Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Pathology Report
I had forgotten that I was still waiting on the pathology report from my latest surgery. As soon as I heard my surgeon's voice on the phone, I knew it was good. After hearing both bad news and good news on phone calls, I am now an expert at telling what kind of call it'll be the moment I hear a word. This time, Dr. Clinch's voice was upbeat, and his message was to the point: "There's no other cancer in the tissue we took out." If only we could be as sure that there weren't any rogue cancer cells floating in my body, but that's why I have to undergo chemo. My next report will probably be after my meeting with my oncologist on Friday.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
A Mountain of Paperwork
Bills...insurance explanation of benefits...letters approving or denying medical procedures...
I spent the whole morning paying bills (of course every Evergreen Hospital bill comes with a different account number so I need to enter a separate account for each one), organizing paperwork, wondering what I should save or not, trying to figure out what exactly our flex-plan account needs for paperwork so we can be reimbursed (need to wait on Walt to see if he received an email on that since we haven't heard on our previous claim...) For a family who rarely has any medical bills, this is a bit overwhelming. All my extra biopsies and my surgeries just add to the flow of paperwork. I do hope that once I start chemo, the amount of paperwork slows down, but since nothing in this journey is a straight line, I have a feeling there will be other procedures or professionals or labs that will also get billed.
Enough complaining. Now, let me tell you what I am thankful for:
* that we have good insurance and enough of a padding in savings to pay the coinsurance amounts
*that I have a wonderful, supportive husband with a good job for the good insurance
* that I have good doctors who have walked alongside me
*that I can take one day at a time, one moment at a time, and enjoy each one to the fullest
*that in Jesus, I can face uncertainty with perfect Peace (John 16:33)
* that I am done sorting through paperwork at least for this weekend and I am heading out to the sun with my green tea and a good book!
I spent the whole morning paying bills (of course every Evergreen Hospital bill comes with a different account number so I need to enter a separate account for each one), organizing paperwork, wondering what I should save or not, trying to figure out what exactly our flex-plan account needs for paperwork so we can be reimbursed (need to wait on Walt to see if he received an email on that since we haven't heard on our previous claim...) For a family who rarely has any medical bills, this is a bit overwhelming. All my extra biopsies and my surgeries just add to the flow of paperwork. I do hope that once I start chemo, the amount of paperwork slows down, but since nothing in this journey is a straight line, I have a feeling there will be other procedures or professionals or labs that will also get billed.
Enough complaining. Now, let me tell you what I am thankful for:
* that we have good insurance and enough of a padding in savings to pay the coinsurance amounts
*that I have a wonderful, supportive husband with a good job for the good insurance
* that I have good doctors who have walked alongside me
*that I can take one day at a time, one moment at a time, and enjoy each one to the fullest
*that in Jesus, I can face uncertainty with perfect Peace (John 16:33)
* that I am done sorting through paperwork at least for this weekend and I am heading out to the sun with my green tea and a good book!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Pink Ribbon on Baseball Hat
Ben's Little League team is the Mariners. The team mom (with my permission) passed out little pink ribbons in honor of my journey to the players and the coaches. At first I was a tad embarrassed, but she is an amazingly sweet person, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. To see this team of mostly 10 and 11 year olds unabashedly wearing hats with pink ribbons would have had me in tears had I not had to keep my focus on the scorebook.
Then Ben went to our friend's house after a baseball game last week. They have this very rambunctious dog who decided Ben's hat looked like a fun chew toy. This is what it looked like when he was finished.
Ben's only response when he was told about the hat, "Is the pink ribbon okay?" The mom tried finding a seamstress to repair the damage, but the hat was too damaged. She then emailed Ben's coach who said he had extras, and yes, he would ask the team mom to get Ben's name sewed on it, too. Last night, after several rainouts cancelled games this week, he came home with his new hat. Not only did she embroider his name on it, but she also had a pink ribbon sewed on it, too.
Then Ben went to our friend's house after a baseball game last week. They have this very rambunctious dog who decided Ben's hat looked like a fun chew toy. This is what it looked like when he was finished.
