My Name is Not Cancer Girl

I had my punch biopsies today. I didn’t know what to expect, and quite frankly I built the process up to be hugely involved and painful. But, I’m skipping ahead and should back up a bit.

Last Monday, Feb 1, was my last chemo. Chemo was fine, uneventful and the laugh-riot it always was. Tuesday and Wednesday were typical and I was doing okay getting my water down. I hadn’t been quite as obsessive about getting in a gallon each day as I was last round, but I was still pounding down 12 cups of Pur filtered water.

Thursday I woke up with a little bit of a chill running through my bones. I took my temp and had a slight fever. The directives I got prior to my first round of chemo were that any fever over 100.5 was to be called in immediately. So I stayed in bed, tried to warm up and slept a good bit of the day. At 2:30, my fever hit 100.6 and I called. There were a few messages left on various voice mails at the dr’s office, and finally at 4, I called and demanded to speak with a live person. When I told the nurse that my fever was now 101.7 she told me to head to the ER.

We got to Northside Hospital and after some Tylenol and many tests (CBC, sedimentation, x-rays, EKGs, urinalysis), I was declared healthy. But, because my fever was 102 when I arrived, the doctor decided to admit me for overnight observation. C stayed with me and Mom went home to watch the boys. I got 2 huge bags of fluid overnight, and early the next morning Dr. A sent me home with orders to take Tylenol if the fever came back. It never did.

The rest of the post-chemo week was typical and went off just like it has the last 5 times. Chemo is officially over for now, and wer’re ready to move on with the surgery and radiation phase of treatment. Which brings us to today.

We’ve been debating for several weeks now, how to proceed with surgery. There are basically 2 options on the table: first, a double lumpectomy removing the 2 spots that we’ve already identified; second, removal of the original under-the-arm tumor and reversal of the TRAM and reconstruction. Obviously there are benefits and drawbacks to both, but we were stuck in choosing the best option for us. We finally decided that these punch biopsies were the best way for us to narrow in on the right choice.

So, today I had the biopsies. A punch biopsy focuses on the skin of the breast, not so much on the underlying tissue. The assumption is that my secondary spot (the one that we found on the MRI in October) came from the skin down into the reconstruction. Today was a fishing expedition to see if there is anymore cancer hiding out inside the skin tissue.

Dr. S took 5 samples. I can’t really explain what she did, I didn’t look and I didn’t really want to know. What I do know is that there were shots of Lidocaine and then samples put into jars. The resulting holes look like she punched a piece of Velveeta with a drinking straw. The spots form an “X” similar to the 5 side of a die.

The jars will be sent off to the pathologist and I will hear the results next week. If each of the samples are clean, then we will only do the lumpectomies. If any of the samples show cancerous cells, we will likely move ahead with the TRAM reversal.

It’s been a big day, full of anticipation and anxiety. With those punch biopsies done, I am ready for our plan to come together.