Most of the late summer and fall were a lot of hurry up and wait...I talked with my gynecologist who I pushed to recommend a doctor she would go to as she is my age. She sent me to a breast surgeon who has been highly recommended by all who have seen her.
So I saw this surgeon in August 17th. (My youngest had turned 16 at the Monroe tournament and we had made the decision for me to get vaccinated on July 30th due to the unknowns of my cancer and to also get her first vaccine dose on the 31st of July given we were going to be in a petri dish of germs for this tournament.) It was one of the hardest things to do to sit in the cancer center with a people you know all have cancer and many were quite a bit older. Thankfully my mom went with me given her past history hubby and I felt she made more sense to attend appointments.
The surgeon be bopped her way in and said, "We can take care of this easy!" I was a bit shocked. She did an exam on me and declared she could not palpate anything so all I needed was a partial mastectomy (or a lumpectomy). She then spent the next hour explaining and drawing pictures. That reduced my stress almost immediately. We decided to schedule it on Aug 23rd as Aug 20th was a bit too soon for me to get my work and life in order to be off.
I only took off that day for surgery. Youngest had a volleyball game that night that I attended. I think the parents (and my friend) thought I was crazy. I was awake and not sore and I did not want to miss any of my child's games. I probably pushed a bit too hard as I was extremely sore after that but I walked as soon as I could to get my strength back. I hate being slowed down.
Youngest and I also had our last doses of the vaccine that weekend of the 20th which was another reason to postpone the surgery so I could recover from the shot effects.
At that point I had begun not being able to eat hardly anything due to the stress. My stomach hurt constantly so I only ate small bites of things. I had weighed 155 Sept 2020 and began using a program through work that helped me lose weight but Christmas derailed me from all of the food shoved at you during the holidays. So I stayed around 150 most of that spring and summer until the diagnosis. I lost almost 4lbs in just a few days from the stress.
I was supposed to have a GI consult for the colonoscopy my NP insisted I get done on the 7th...the day after labor day. We had family over that Monday the 6th and I felt fine until about mid-day and then I began to feel bad. I took my temp and it was running 99 so I just took some Tylenol and drank water and didn't think much about it. My family went out to the pool to swim so I went outside to visit with my father in law and I realized I was parched. I had run out of water and was miserable but didn't get up to do anything about it until I was achy...which I realized meant my fever had come back and was now higher. I got up and excused myself which caused everyone to also get out of the pool. It was about 80 degrees outside and I was almost shivering. I went inside and got a sweater and then chatted with my brother in law's girlfriend. I had to excuse myself again because I needed to use the restroom from all of the water I drank and also I wanted to take my temp again. At that point it was now 101. I went and laid down and began violently shaking but had not brought the thermometer with me so I texted my kids to bring it to me. By then the fever had climbed to 102 so I had the girls bring me more Tylenol and some water and to discreetly let hubby know as our family was still there. By the time the kids got his attention and the family left it had climbed to 102.7. I knew I was in trouble and needed to do something else to get it down so the kids got hubby and he helped me take as cold of a shower as I could tolerate. It caused me to shake more violently but that and switching to some Theraflu helped the fever stop climbing. When I woke up the next morning, I had to call and cancel my consult as it was still hovering around 100. I had no other symptoms so did not suspect Covid. I rescheduled my GI consult for later in the month.
I had also been set up to see the oncologists at our local center in my hometown. That appointment wasn't scheduled until the 20th of Sept. I was out of my mind on all of the scheduling and waiting. I saw her and because I was estrogen receptor positive she wanted to do a pathology test on the tissue sample to assess if I needed chemo. I almost broke down right there. I was not expecting to have to have chemo given it was found early and small. She said given my age and the unknowns of the pathology she felt it was safer to assess the tissue because she didn't want either of us regretting any decisions not made later on and risk it coming back. By then I had lost down to 138lbs.
I saw the GI doctor on the 27th of September and he agreed that we needed to get the colonoscopy done and quickly given I might have to have chemo so we scheduled it for Sept 30th. My head was spinning from all of the decisions that were being made so quickly now. I spent two days doing a clear liquid diet then a 12 hour prep. I lost down to 133lbs but made myself sick when I could eat solids again! Thankfully the procedure went well and I had no issues so I am good for another 10 years so that was the only good news I had gotten in a while.
I saw the radiation oncologist on the 5th of Oct to discuss setting up radiation. Thankfully because it was so small they would only do 3 weeks of radiation (versus the normal 6-8 weeks).
I saw the chemo oncologist again to get the results of my path test back and she said I had a 21 on a scale of 100 so adding chemo would not add any benefit to my treatment. That was only the second time I could smile and be happy at a doctor's appointment in a couple of months.
The CT scanner was down at my center so I had to go to another one in the next town over on Oct 28th. I started radiation on Nov 9th. My only ask was to not start any treatments until Volleyball Nationals was over as I we had to travel for that and you can't miss a radiation treatment.
I did radiation for a minute and a half. From the time I left my house, treatment, and to back home again was 25 minutes so I was able to work during it. I only began to feel the effects in the second week. I had some soreness and swelling the second week and then the third week I worked long hours to try and catch up on some work during the slow Thanksgiving holiday week and I was tired by 7pm at night. I didn't' do radiation on Thanksgiving day or on the first day so I didn't finish until Dec 1st. By then we had started basketball with my youngest so when they asked if I was feeling tired I told them "How would I know with my life?"
In the middle of all of this, two friend contracted covid and my mom's oldest sister went on hospice on Oct 28th and died Nov 2nd and we buried her on the 6th I had also had a freak fever again but not as high as the one in September. Stress was beginning to take it's toll on my mind heavily.
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