First of all...
Showing posts with label #BSO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #BSO. Show all posts

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Best Day Ever!

This past week was quite long for me.  Tuesday I got to experience a colonoscopy prep. Not because I was having a colonoscopy but because Wednesday I was scheduled for a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. (BSO)

I have to tell you that colonoscopy prep, which you will all be lucky enough to have one day, was in my opinion worse than a day spent having a Taxol chemo treatment. Yes, you read that right. Worse than a day of chemo!

Wednesday I had my surgery. Talk about a long day.  I almost died of starvation prior to the surgery and then after surgery when I finally had sustenance - Belvita crackers- I was immediately nauseous.  How rude!

On the plus side being very hangry prior to the surgery and pukey after the surgery did help keep my mind off the pathology report.  You see because I have the BRCA 2 gene I'm high risk for some cancers - namely breast and ovarian.  Well, we know how the risk of breast cancer turned out. 

The point of the BSO was to remove my tubes and ovaries tout suite to reduce my risk of ovarian cancer.  Ovarian cancer is sneaky, while you can have tests like a CT scan, an MRI, or an ultrasound- all of which I had in July and August- even when they come back all clear- that does not mean that you don't actually have cancer.  The only way to be sure is to have your fallopian tubes and ovaries taken out and viewed under a microscope. 

I did as much research as a non-scientist could do to try and reassure myself that I was not likely to have ovarian cancer. I even tried to get my Medical Oncologist to tell me it was not likely I'd find out I had another cancer.  However, she wouldn't tell me what I wanted to hear. Booo. She did tell me that if they found cancer I'd have to have more chemo. Good times!  I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, not that!!!!!

As you can imagine, I spend a good deal of my mental energy on keeping my spirits up.  The thought of another cancer and more chemo was very, very stressful.  I couldn't wait to get the surgery over and I hope that maybe my GYN could give Tom some reassurance that everything looked good.

However, all I got was that one ovary looked fabulous and the other looked a little funky and that pathology results would be back by Monday. Ugh ugh ugh.

Thursday was spent by me sleeping and stressing. I have an app on my phone for my medical stuff and I kid you not, every 15 minutes I was on there looking to see if new test results were up.  I did this even though I know they don't automatically post pathology reports.  Those results were only coming to me from a phone call. 

I'm stressing out just writing about my waiting game. On Friday morning my phone rang and it was the hospital, I jumped on that call with high hopes, and it was just nurse follow up. Which is great, don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they were checking in on me. I hung up that call and tried to bury myself in something good on Netflix, but I could not concentrate and kept checking my phone and trying to figure out if I could find anything from Dr. Google.

Finally and also earlier than Monday I got the call. 12:23pm on 2/21.  The doctor herself called. She had THE BEST news for me!  The pathology was all clear.  I was so happy, she was so happy.

Best Day Ever!


Friday, February 7, 2020

Guess Who's Done With Radiation?


Yes, you are correct! Today was my last radiation treatment. I hope to not ever need to repeat the experience. If you were to see me, you might be disappointed that I don't seem thrilled.  I am, it's just that I am still dealing with a stupid cough from a dumb cold.

Rest assured, should you or a loved one ever need radiation, the most trying part of the experience will likely be just the day in day out drag of it all. Fun radiation fact, nurse Hope told me today that radiation continues to work in your body for two weeks after you finish treatment.

I would like to take a moment to brag. Today, the technicians told me- and it was not for the first time, that I have amazing skin and in fact,  technician Theresa said my skin hand held up wonderfully and she has only seen a handful of patients that looked as good as me by the end of the treatment.

I said to The Man: "Apparently my body is made to really ace cancer treatments." He looked at me like I'm a few cards short of a deck.

Would be very nice if my body could also like not allow cancer cells to hang out and build themselves into a mass again. I've already committed to doing my part through eating healthy, regular exercise, and not taking up vaping; I just need my biology to also commit to staying cancer free!

Treated myself to a celebratory Mug Cake courtesy of  Becky McNeill in one of my Snoopy mugs. 

Now 12 days and I'm back at the hospital for a preventative Bilateral Salpingectomy  What a February, eh?

Happy First Friday of February 2020!