried about never being able to use it again. It's now 95% recovered, and only annoys me when touched.

Oh. I really love my hair, even if I'm going gray.

Annus Horribilis

Let's review: December 18th, 2009 - I break my leg. March 1st, 2010 - cancer diagnosis. May 5th, 2010 - mastectomy. May 27th, 2010 - axillary node dissection. June 2nd, 2010 - husband's emergency retina re-attachment surgery. October 6th, 2010 - dog run over by a car (she miraculously survived). October 11th, 2010 - cataract surgery #1 to finish fixing husband's eye. October 12th, 2010 - 9-1-1 in the middle of the night for him, thinking he was having a heart attack, nope, just a bad reaction to the anesthesia. October 15th, 2010 - cataract surgery #2, because the cataract rotated.

Needless to say - thank God we made it past our 'annus horibilis'!