Woozley Week of Firsts

Mason’s first fender bender in the high school parking lot. Our first auto-body realizations that taillights can be super-glued back in place but large dents are not always fixable with a toilet plunger. It's not pretty, but it'll do.

First internet hack. My Instagram account was hacked by a porn star with ironically nice boobs. Thanks for rubbing it in 'Devon Lee'... your timing is impeccable. The Instagram account is officially deleted for now. 

First PET scan initial results. Woowee! We'll learn details about it next week, but for now they said it looks as if no other cancer is detectable other than what was previously diagnosed, so I can stop worrying about every little ache and pain throughout my body... those are just from getting old.  

First torture experience. I have determined that medieval torture devices have nothing on modern medicine. Yesterday's procedure was more involved than both the previous biopsy and MRI experiences and it was decidedly not what I anticipated. Rather than laying face down on an MRI machine with 'the girls' dangling freestyle, yesterday found lefty being squeezed in a compression-style vice grip. Have to admit I dropped a few swear words (like a sailor) when they tightened the crank. After what felt like an hour (realistically 10-15 minutes)... of holding perfectly still, biting my lip while muffling my sobs and trying to hum a song in my head while inside the MRI machine, I eventually made it out and was lucky enough to receive as many numbing shots as possible to the entire area for the biopsy. Note to self: If this procedure ever needs to be repeated, request the numbing shots prior to the vice grip torture treatment.

First triple negative. There are are many different 'sub-types' of breast cancer; hence each person, regardless of the size of tumor, stage, etc. is individually different. As with all else in life, the important thing is to not compare ourselves to others. The HER2 results came back negative, which means I am classified as being a triple negative breast cancer, which means that my tumor is estrogen receptor negative, progesterone receptor negative and HER2 negative. Roughly 15% of breast cancer patients are triple negative. The good news is that this type of cancer usually responds well to chemotherapy, the bad news is that I will need chemo for approximately five months. Bring it...

First port: Tomorrow morning we'll go in for the out patient surgery/port procedure. We should have results from yesterday's biopsy in a few days. I'm not sure if it will change anything in my treatment schedule, it was mainly to verify other areas in my breast that looked cancerous. Maybe it will change the type of chemo they use, but we will need to wait until our next appointment with the oncologist to find out. We meet with him prior to starting chemo next Thursday.   

Finally, the first song I found myself humming in my head over and over during the MRI, and actually many times in the past month, has been a serious comfort. So if you are feeling fearful, I strongly recommend, "You Make Me Brave" by Amanda Cook. It has filled me with peace & thought I'd share a simple video of it I found online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGvqcjIZKTA&sns=em.