So I functioned pretty normally today at work. I wasn't going to answer my phone if Dr. Palmer called me before I was done seeing patients anyway, so I knew I would not know anything until 5 pm.
I did get a call from her nurse, Danielle, however she just needed my breast cancer gene test results I got from work, since we do that at the dental office now! Thankfully, mine are negative! If they were positive, a double mastectomy would likely be recommended! I told her I was waiting for my results from Dr. Palmer and she informed me that she was out of town today but she texted her and let her know that I was waiting.
Ten minutes later, the same nurse called me back and said the Dr. Palmer said she could call me and let me know that Dr. Palmer would call me in the morning to go over the result details, but that I needed to at least know that the HER2 was NEGATIVE!!! That's my good news!
Unfortunately, the lymph node testing came back as POSITIVE!!! That's my bad news!
I hung up and since I was already driving home, I just kept telling myself outloud, "It's gonna be ok, it's gonna be ok, it's gonna be ok." I felt shock and disbelief.
I called John and sobbed. I dreaded giving my sweet man this news! Tears flowed freely while I tried focusing on the road as I drove home. I called my mom next, and she was so supportive. Of course, I went to the worst place possible and said, that this opened the possibility of a worse stage than I imagined! She calmed me and helped me keep my head about me. She said she knows so many women who had the same thing and they are fine now!
I finally called my sister, Karen. Thank goodness because she put it all in perspective. She calmed me down with facts! First she was thrilled that my HER2 was negative! As for the lymph testing being positive, she said that there is soooo much more that we need to know before I jump to any conclusions. Then later tonight she called me back and explained it further and continued easing my concern. I now have several questions for my doctor, have decided that I really need to go to a more experienced surgeon, and am thankful because today I scheduled not one, but two second opinions with two different doctors that come highly recommended, are board certified, and in Cincinnati. So the definitive information really won't be known until the sentinel node biopsy comes back. She said that there is a small possibility that today's positive test was a false positive too. She said not to fret over anything I heard today because there is just too much to still put together in this puzzle before we really know.
There are many things I don't want to hear if I do need chemo, so I won't post those now, because I am not going there in my mind. Pray for my mental peace in all this.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
The prayer then is that I still do not need chemo! (It's still a possibility.) I find the right surgeon! (I will meet with one, Jamie Lewis, on Friday and another, Jennifer Manders, on next Monday.) I am healed from it all! And John's health will not suffer because of this.
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