SURGERY SCHEDULED

It’s been a minute since I’ve made an update. That’s mostly because I didn’t have any new information to share. It’s been a series of phone calls, appointment scheduling, more phone calls, waiting, appointments, more waiting, vacation, appointments.

Essentially, I started this whole process with Williamson Medical because they were the group that could get me the quickest initial mammogram appointment. Since then, I have been traveling 45 minutes each way for the mammogram, biopsies, and navigation appointments so that I did not interrupt my care during a critical time when each day seemed to matter. I then made the decision to stay with Williamson Medical for my surgeries. When I met with the surgeons, however, it was made clear that they were not performing some of the newer techniques that would be beneficial to me, personally. For privacy reasons, I won’t go into those details, but feel free to reach out individually if you’re curious!

Then, I met my oncologist and he recommended that I have a consultation with a team of surgeons in Nashville. This would be preferred since there will be many more follow-up appointments than I initially realized in the future. I would prefer to be somewhere close to home. I had to wait a couple of weeks for that appointment. I met with Dr. Lawson the day before we left for vacation, on March 6^th, and absolutely loved her approach and general outlook. The next step was to see the plastic surgeon Lawson works with (they must be there the day of the mastectomy) before they could schedule a date that aligned on both of their calendars. The next available consultation appointment with Dr. Tierney was March 19^th.

And so, today, I have a real update. I decided to have a bilateral mastectomy and that surgery will be April 21^st with Dr. Laura Lawson and Dr. Brian Tierney. I feel at peace with this decision, even though making it and having a date set makes it feel much more real and heavy. After the surgery, pathology will be done on all the removed tissue so we can finally get a conclusive answer on my tumor markers and what treatment will look like after. The hope is that it is all contained in the breast tissue and not in any lymph nodes so that I can possibly bypass chemotherapy.

Upcoming important dates for those who like a bullet summary:

• April 14th – Pre Op with Occupational Therapist
• April 21^st – Bilateral Mastectomy
• April 28^th – Post-op appointment
• May 5th – Post-op appointment

Xoxo, LB