I'm sure several of you are wondering about what is going with my cancer itself this week. Not too much has changed since the weekend, but here's a brief medical update to catch everyone up to speed.
The major medical events (surgery, chemotherapy) will not begin until early November. So for now, I am doing the preliminary work of finalizing which doctors I will be working with and getting a few more tests done. Tomorrow afternoon Matt and I will have a consultation with a cancer surgeon in Bluffton, SC who my dad's cancer surgeon recommended. Then on Thursday afternoon I will go to the hospital for an MRI. The last time I had an MRI I had a panic attack and nearly blacked out because I was so claustrophobic and uncomfortable, so I begged the nurse for sedation this time...and she agreed. So no matter what else happens in the next 36 hours, I know I will at least get an hour-long nap on Thursday afternoon!
We are also waiting for some test results to come back. The most important test that we are waiting to hear about is the BRCA genetic screening test which evaluates whether I have a genetic mutation that makes me susceptible to cancer. If that test comes back positive it would be very likely that I could have cancer again in the future, so my surgery and chemotherapy would need to be much more aggressive. Also, a positive result would mean that my close relatives could also be susceptible to cancer. So it would be very positive if the test comes back negative, and very negative if the test comes back positive. How's that for confusing?! Anyway, you can just pray that the test shows I am not genetically susceptible to getting cancer again in the future.
Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement.
