Time Line

I've been keeping a journal. Deborah suggested that I start a blog instead of - or as well as - the paper journal. So here is the start.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in February. Here is my time line:

2008

December 16 - Annual exam with Dr. Wittgrove (my gynecologist)

December 22 - Yearly Mammogram first thing in the morning
In the afternoon, I received a call that they wanted be to come back for a mammogram and ultrasound. I had to hold off as I was having rotator cuff surgery the ext day.

December 23 - rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder


2009

During January, the lab called but I said I was recovering from the shoulder surgery and wasn't ready to do another mammogram. Well, another call and correspondence led to my finding out that they needed to do the additional tests on the left side. OK - I can do that!

February 3 - Mammogram and Ultrasound on my left breast.

February 10 - Biopsy

February 14 - Mom passes away

February 17 - Mom's funeral

February 19 (Thursday) - Dr. Wittgrove calls to tell me that I have breast cancer. She says I should see a breast surgeon. I told her that I'll call my primary care doctor to get a referral. I call Stew Frank's office. I'm told he won't be in until Monday. So I end up compartmentalizing - I put it in the back of my mind - in order to get through the weekend.

February 23 (Monday) - called Stew Frank, he gave me referral to Dr. Ira Levine. Called Dr. Levine's office - couldn't get appointment until the following Monday, March 2. During the week, I try not to think about it at all.

March 2 - appt with Dr. Levine first thing in the morning. I had the reports sent to him. He tells me that I should have a lumpectomy and then will probably need radiation. I should have the surgery within 4 weeks. I go to work - call Joyce and Shelly to let them know. Working on figuring out when to have the surgery. Since it's my left side and I'm going to physical therapy for my right arm, I decide to wait until the end of the 4 weeks. Request surgery for Thursday, March 26 but get Friday March 27. Dr. Levine says I should be able to go back to work on Tuesday after the surgery.

I arrange with Rational Therapeutics (Dr. Robert Nagourney) in Long Beach to have sample of tumor sent to them for assay.

March 27 - 8am at RMG ( now Imaging Health Care) at 1st and Laurel to get wire placed in my breast to point to where the tumor lives. After that, check into outpatient surgery center at Mercy hospital. Then I get taken to the nuclear lab where they inject my boob with radioactive material so that Dr. Levine can find the Sentinal Lymph Node. Next is the surgery which was slightly delayed from a scheduled 12:30 pm. Lumpectomy with removal of Sentinal Lymph Node. He had to take out 2 other nodes in order to get to the sentinal node.

March 31 - post-op appt with Dr. Levine. Get copy of pathology report. there's more cancer than they thought. the margines weren't clear. one of the other lymph nodes had micrometasasis. This means more surgery.

Dr. Levine wants me to have an MRI to see if it will find additional cancerous areas in my breast(s).

I go home to mull over everything I know. I think - What if I have a resection and they still don't get it all out, then I'd have to have a 3rd surgery. NO!! Let's just get it all out at once - I'll have a mastectomy. I'm being quite rational about this.

Get report from Rational Therapeutics with results of assay.

April 3 - I go to Imaging Health Care in Poway for the MRI. I do like that facility.

April 6 - Get copy of MRI report. Dr. Levine says it doesn't show anything special. But there is a spot in my right breast that I should have biopsied when I have the lift done.

I decide that I want to see the plastic surgeon and oncologist before I do anything more. Get three names of plastic surgeons from Dr. Levine. Then ask Stew who he would recommend - he gives me one of the names - Jonathan Jones.



April 9 - call and get appt with plastic surgeon for that day. Late afternoon I have appt with Dr. Jonathan Jones. He tells me all the options that I have and what he would do. He raves about the flaps that Dr. Levine leaves for him to work with. I like him.

Next I need to see an oncologist. i get referral from Stew. But first I decide that I should have consult with Dr. Robert Nagourney in Long Beach. He's out of town until April 27 so I can't get an appt until Wednesday, April 29th.

I started researching oncologists that are part of my Aetna PPO. After searching, I find the oncologist that Shelly would like me to see - Dr. Sabina Wallach. She is one of the physicians listed on Dr. Nagourney's website. I wait to call until I see Dr. Nagourney.

April 29 - Tom and I drive up to Long Beach to see Dr. Nagourney. He explains a few tests to us. The thing that stuck the most is that you can't have too much information. I spoke to him about Dr. Wallach and that I want to see her. He tried to reach her but she was busy with a patient. So we leave and on the way home, I call her office for an appointment. I got an appointment for the next day.


April 30 -
I have an appointment with Dr. Mark, my dermatologist in the morning. This is an annual exam but I also show her a mole that appears to have changed. She removed the mole and sent it for testing.

Tom and I go to see Dr. Wallach late in the afternoon. It was a bit of a wait but finally we go sit in her office. She went through the pathology report with us & we realize that the cancer is more extensive than we had thought. She asks me to come in the following week on Monday for some blood tests and then later in the week for an exam with her. She also ordered some tests for me - PET-CT and bone scan. Assuming that I can have them at Imaging Healthcare in Poway, I tell her that that's where I'd like to go for the tests. Turned out that I had to go to Encinitas.

May 4 -
Dr. Mark called me and said that I have Basal Cell Carcinoma where the mole was. I should wait until I recover from the mastectomy and then call for a 20 minute pre-op appt.

I go to Dr. Wallach's office for blood tests. One is for the BRACanalysis.



May 6 - I go to appt with Dr. Wallach without Tom. I should have had him come along. She has lab reports from some of the blood and urine tests. Nothing unusual. She examines me.

May 7 - I go to Encinitas for the bone scan and the PET-CT. Each of them requires an injection of nuclear material prior to the test.

May 11 - the big day. Mastectomy followed by the start of recnstruction. A tissue expander is inserted where I used to have a breast. I stay overnight in the hospital.

May 12 - Leave hospital and go home. I'm staying downstairs most of the time. Sleeping on the recliner.

May 14 - post-op appt with Dr. Levine. He took off the bandages and put new ones on. Tom got to see the incision. He said it didn't look the way the doctors were planning to do it/them. When I laid down on the exam table, I hurt. I knew then why I've been sleeping on the recliner couch.

Okay so that's the time line so far.

The Mira Mesa Scripps Ranch Relay For Life is on Saturday. My goal is to be able to walk the survivor's lap at the beginning of the race. I haven't signed up for it yet but I'm sure there won't be a problem. I think that I'll be able to do the walk. Today I walked along Marbury and one of our side streets. I think that a lap going up and then down Marbury should be equal to the lap around the park. If I can do that I shouldn't have a problem on Saturday. I just need someone to take me there.

Well, that's enough for now. More to come . . .