Ben's only response when he was told about the hat, "Is the pink ribbon okay?" The mom tried finding a seamstress to repair the damage, but the hat was too damaged. She then emailed Ben's coach who said he had extras, and yes, he would ask the team mom to get Ben's name sewed on it, too. Last night, after several rainouts cancelled games this week, he came home with his new hat. Not only did she embroider his name on it, but she also had a pink ribbon sewed on it, too.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Recovering From Re-Encision Surgery
Maybe it's because I can't remember when my breast didn't hurt, but today has been much easier than I thought it would be. Yesterday afternoon I had what is called a "re-excision lumpectomy" in the surgical suite at my surgeon's office. My original lumpectomy was done in the operating room at the hospital, but since one side did not have the extent of clear margin (no cancer cells in a rim of normal tissue), my surgeon went in to extract more tissue on one side. In my first surgery, the anesthesiologist gave me a drug which gave me short-term memory loss. The last thing I remember is saying goodbye to Walt as the attendants started wheeling me down the hall. I don't remember anything about the operating room or being put under anesthesia. I woke up hearing a man behind another curtain complain, "I can't log in! I can't log in!" I wasn't sure if I had surgery yet or not, but then noticed the aching pain in my chest and checked out the bandage.
This time, I lay on the bed in the surgery room and the anesthesiologist inserted my IV. After pumping in fluids that had been depleted during my 14 hour fast, he put in the sedative. I thought, I'm not tired at all, and the next second my eyes were closing. I then woke up, hearing my name, wearing my glasses and all dressed. Other than briefly saying hi while in the waiting room, I didn't see my surgeon at all. He just whisked in, did his job, and whisked out! However much or little I actually see him, I'm grateful for his skill and willingness to do the job he does.
After being wheeled out to the recovery area, I realized that unlike the first surgery, I was not in pain at all. We had to stay a little longer than expected because my heart rate wouldn't climb higher than the 40s. The nurse even gave me two drugs to try to get it going faster, but it continued to hover between the high 30s and the high 40s. My surgeon had left already to coach his kid's lacrosse team, but my anesthesiologist gave the okay to go home. My pulse is ordinarily low, so I wasn't worried. I knew I was headed home to relax in front of the tv...sort of like a mini-vacation!
Today I got a call from my oncologist's office to schedule chemo treatments. On Friday, June 8, we will go in for training and consult. Here is where I'll get a better idea of what will happen. I needed to pick one day of the week to have treatments, so I chose Thursday morning. This summer is fairly flexible, but next fall is a bit harder to find time for a 4+ hour appointment every 3 weeks. I take the kids to co-op classes on Monday and Wednesday. Even though we are also doing a literature co-op on Thursdays, I can easily get them a ride for this co-op. I think she said days 1-4 or so are going to be the hardest, so we wanted as many days as possible (including the weekend) to try to recover before I had to run the kids around again.
That's all for now. I'll use this as a means of communicating to anyone who is interested. Thanks again for all your support, help with kids and meals. It is so appreciated.
This time, I lay on the bed in the surgery room and the anesthesiologist inserted my IV. After pumping in fluids that had been depleted during my 14 hour fast, he put in the sedative. I thought, I'm not tired at all, and the next second my eyes were closing. I then woke up, hearing my name, wearing my glasses and all dressed. Other than briefly saying hi while in the waiting room, I didn't see my surgeon at all. He just whisked in, did his job, and whisked out! However much or little I actually see him, I'm grateful for his skill and willingness to do the job he does.
After being wheeled out to the recovery area, I realized that unlike the first surgery, I was not in pain at all. We had to stay a little longer than expected because my heart rate wouldn't climb higher than the 40s. The nurse even gave me two drugs to try to get it going faster, but it continued to hover between the high 30s and the high 40s. My surgeon had left already to coach his kid's lacrosse team, but my anesthesiologist gave the okay to go home. My pulse is ordinarily low, so I wasn't worried. I knew I was headed home to relax in front of the tv...sort of like a mini-vacation!
Today I got a call from my oncologist's office to schedule chemo treatments. On Friday, June 8, we will go in for training and consult. Here is where I'll get a better idea of what will happen. I needed to pick one day of the week to have treatments, so I chose Thursday morning. This summer is fairly flexible, but next fall is a bit harder to find time for a 4+ hour appointment every 3 weeks. I take the kids to co-op classes on Monday and Wednesday. Even though we are also doing a literature co-op on Thursdays, I can easily get them a ride for this co-op. I think she said days 1-4 or so are going to be the hardest, so we wanted as many days as possible (including the weekend) to try to recover before I had to run the kids around again.
That's all for now. I'll use this as a means of communicating to anyone who is interested. Thanks again for all your support, help with kids and meals. It is so appreciated.
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