HURRY UP + WAIT

For those who want the short of it :

• I am still playing the waiting game.

For those who want the details :

• I’ve been deemed a “challenging case”. Woo.

We met with my surgical oncologist, Dr. Laura R. Baskin, on February 26th. She went over the initial pathology report of my 2nd biopsy and then talked with us for hours, literally, about what they mean and my surgical options. She was thorough and really took her time to help us understand everything.

My 2nd biopsy initial pathology report shows that the tissue collected was tested and came back as only the DCIS part, with no evidence of the invasive cancer. We know, based on the 1st biopsy, that I do have micro-invasive cancer present but this 2nd biopsy just didn’t retrieve it. That is again some good and bad news. Good news, they went into the most suspicious area and still couldn’t gather enough invasive tissue, so they believe I have mostly DCIS. Bad news, they still don’t know my full tumor markers, so they can’t really determine best treatment. As of now, my surgeon is consulting with radiology to see if they believe a 3rd biopsy (maybe done with MRI guidance) could yield any better results. Basically, it’s our last shot. If the 3rd biopsy does not have clearer results, then I will most likely be looking at surgery as the first plan of action. This way, they remove the whole tumor and surrounding tissue to find out exactly which bad guy in my cells they need to be targeting for the rest of my treatment. While we wait to hear if a 3rd biopsy is viable, they have gone ahead and scheduled me for one just to hold the date–March 17th.

If surgery is the first line of treatment, then the two possible dates are April 1st (yes, April Fools’ Day) or April 8th.

Today, Steven and I will meet my medical oncologist, Dr. Dixon Dorand. I’ll have some blood drawn and genetic testing started.

As of now, it looks like we may be able to go on our St. Martin vacation March 7th-14th. It will be tough to keep playing the waiting game, but it’ll be a little easier to do while staring out at the Anguilla Channel.

Xoxo, LB