Testing! Testing! Testing!

For someone who rarely goes to the doctor, being tested and poked and prodded on a regular basis is enough to drive me cuckoo. Add to that the one-after-the-other doctor's appointments and the stress of worrying about results and procedures and I might pull my hair out!! :)

The results for the MRI showed no other tumors either in the same breast or the other breast or the lymph nodes. Of course that doesn't mean that there still aren't microscopic cancer cells floating around, but their aren't any TUMORS. Monday, March 31st, I will be undergoing a "sentinel node mapping" in which they will find the main lymph nodes that my breast drains to and will remove it to test it for cancer. If it is negative, that is very good and I will need less chemotherapy and less surgery and possibly no radiation. If it is positive, they will be much more agressive. More chemo, more surgery and more radiation. Let's hope for the negative! During this node removal procedure, I will be under general anesthesia and a port-a-cath will be placed in my chest under the skin to allow for easier chemotherapy administration and easier blood draws. I know it is the best thing, but it sounds yucky.

We also had some genetic testing done yesterday. They say I have a 6.9% risk of having a positive BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. This means that the cancer could have been genetic thing passed from my father's side of the family. I know that my paternal grandmother had some sort of breast surgery (looked like a mastectomy), but my dad did not know exactly what her problem was. He said that she had some lumps and the doctor just removed everything, but he didn't think she had cancer. Since there aren't any other women on that side of the family to look to and I am so young, they want to check just to be sure. We think TRicare will cover it, but if not it is pretty expensive. We feel like it will be worth it to know for my sake and the kids in the future. Hope for the negative!

I plan to spend the weekend having fun and trying to keep my mind off of Monday. I have many friends stepping up to babysit and make meals and get my kids off of the bus when I'm held up at the doctor for 3 hours! What wonderful friends I have!