The Appointments - PART 1
I thought I would give a little insight into the whole breast cancer process by breaking down all my appointments thus far.
Appointment 1 - The Check Up - 20 Dec
I found the lump in perhaps November? I can't really recall the exact moment to be honest. In December I popped into the doctor to discuss some results for an unrelated issue. It was then that I mentioned that I had a dodgy lump in my left boob that I was a bit concerned about. My doctor, a little old lady who looked a lot like that mean granny from the Golden Girls, got me up on the bed and gave my boobs a good squish n squeeze. AWKWARD.
She gave me a referral to get an ultrasound but said that because I was soooo young with no family history, it was most likely a cyst. Pffffffffft.
Appointment 2: The Ultrasound - 5 Jan
Let me just say that this was totes one of my better trips to the doc. The technician slathered some warm gel over my boob and wielded her wand around in search of 'ol lumpy. She took some ultrasonic (?) pics from all angles whilst I glared at her face, trying to pick up on any facial nuances that might indicate that she had seen something terrible and that I was sure to die. Well little miss poker face didn't give away a thing!
Appointment 3: Ultrasound Results - 7 Jan
Two days later I went to collect my results from the x-ray joint, which I obvs looked at before seeing the doctor. According to the report the lump was an 'irregular lobulated heterogeneous hyperchoic solid lesion'. I didn't know what any of it meant but it sounded BAD. I went to the GP (this one was a younger doctor called Susan) with my results. She read the report and said the 'lesion' looked pretty irregular which wasn't great news so she called and scheduled a biopsy for the following Tuesday and sent me off to have a blood test. She assured me that since I was soooo young and had no family history, it was probs just a fibroadenoma and that I would be just fine. I have heard that one before lady!
Appointment 4: Blood results - 23 Jan
I didn't hear anything back about my blood work so just assumed everything was fine. So when I got a call to come in to 'discuss' my tests, I had mild heart failure. I went in and yet another doctor (male and kinda weird) confirmed my blood results were just fine bar low sugar levels. However, he did take a look at my ultrasound and immediately wrote a referral to a breast specialist. Wa wa waaaaaait a minute, I hadn't even had my biopsy and he was wanting to send me off to a specialist!
Naturally I ignored him and thought it would be better to wait and get my biopsy the following week and see what's what. And ACTUALLY, the specialist would have sent me back to get a biopsy anyway so I actually saved a good $180. Score!
Appointment 5: Biopsy - 29 Jan
My biopsy was due the week following my ultrasound appointment but wound up getting moved to over 2 weeks later! Um hello, there is a freaking cancerous lump sitting in my boob and you (the biopsy doctor) have decided to bugger off to the Bahamas! What the hell! I actually called around but everyone wanted to charge me $500 so I opted to wait it out. This appointment was one of the worst. I was particularly nervous after googling 'core biopsy' and seeing this:
The little blonde assistant led me to a room and gave me a gown to slip into, after which the doctor came in and explained what the procedure would entail. He first injected the lump area with a local anaesthetic. I wasn't really looking so can't give you the exact play by play but all I know is that he inserted a more high tech version of the above devil weapon into my chest and extracted a few samples. The extraction made a weird sort of pellet gun type noise, shooting the sample right out of the lump. GAG.
The biopsy only took a few minutes and it didn't hurt thaaaat much, it was more the thought of that gigantic needle being shoved into my chest that was really disturbing. It caused a bit of bruising over a few days and there was a small hole left from the procedure which has since left a small scar.
Appointment 6: Biopsy Results - 2 Feb
The day after the appointment I had a manic day at work and had missed a few calls from a 'no number'. The following day (a Saturday!) I received a call from the doctor saying that they had tried to call me the day before and asking if I could come in on Monday. Mmmmm...the doctor said the results would be ready after a minimum of 5 days so why were they calling me the day after? This couldn't be good.
I have already explained this appointment in my first post, so how bout we skip the details. Just to recap, yet another doctor (a lovely South African called Sharon) confirmed that 'ol lumpy was in fact a malignant tumour. And the news led to a response kind of like this...
Appointment 7: Specialist - 2 Feb
I also covered this appointment in my first blog. So to recap, I was referred to an oncoplastic surgeon who said that based on my results so far I would have to decide between a lumpectomy and mastectomy and would need to have several weeks of radiation. During the appointment he also took photos of my boob, gave the lump a bit of an inspection and passed me a few tissues whilst I had another small meltdown.
