I got some new tattoos....kind of

O the things you can do with a Sharpie marker! I left the surgeons office today with lovely drawings marking areas of the boob for the plastic surgeon.

The surgery has been scheduled for Wednesday, July 25. We do not know the time yet. There is so much information regarding our decision with what to do that I have decided not to bore you with all those details and just let you know we have decided to do a Modified Radical Mastectomy of the left breast. There is no cancer in the right at all and at this point in the process they just want to deal with the diseased area. After surgery, chemo, and radiation (IN ABOUT A YEAR FROM NOW) we will decide whether or not to remove boob 2 and/or reconstruct boob 1 and boob 2. (Shall I call them Thing 1 and Thing 2 from now on =). There is no real good data to support removing Thing 2 but because I'm young and the type I have (invasive lobular) many women with similar situations chose to remove the other boob as well . Most women chose to do it just for peace of mind and aestetic reasons. There really is little reason to remove it for medical reasons.

Some good news is the CT Scan came back "prognosis negative." Other than a few cyst and spots here and there & some gall stones which apparently are all very normal everything else is lookin good!

Tomorrow we meet with the radiology oncologist and Thursday with a plastic surgeon. The reason to meet with everyone even though some of the other treatments don't take place for a long time is because every other week all the doctors (radiologists, oncologists, plastic surgeons, breast surgeons)meet to discuss current cases. Mine will most likely be discussed at the next meeting so they want me to meet with all of them before this meeting so they can go over the best plan of action for my case, which for the most part has been decided, but it's nice to know I'm part of a "bigger picture."

Thank you so much for all your support! The emails, the cards, the letters, posting on the blog, wearing pink to church.... it's huge and I'm very grateful!

Also, for those of you outside of Anchorage, or for those of you who live here but have never had to go, this is where I'm spending many of my days. It's a beautiful campus. I promise...all pictures will be rated G!