Today was a mix of good and bad news…
We met with the Oncologist, Dr. Magda Flejsierowicz (Dr. Flej). First news we got from her was confirmation we'd made the right decision about Fertility. We discussed a lot with her, including my concerns about the heart risks of chemo. Dr. Tjoe was spot on referring us to Dr. Flej, she gave us a lot of data, all which we wanted.
After meeting with Dr. Flej, we went across the hall to meet with Dr. Tjoe. We started with a biopsy of my lymph nodes under me right arm. Thankfully, it hurt less than the breast biopsy. Sadly, the ultrasound used during the biopsy confirmed the suspicion about the 1st node … appears the cancer has made it to the node. This increases the stage from 2a to 2b.
After the procedure we sat down with the NP's and Dr. Tjoe and mapped out the next couple weeks. Dr. Tjoe and Dr Flej agreed that Vladimir is too close to my pec muscle, so treatment will be chemo before surgery. One upside of the day was Dr. Tjoe telling us about a project she's working on with Aurora and GE Healthcare, designed to collapse the testing and diagnosis into a single day and remove the scheduling challenges and waiting we'd been experiencing. However, I know the speed with which we've gone through all of this testing is much faster than most. Dr. Tjoe gave us many compliments about our ability to receive and consume so much information. She thought it would be great to get Heather and I into the project, as the voice of the patient. Fingers crossed. =)
During the visit we received the results of the HER2 test, which was negative. This is awesome… as HER2 determines the aggressiveness of the tumor. Having a negative HER2 means it's not overly aggressive and combined with the Estrogen and Progesterone positive, we have have many good things on our side. Screw you Vladimir, you are going down!
~Liz
We met with the Oncologist, Dr. Magda Flejsierowicz (Dr. Flej). First news we got from her was confirmation we'd made the right decision about Fertility. We discussed a lot with her, including my concerns about the heart risks of chemo. Dr. Tjoe was spot on referring us to Dr. Flej, she gave us a lot of data, all which we wanted.
After meeting with Dr. Flej, we went across the hall to meet with Dr. Tjoe. We started with a biopsy of my lymph nodes under me right arm. Thankfully, it hurt less than the breast biopsy. Sadly, the ultrasound used during the biopsy confirmed the suspicion about the 1st node … appears the cancer has made it to the node. This increases the stage from 2a to 2b.
After the procedure we sat down with the NP's and Dr. Tjoe and mapped out the next couple weeks. Dr. Tjoe and Dr Flej agreed that Vladimir is too close to my pec muscle, so treatment will be chemo before surgery. One upside of the day was Dr. Tjoe telling us about a project she's working on with Aurora and GE Healthcare, designed to collapse the testing and diagnosis into a single day and remove the scheduling challenges and waiting we'd been experiencing. However, I know the speed with which we've gone through all of this testing is much faster than most. Dr. Tjoe gave us many compliments about our ability to receive and consume so much information. She thought it would be great to get Heather and I into the project, as the voice of the patient. Fingers crossed. =)
During the visit we received the results of the HER2 test, which was negative. This is awesome… as HER2 determines the aggressiveness of the tumor. Having a negative HER2 means it's not overly aggressive and combined with the Estrogen and Progesterone positive, we have have many good things on our side. Screw you Vladimir, you are going down!
~Liz