"You're Gonna Hear Me Roar"

October 23, 2013

Today's appointment was pretty simple.  I checked in got weighed and my blood pressure taken.  Got taken to a room and instructed to disrobe from the waist up. And as is usually the case in almost every doctor's visit for anything....you wait.....and you wait...and you wait...

The doctor came in with his assistant.  I had met the assistant last week and it was the first time for me to meet the surgeon who would remove this malignant tumor from my body.  I am and have always been a "first impression" person.   ...  
I  felt  comfortable with Dr. Watson from the minute I shook his hand.  I think it's real important to feel comfortable with your doctor; comfortable and confident that your best interest is what is important to him/her.

He took the time to tell me all the possibilities, everything they were planning on doing, all the pre-surgery things we needed to do (like the Sentenal Node Dye Injection) that shows them where the first lymph node is where the cancer might spread (if it has spread).  Then during surgery they remove that node and possibly two to three others and run careful and complete pathology on them to make sure there are no minute cancer cells in those nodes.  He said the MRI showed no swelling in the lymph nodes which indicates they are probably cancer free....but he made me no promises and I appreciated his straight forwardness.  They simply don't know until they get in there.  I had a long list of questions and he took the time to answer and talk to me about each one.

I had to then go and talk with a scheduler and pre-register for the surgery.

I am scheduled to have the Sentenal Node Dye Injection done on November 14th and the actual surgery on November 15th.

It was music to my ears to hear him say that my tumor is relatively small and that we caught it early and that on first look of the MRI, there is a big possibility that I may not have to have chemo....just radiation.  But again we won't know that until the surgery is complete and the pathology reports come back.  Either the chemo or the 6 weeks of radiation will begin approximately two weeks after the surgery.....so sometime in the first week of December.  If I have to have chemo, that will be done first.  11 years ago when I had the cancer on the left side, I did both chemo and radiation.  Chemo was administered once every 21 days and I had 5 sessions....so I started in April and had my last chemo treatment in August.  Then started the 6 weeks of radiation in September.  I remember the last day I had chemo and I remember the day I had my last radiation treatment.  It is such a feeling of exhilaration to know the treatments are finally over and you can finally begin your true healing.

And so now I begin the waiting game.  If they would have said I could do the surgery tomorrow, I would have done it.  I think when most people find out they have cancer, they want it out  NOW!  They don't want to wait 3 weeks.  But there's a lot of sick people out there and doctors are busy.  So I'll just have to be patient.  Here's how I'm looking at it.  That's gives me 21 more days to hit the gym and eat healthy and get my body in the best health and fitness it can me before it has to go through a trauma.  I'm not going to let this be an excuse to not exercise.  One of the questions I asked was how quickly I could get back into the gym.  The answer was use common sense (I laughed to myself when he said that....because I remember my fitness trainer asking me "Peggy, do you not know what resting means" :)  The doctor said about a week to 10 days after my surgery, I can start exercising again....probably not lifting weights or doing any strenuous upper body work, but certainly spinning and walking .  

So yes, Shepherd, and Dr. Watson, and John, I'll use common sense and I'll certainly rest after surgery and get back into my fitness routine s-l-o-w-y.  After all, I'm still recovering from the Achilles Tendon surgery.....
....and John will take my tennis shoes away from me if I don't behave!

So that's where we are right now. I'll try to get some other thoughts written on this blog in between now and the surgery date.  Life goes on and I've got to keep moving forward...

Katy Perry has a new that's just recently been released called "ROAR".  I just love it....it's how I feel about getting fit, it's how I feel about recovering from my Achilles Tendon tear, it's how I feel about this cancer and beating it....  the part of the song I love the most:

"I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
‘Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar"   

(I hope those lyrics are correct...I got them off the internet)

and today...this is my favorite motivational poster:

 

THINK PINK!