Please stay tuned for PART 2...
Appointment 1 - The Check Up - 20 Dec
I found the lump in perhaps November? I can't really recall the exact moment to be honest. In December I popped into the doctor to discuss some results for an unrelated issue. It was then that I mentioned that I had a dodgy lump in my left boob that I was a bit concerned about. My doctor, a little old lady who looked a lot like that mean granny from the Golden Girls, got me up on the bed and gave my boobs a good squish n squeeze. AWKWARD.
She gave me a referral to get an ultrasound but said that because I was soooo young with no family history, it was most likely a cyst. Pffffffffft.
Appointment 2: The Ultrasound - 5 Jan
Let me just say that this was totes one of my better trips to the doc. The technician slathered some warm gel over my boob and wielded her wand around in search of 'ol lumpy. She took some ultrasonic (?) pics from all angles whilst I glared at her face, trying to pick up on any facial nuances that might indicate that she had seen something terrible and that I was sure to die. Well little miss poker face didn't give away a thing!
Appointment 3: Ultrasound Results - 7 Jan
Two days later I went to collect my results from the x-ray joint, which I obvs looked at before seeing the doctor. According to the report the lump was an 'irregular lobulated heterogeneous hyperchoic solid lesion'. I didn't know what any of it meant but it sounded BAD. I went to the GP (this one was a younger doctor called Susan) with my results. She read the report and said the 'lesion' looked pretty irregular which wasn't great news so she called and scheduled a biopsy for the following Tuesday and sent me off to have a blood test. She assured me that since I was soooo young and had no family history, it was probs just a fibroadenoma and that I would be just fine. I have heard that one before lady!
 |
| Bitch Pleeeeease |
I didn't hear anything back about my blood work so just assumed everything was fine. So when I got a call to come in to 'discuss' my tests, I had mild heart failure. I went in and yet another doctor (male and kinda weird) confirmed my blood results were just fine bar low sugar levels. However, he did take a look at my ultrasound and immediately wrote a referral to a breast specialist. Wa wa waaaaaait a minute, I hadn't even had my biopsy and he was wanting to send me off to a specialist!
 |
| WA WA WHOA! Hold the fuck up! |
Appointment 5: Biopsy - 29 Jan
My biopsy was due the week following my ultrasound appointment but wound up getting moved to over 2 weeks later! Um hello, there is a freaking cancerous lump sitting in my boob and you (the biopsy doctor) have decided to bugger off to the Bahamas! What the hell! I actually called around but everyone wanted to charge me $500 so I opted to wait it out. This appointment was one of the worst. I was particularly nervous after googling 'core biopsy' and seeing this:
The little blonde assistant led me to a room and gave me a gown to slip into, after which the doctor came in and explained what the procedure would entail. He first injected the lump area with a local anaesthetic. I wasn't really looking so can't give you the exact play by play but all I know is that he inserted a more high tech version of the above devil weapon into my chest and extracted a few samples. The extraction made a weird sort of pellet gun type noise, shooting the sample right out of the lump. GAG.
The biopsy only took a few minutes and it didn't hurt thaaaat much, it was more the thought of that gigantic needle being shoved into my chest that was really disturbing. It caused a bit of bruising over a few days and there was a small hole left from the procedure which has since left a small scar.
Appointment 6: Biopsy Results - 2 Feb
The day after the appointment I had a manic day at work and had missed a few calls from a 'no number'. The following day (a Saturday!) I received a call from the doctor saying that they had tried to call me the day before and asking if I could come in on Monday. Mmmmm...the doctor said the results would be ready after a minimum of 5 days so why were they calling me the day after? This couldn't be good.
I have already explained this appointment in my first post, so how bout we skip the details. Just to recap, yet another doctor (a lovely South African called Sharon) confirmed that 'ol lumpy was in fact a malignant tumour. And the news led to a response kind of like this...
Appointment 7: Specialist - 2 Feb
I also covered this appointment in my first blog. So to recap, I was referred to an oncoplastic surgeon who said that based on my results so far I would have to decide between a lumpectomy and mastectomy and would need to have several weeks of radiation. During the appointment he also took photos of my boob, gave the lump a bit of an inspection and passed me a few tissues whilst I had another small meltdown.
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| Uhhhhh excuse me Miss... |
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