Well, I was crossing my fingers that my counts were high enough to get treatment this week. They were pretty low the week before and we weren't sure if they would climb high enough, but they did. Yeah! Grandma Getter came with me to my treatment this week, which was really nice for her to meet all the great nurses. We of course got subway again and went through the same routine at the clinic. After all the pre-meds I think I slept the rest of the time we were there. Grandma said she walked around quite awhile because she didn't want to wake me.
On Thursday, around 3 in the morning is when the stomach cramping got real bad. I spent the rest of the night in the bathroom on and off. In the morning, I called Dr. Hake to see if they knew what might be causing this. I had the same reaction the week before, but then I thought I might have just caught a bug of some sort. So Thursday, I went in to the clinic and they ran a bunch of different tests. Everything came back fine, so nothing that could be causing the stomach pains other than a reaction to the chemo. So unfortunately this may just be what I have to deal with for the next 5 treatments. Yikes! Funny thing is Clara was scheduled to have her 18 month checkup this day, so my mom had to take her instead. While I was getting fluids, any questions the Dr. had about Clara mom would text me and I'd answer. I thought about just taking my fluids with me to her appointment but didn't.
Friday we met with the plastic surgeon, Dr. Sonderman who is very nice. He did say that a team of Doctors had looked at my case earlier in the week and talked about my progress and upcoming surgery. I feel a bit relieved knowing the next plan in my treatment, and also that a bunch of doctors agreed this was the best for me. So I am scheduled for a double mastectomy on January 5th. First the surgeon will go in and remove all of my breast tissue. I still have been having nipple bleeding so they will not be saving that part of my breast. Then the plastic surgeon will put in tissue expanders and 4 drain tubes. The surgery will take about 4-5 hours and I will be in the hospital overnight. That part amazes me and scares me that I will be there only one night. They will maybe remove some drain tubes after one week, otherwise they stay in most of the time for 2 weeks. During this time I will be going in so they can add more fluid into the tissue expanders. They want to try and do this as quickly as they can so we don't delay starting radiation. It sounds like after 3-4 weeks I would then have a second surgery where they will put in the breast implants and take out the tissue expanders. During this surgery they are going to take fatty tissue from either my stomach area or back, and put a layer over top of the breast implant to help protect it from radiation. Sometimes during the radiation process, if you have an implant put in first the scaring can have an affect on the implant and it may not look as natural. But layering it with the fatty tissue should help. This is a newer procedure that they have been doing and they have seen some great results from it. I've had lots of volunteers for me to take their fatty tissue instead of using mine, so maybe the highest bidder will win:) J/K I did ask Dr. Sonderman if my breasts will be a little higher than they are right now, after breast feeding and 3 kids their not quite like they used to be. He of course laughed and said they will be much more perkier. This made me think that wearing a bra or even a swimsuit are going to probably feel very different. Anyway, this is the plan as of now.
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