A piece of cake

Sunday, February 9, 2020. I saw Dr. Ewing and Nurse Practitioner Shelley on Wednesday for my assessment. It was not long after I got checked in and had my vitals taken, that Shelley came in. She confirmed what we already knew—no metastases. A lone nodule was the only cancer detected in all my tests. She said Dr. Ewing had a couple patients ahead of me, and then she would come in to talk about surgery.

About 2 hours later, Dr. Ewing finally walked in. I know, I know. But it was worth the wait. Ewing was all smiles when she told me she wanted to remove the nodule. She said the surgery would take about half an hour and would be “a piece of cake.” She then asked when I would like to get it scheduled. I said, “As soon as possible.” So she stepped out of the room to call her assistant. Before long she returned and asked how Wednesday sounded. “Great! The sooner the better.” She then said that, like last time, a magseed implant would need to be done at the tumor site. Before I could get a word out, Steve said, “Can we get that done today?” Obviously, I’m not the only one who’s ready to get this little bastard out of my body. Dr. Ewing called radiology, and they were able to add me to the schedule at three that afternoon for the implant.

You might remember from my May 11 post “Almost there,” that the magseed makes it easy for Dr. Ewing to go straight to the nodule, snip it out and cauterize the site. The procedure really will be a piece of cake.

So, I’m all set. I check in at 10:15a on Wednesday morning, and the surgery is scheduled for 12:15p. After an hour or two in recovery, we will be on our way home.

My next appointment will be with Dr. Rugo on February 27 for a post-surgery check-up and a discussion about adjuvant therapy. Both she and Dr. Ewing want me to meet with radiation oncologist Dr. Yang again. I suspect radiation will be a strongly recommended push by my medical team since my cancer came back so soon. But, I’ll just cross that bridge when I come to it. And, of course, I anticipate more chemotherapy. Dr. Rugo mentioned Xeloda which is administered orally for 8 cycles—twice a day for two weeks, then a week off. She said they are having success in using it to fight triple-negative cancer.

I am deeply grateful for your continued support and encouragement and love. It’s true that we have all been disheartened by this latest turn of events, but I’m going to be fine. I really am.

Cake anyone?

It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.—Sally Kempton