Sunday, February 26, 2012

2nd Opinion


I must have read in every cancer book that part of this journey is to make sure you seek a second opinion. Doctors are brilliant, talented and above average decision makers. They are also human! I love my doctors and trust them very much and believe that they have my best interest at heart. With that said, I am seeking a second opinion from the Mayo Clinic on Friday March 2nd. Oh how I wish this was a simple clear cut black and white battle, but it's not.
"It's rather several shades of gray, " one doctor quoted.

There have been many issues about the facts of this diagnosis that are borderline and bothersome! Where one doctor says treating a slight HER2 positive issue is not worth all the consequences of possible side effects another doctor says that even a slight positive score must be treated! All of that is complicated by two different tests; one reports a negative presence and the other a positive presence. So, off to Mayo Clinic we go looking for the tie breaking vote.

The Mayo Clinic sent us a checklist of all the tests they want to review. I am completely impressed that they want to see the diagnostic tests for themselves, they also want the original tissue slides and written reports. It seems to me that they are going to take a fresh analysis approach to the case and file. I am so relieved! I consulted another breast cancer group who only wanted the written reports. I believe we’ll be in great hands when we arrive in Scottsdale AZ.

Meanwhile the Chemo treatment I was supposed to get last week, will be done this coming week. Then when Mayo determines we are on the right track, fantastic! If not we’ll change it up, but we must get started.

The local doctors office where I go continues to impress me with their financial aide. Before the insurance kicked in they guided me to call ahead and negotiate cash prices with the service providers. What would have been over $55,000 paid out in cash was reduced to about $15,000. With the generosity of friends and family, a large chunk of that has been paid. Just the other day they sent me paperwork to fill out for the Patient Advocate Foundation Co-Pay Relief Program, who will help us with the co-pay payments. They really have been remarkable with helping facilitate the assistance needed to get the proper care.

Mornings like this when I wake up and feel nervous and scared, all I have to do is think about everything I can be thankful for and it settles me. I am so thankful that I'm not alone, that I have been well taken care of, that I still open cards and letters every single day, phone calls from friends,  that my husband holds my hand even while I'm sleeping, that two of my daughters and my mother have journeyed many miles to spend some beautiful sunny days with me and another daughter and another sister are on their way. I am thankful for cancer research, for the Mayo Clinic, for the pink ribbon tattoo my niece put on her chest, for my new dammit doll, for a song my sisters dedicated to promise to love me through this, for the joy all my grand children have given me, Good morning.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Chemo starts today. Come, pray with me for a total and complete healing.

Hello gang, so sorry I haven’t written in a long while. I’ve been trying to digest all that has happened. It’s been like drinking a cup of water from a fire hydrant. I grew up here in the desert and was told somewhere along the way that the reason we have flash floods is because the land is so dry and hard that when the rain finally falls it can not be absorbed because the land is not porous. When the rain falls it quickly runs over the hard surface of the desert landscape causing a flash flood. The Diagnosis back in December hit a hard surface. The constant pounding and sometimes dripping of reality have softened the hard ground and it’s beginning to sink in one slow day at a time.

I stare at my healing chest and recognize that this is a process. Step 1, surgery behind me. I remember that when I considered my options for surgery I couldn’t cope with more than that. I remember thinking that I couldn’t consider Chemo treatment or even research it because I was already overwhelmed with the decision of mastectomies.

It’s been several weeks of healing and preparation for Step 2, treatment. Along the way there have been a few bumps in the road. I’ve had to have the tumor slides retested because there was a conflict in results. That delayed the treatment by a week. More than the aggravation of delay was an incredible uncertainty and acceptance of a different treatment plan…. A longer treatment plan. We walked all the way around that block to have the test results remain the same and the decision to continue down the original path of treatment after all. Now, I have had time to read about the treatment plan and side affects which have hit hard ground once again. There is so little time for acceptance before treatment starts.

Later today there will be an IV drip hooked up to me and the chemicals that scout out and kill cancer cells will be on the hunt. Unfathomable that just two months ago I thought that treatment wasn’t an option because I didn’t have insurance. I need to remember that this is a gift and God came through. I believe… I believe that God and cooperation with the doctors plus my faith will find and kill every cancer cell in my body. Come, pray with me for a total and complete healing and that the side affects of this treatment will be few. With all my love, Sheri