Exactly two months ago I had my body-altering surgery. Today I had a follow up visit with CONFIRMED Dr. McSmarty* and my oncologist Dr. B. Best news: I am cleared to start exercising again, lifting again and swimming when one tiny part is healed!!! Right on time with the weather turning to a chilly 80 something!!! YAY YAY YAY... My exchange surgery to get the implants will happen on December 12, 7 am. Recovery time should only be a week or so.
Dr. Blum has been my oncologist for 10 years now. We kind of have a love/lesser love kind of relationship. I believe that I am Major Tom and she is Ground Control. But she wants to be Major Tom...probably because of all those extra years in medical school. She spent a lot of time with me today and I will say I love her because she is VERY SMART. She is the director of the genetic breast cancer oncology stuff and she has been personally interested in me and my family history for quite some time. She said that my recent diagnosis was presented in their breast symposium and it had the attention of many in the department.
Sometimes she and I have lesser love because she has been SO ADAMANT that with my family history, I should have gotten rid of the girls a long time ago. Every visit was a push for the just-in-case-double-mastectomy. Every visit I would tell her no. She used all kinds of persuasion techniques: new breasts, less chance of recurrence, perky breasts, less chance of recurrence, family history, less chance of recurrence... I just wasn't ready to lop off body parts just in case. She would even say things like "Do you want to get breast cancer again?" And of course I would tell her yes, it's such a character building experience just so that I could be snarky Major Tom. So today our conversation went sort of like this:
Dr. B: I hate to be the one that says I told you so, but....I TOLD YOU SO. I don't know why you didn't get rid of your breasts years earlier and save yourself all this trouble.
Dr. B: You know you dodged a big bullet?
Dr. B: I was watching for your pathology results and I want you to know that I was doing the HAPPY DANCE when I found out your results (I guess she was in the NO NODE CHANTING TOO!). I was ecstatic. I was so happy for you. INSERT ACTUAL HUG HERE, (which is a really big deal because she's not really the warm and fuzzy type but she is REALLY SMART). I mean, no one wants to go through chemotherapy again, it's awful, that's why I wanted you to have them removed. I'm so glad you don't have to do chemotherapy.
ME (you notice I don't get a whole lot in here): and this from someone who's never had chemotherapy.
Dr. B: Well, I do go through it vicariously (note to Dr. Blum: it's NOT the same, but OK you do get to see the wreckage from chemo every day of your professional life).
Dr. B: Why did you take so long to have your surgery - you were diagnosed in April and had it in July?
ME: I was interviewing plastic surgeons. Again, Major Tom here....
Then we had a lot of talk about plastic surgeons and choosing doctors, and she said she felt special that I had picked her (I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't interview oncologists - I love Dr. Grant and he made the referral). She concurred that Dr. McSmarty* was an amazing Plastic Surgeon and SMART TOO! Did I mention that we love our ground control to be smart?
Again, I feel so fortunate that I have been diligent about my health; have a great health care team and the resources to access them. Think I'll go float in my tin can.
In case you missed it, here is my two minutes of local fame.
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/fox_4_features/hometown_heroes/Hometown-Hero-Terri-Swain
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