I got the call from Becky the scheduler on Monday, and she said the doctor will be on vacation the same week I am on Spring break. Great. So we decided to schedule it for Friday, March 23rd so I can have the weekend and week off to recover. It sucks I have to take a Friday off before a holiday break, but it was the best we could do. I also see the doctor on the 13th (10 days prior) for my pre-op appointment at 9 am. According to Dr. West's secretary, I cannot take any medications during the 10 days prior either, including my vitamins and Tamoxifen. But according to Dr. Link's PA, I'll stop taking Tamoxifen during 3 days prior and then I can start it up again as soon as I'm walking around actively. I wish I could get a consistent answer. I figure I'll ask Dr. West at my pre-op what I'm supposed to do.
Dr. West hesitated when he approved my surgery to be scheduled during my spring break (last week of March). He wants to see me one more time, approximately 10 days before surgery, so he can make sure the skin under my left breast has healed more than it is now. I have been exfoliating and lotioning like crazy, and it already seems to be improving. He also said to work on my posture, because my being hunched over doesn't help the healing process because air can't access under my breast. That's only been a life long problem, but ya, I'll work on that.
I got the call from Becky the scheduler on Monday, and she said the doctor will be on vacation the same week I am on Spring break. Great. So we decided to schedule it for Friday, March 23rd so I can have the weekend and week off to recover. It sucks I have to take a Friday off before a holiday break, but it was the best we could do. I also see the doctor on the 13th (10 days prior) for my pre-op appointment at 9 am. According to Dr. West's secretary, I cannot take any medications during the 10 days prior either, including my vitamins and Tamoxifen. But according to Dr. Link's PA, I'll stop taking Tamoxifen during 3 days prior and then I can start it up again as soon as I'm walking around actively. I wish I could get a consistent answer. I figure I'll ask Dr. West at my pre-op what I'm supposed to do.
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I graduated from physical therapy last week on 1/26. I am not 100% but I am going to be soon, I can tell. Today I was supposed to go to Orange for an appointment with Dr. Link. In an effort to save some gas money, I asked if our appointment could be over the phone. Good thing they agreed to it, because the conversation was quite short! He called me to go over the results. He said I was a "good girl" because everything came back clear. :-) He also said that this means I'm technically "in remission" until we get that brain MRI, but he is confident I am "cured."
It's nice to hear those words out loud... "cured"... because I've always believed I would hear them since I was diagnosed. I always had faith that I was going to be a survivor. However, I know that life will never be the same now. You know the girl who had her arm bit off by a shark? She is always known as just that- the girl who had her arm bit off by a shark. Likewise, I will always be known as "the girl that had cancer." There is no avoiding it, that's the way it will be. It supersedes anything that I was known as before, and will ever be. But, I should be happy to be "that girl" because I am alive, which is living proof that there is always hope. I will be seeing Dr. West (breast surgeon) on Valentine's Day to see if my skin is ready for implants during spring break (end of March). Fingers crossed! Sadly, the world lost another angel to brain cancer yesterday. Liz Lord, a fellow Don't Worry Be Happy family member passed away just days after her 28th birthday. Life is strange... I'll never understand it. |
Crystal Hofmann
Wife, mom, sister, aunt, daughter, friend, teacher, coach... survivor. Archives
November 2019
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