“You look good,” my surgeon, Dr. Khurshid Guru, says
as he appears in the examining room Thursday. I feel good, I tell him. What
also looks good, he continues, is my blood work. And my CT scan. I’m still
cancer free. Hallelujah! He’ll see me in six months. October.
Meanwhile,
this is my fourth day in a row at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. I’m ready to
paint my name on a slot on top of the parking garage. Tuesday they drew blood (thankfully,
those hard-to-find veins cooperated on the first poke) and did the CT scan
(veins didn’t cooperate for the IV needle – needed a second nurse, a second
poke).
The other two days were
for Monica. Monday was a consult with breast surgeon #4 – Dr. Helen Cappuccino,
recommended by Dr. Guru – and she said a double mastectomy was unnecessary. There
are too many mastectomies, she contended. At this stage, Stage Zero, the
outcome would be just as good with lumpectomies, plus radiation. Maybe better.
We were incredulous. Everybody else had been saying mastectomy, mastectomy,
mastectomy.
This was news that Monica
had so much wanted to hear. Me, too. A great dark cloud of major surgery,
reconstruction and months of recovery had suddenly been lifted. Now she would
be out of work for only a few days. She could go back to swimming, playing
volleyball and riding her bike. She wouldn’t have to miss the 21st annual Ride
for Roswell at the end of June. She’s ridden in all 20 so far.
Wednesday we were back.
First for a talk with the anesthesiologist, then on to the mammography clinic.
There they inserted radioactive seeds to mark the boundaries for the surgery, a
procedure that will be considerably shorter than a mastectomy. It’s an hour and
a half. It’s next Tuesday. She won’t even have to stay in the hospital
overnight.
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