I promised readers of The Pink Pages that I would provide occasional updates on my cancer journey, so here’s the latest. I’m grateful these updates are getting shorter and less frequent.
Tuesday, I visited my favorite doctor - my surgeon. Never thought a surgeon could be on my list of favorite people, but this one is the best, even before today’s appointment.
He removed the Medi-port!
As I was driving to his office, I was praying and thanking God for the inventor of the Medi-port device (the apparatus also known by other names including port-a-cath.) At one point during my waiting time, I calculated that the Medi-port had saved me sticks from at least 18 IV needles and all the pain, anxiety, and aggravation that would have gone along with each one. What a blessing that Medi-port was for 16 months. I’m truly grateful.
I’m equally grateful that it is now gone. The procedure was done in the surgeon’s office and took less than 15 minutes.
I laughed when they asked if I wanted to keep the Medi-port. “Of course not.” They said some patients liked to keep them, or their gallbladders or appendixes, as souvenirs. I was glad to get rid of it, and even my ever-present curiosity had no desire to study it. I know my kids are grateful that I chose not to pass it along to them.
The sutures are dissolvable, so I don’t have to return to the surgeon for 6 months - after I have another mammogram.
In my previous update, I was excited that my bilateral mammogram (both breasts) on June 6 was clear and was told I wouldn’t need another one for a year. But yesterday, I learned that I’m not on a yearly schedule yet because I had cancer. The surgeon orders a unilateral mammogram of the breast that had cancer, where he performed the lumpectomy, to make sure everything is still clear.
I also visited the oncologist this week, and received an all clear with my next appointment scheduled for three months. She said after that visit, they’ll space to 6 months, and then a year. I’m grateful for the all-clears.
Side effects from the Letrozole, the hormone blocker I’m prescribed for 5 years, continue. They’re not as severe as the effects from Anastrazole, but they’re still present. Now that it’s been 33 days since my final infusion of Herceptin, the immunotherapy drug, I am noticing other side effects are lessening - side effects I’ve had since I began treatments in May of last year - so the worst seems to be behind me.
The radio interview with Deborah Boyd of WTTI Radio of Dalton went well.
My next ECHO and EKG is scheduled for next week, and should be my last one for at least a year. They’ve all been normal in the past, so I don’t expect anything different this time.
Life seems to be returning to “normal.” I’m grateful.
Tuesday, I visited my favorite doctor - my surgeon. Never thought a surgeon could be on my list of favorite people, but this one is the best, even before today’s appointment.
He removed the Medi-port!
As I was driving to his office, I was praying and thanking God for the inventor of the Medi-port device (the apparatus also known by other names including port-a-cath.) At one point during my waiting time, I calculated that the Medi-port had saved me sticks from at least 18 IV needles and all the pain, anxiety, and aggravation that would have gone along with each one. What a blessing that Medi-port was for 16 months. I’m truly grateful.
I’m equally grateful that it is now gone. The procedure was done in the surgeon’s office and took less than 15 minutes.
I laughed when they asked if I wanted to keep the Medi-port. “Of course not.” They said some patients liked to keep them, or their gallbladders or appendixes, as souvenirs. I was glad to get rid of it, and even my ever-present curiosity had no desire to study it. I know my kids are grateful that I chose not to pass it along to them.
The sutures are dissolvable, so I don’t have to return to the surgeon for 6 months - after I have another mammogram.
In my previous update, I was excited that my bilateral mammogram (both breasts) on June 6 was clear and was told I wouldn’t need another one for a year. But yesterday, I learned that I’m not on a yearly schedule yet because I had cancer. The surgeon orders a unilateral mammogram of the breast that had cancer, where he performed the lumpectomy, to make sure everything is still clear.
I also visited the oncologist this week, and received an all clear with my next appointment scheduled for three months. She said after that visit, they’ll space to 6 months, and then a year. I’m grateful for the all-clears.
Side effects from the Letrozole, the hormone blocker I’m prescribed for 5 years, continue. They’re not as severe as the effects from Anastrazole, but they’re still present. Now that it’s been 33 days since my final infusion of Herceptin, the immunotherapy drug, I am noticing other side effects are lessening - side effects I’ve had since I began treatments in May of last year - so the worst seems to be behind me.
The radio interview with Deborah Boyd of WTTI Radio of Dalton went well.
My next ECHO and EKG is scheduled for next week, and should be my last one for at least a year. They’ve all been normal in the past, so I don’t expect anything different this time.
Life seems to be returning to “normal.” I’m grateful.
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