Journey with Cancer

I went last week to my appointment with a plastic surgeon at Kaiser Santa Clara. He is the only Kaiser doc in the area that can do the tummy tuck/reconstuction type surgury. It is called a free TRAM flap reconstruction.

Warning! Gross details ahead!

http://www.mayoclinic.org/breast-cancer/tramsurgery.html

So the doc says I am a good candidate for this type of reconstruction. This is where they take my flabby belly and divide it in two and make two breasts out of it. Then they pull down the area above the belly button and streatch it down flat, making a new hole for the belly button, and sew it all up. It take 12 to 14 hours on the operating table for 2 surgeons (him and one of his collegues) and will take at least 5 days in the hospital with the first day in ICU. It will take between 1,000 and 1,200 stitches to sew everything up. The good part is that since it is my own tissue there is no chance of rejection and very little complications down the road. The bad part is that it is MAJOR surgury and that it requires that the doc find an acceptable artery and vein in the chest area and microstitch the flesh in carefully. The ICU nurses will be in every 15 minutes with a ultrasound device to check blood flow in the area. The reason is that there is a small chance of the tissue dying if the doc didn’t attach it right to the blood vessels. If the tissue dies it will be more surgery to remove the dead tissue and further reconstruction put on hold for a while. The good news is that since I have lost so much weight in the last 2 years that there is enough flabby belly for this to work (that is good news, right?). It will be a B cup at the most, could be as small as an A cup, but it will be all me. No implants to harden, rupture or any of those things. And a nice flat belly for the first time since I was pregnant with my 16 year old. That would be 1990. Unfortunately this doctor is booked out for 6 months. So this will happen sometime in 2007. He said that if I lose more weight, which would be nice, he will have more of my flabby belly to harvest and I will be more likely to get a B cup.

Probably more details than most wanted to know, but some may find interesting.

When I was 13 years old my arm blew up like a watermelon after I stung by a bee. My doctor informed me that I was allergic to bee stings and my next sting would be worse - even fatal - depending on how severe my allergy was. Since then I have been VERY careful. I have not been stung since that day. Until yesterday.

Tricia was reffing her first games of the soccer season. I went with her and sat out in the sunshine reading a Tom Claney novel. Somehow a bee crawled up my leg underneath my pants and stung me. Holy cow! Tricia was on her own as I drove quickly home, calling Craig on the cell as I went so he would be prepared to leave asap or call 911 depending on how bad I got on the way. Funny thing, though. No swelling, no difficulty breathing, nothing that I was told might happen. Well, maybe a tiny bump where the sting actually was, but no real problem. I put ice on it and then a paste made of baking soda and water to lessen the sting. Waited carefully for any reaction. Still nothing. Can chemo kill a bee sting allergy while it was killing the cancer??? Maybe my bodys reaction to bee stings was just lessened because I haven’t been stung in 30 years. Not sure, but darn glad I didn’t need another trip to the ER.

It’s been a few weeks since I last blogged. A few things have happened but mostly I am doing the PT on my hands, seeing an accupuncturist once a week, getting the older one ready for the job market and the younger one ready for 8th grade (school starts August 23rd - dang thats early! - good for me, bad for them hahahahah).

I met with my plastic surgeon 2 weeks ago. We talked about the options again and I am going to see a different plastic surgeon in Santa Clara next week. He is the only one that can do the tummy tuck/reconstruction surgury for Kaiser in the area. I will talk to him to see if I am a good candidate for this. If not, I will go back to Santa Teresa for a standard tissue expander and saline implant type of reconstruction.

Yesterday I was seen by the radiology oncolgist at O’Conner for my 1 month follow-up. Everything looks great and I won’t need to go back. I did ask him if the cancer came back in the future would radiation still be possible for me. He said yes. Some people, depending on the radiation and type of cancer, only get one go around with radiation. I am glad that I still have options if this nasty ole thing comes back.

Hockey season starts soon and so does football. I am looking forward to watching both on TV and maybe a few hockey games in person. Summer has NO sports on tv, at least any that I care about.