Had Marcia's f/u visit with her surgeon. Her cancer is considered stage 1. The tumor was a little bigger than her surgeon originally thought (1.5 cm), but didn't change her opinion that it's pretty well contained. Part of standard procedure is to send the tumor out for more tests, to look at the tumor's DNA. They do this to predict the likelihood of recurrence and is called "oncotype". Doctor expects possible recurrence to be low and we start radiation shortly. If for some reason it comes back with something other than "low" recurrence (this would be shocking to her surgeon), she might have to have some chemo.
Marcia’s surgeon has a lot of expertise with breast cancer, and some experience with Alzheimer’s (her mother had it). She feels Marcia’s cancer is not something we’ll have to worry about.
While I’ve become more able to talk about Alzheimer’s, as I’ve had time to get used to the reality, I need more time with this cancer add-on. Even though this breast cancer procedure seems like nothing more than a bump in the road, I still can’t say “cancer” out loud without some emotional response. I really think it’s because I have this isn’t-AD-enough-for-one-person-to-deal-with-mentality. Have to throw cancer on top of this too?
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