Decisions

Well, I've received two phone calls from Mayo today, and I'm expecting at least one more.
The first phone call was my Internal Medicine doctor informing us we have some decisions to make. When we left Rochester on Wednesday, nobody on my medical team really felt there was a real benefit in doing chemotherapy before surgery, so they sent us home with the understanding we would meet with oncology after surgery to set up treatment at that time. My doctor says that since we left Rochester, there has been some extensive discussion between all the members of my medical team and there is some concern that I should at least consider chemotherapy before surgery.

My general surgeon feels that even though the lymph node biopsies came back negative, there still is a chance that when we get in to do surgery, further (more in depth) testing may show cancer in the lymph nodes. If that should happen, then I would need radiation (and chemotherapy), which may compromise my reconstructive surgery. At that time all the lymph nodes in my arm would have to be removed, highly increasing the chance I could develop lymphedema, a very painful swelling of the arm, which could be permanent. He feels if we do chemotherapy before surgery, if there is any cancer hiding in the lymph nodes, chemotherapy should kill it, so that when we go into surgery, the chances of finding cancer in the lymph nodes is reduced even more, thus possibly improving my quality of life after surgery and giving my reconstructive surgery more of a chance to be a success. They are leaving the final decision up to us.

Should we decide that we may want to have pre-surgery chemotherapy, this would mean we would have to travel back to Rochester Monday for more appointments with oncology and radiation oncology to discuss our options, and set up a treatment plan, if that is what we decide. Should we decide to fore go pre-surgery chemotherapy, then it sounds like surgery is tentatively set up for the 29th of January.

As much as I want to get this cancer out of my body RIGHT NOW, I know it would be foolish to not be patient and take our time to consider all our options. My feelings want surgery today, if that were possible, but my logic tells me differently.

I will be calling my doctor back today when we make a decision.