Thank You! (Message 1 of 21)

Tuesday 1 Mar 2011 

Hello!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate having so many wonderful friends who are concerned and would like to know what is happening with me and what they can do to help. I am blessed with an incredibly intelligent, insightful, experienced and level-headed group of friends. I really don't know what I would do without you.

I want to have a way to update you without the battery on my phone annoyingly crapping out in mid-sentence, and I especially want to avoid telling you the same info twice when you call to ask me something! I am thinking an occasional email message (as impersonal as it feels to me) will help fill you in so that the next time we talk I will remember what you already know and we can go from there, and possibly even have time to talk about something more interesting, too. 

I met with my surgeon today. Dr. Thomas Frazier is the chief surgeon and medical director of the Comprehensive Breast Center in Bryn Mawr. He he is easy to talk to, curious, very animatedly talks about his research, and is someone with whom I feel good asking questions. We went over everything that will be happening next and how it all works. It's really very interesting stuff. Here's what we went over today:

The diagnosis:  Stage 1 well-differentiated invasive ductal carcinoma.  The tumor is 1.3 cm and this is considered a very early catch.

What's next:  

Thursday March 3rd - Bilateral MRI to scan for any other tumors in either breast that may have been too small to be detected so far. If anything is discovered, an ultrasound will be ordered to confirm or rule out the existence of anything. If the ultrasound confirms something, a biopsy will be ordered.

Monday, March 7th - Various pre-op appointments

Tuesday, March 15 - Surgery (unless I can get the date moved up! Working on that...). If all goes well with the MRI, we are expecting to do a lumpectomy and the removal of the sentinel lymph node to look for any evidence of spreading outside the breast.

Recovery time is expected to be about one week. I'm not sure when the radiation treatment begins.

I can't tell you how it feels to have so much support from so many wonderful people. Almost all of you know each other, so I'm just saying, if you are ever in need, you will not be alone! Thanks for being there and offering so much. 

Diane