Instead of waking up at Boomershoot this morning, I’m sitting at my kitchen table going through a growing stack of medical bills and trying to get other “business” things wrapped up. I’d like to think I can spend the next week paying attention only to my Sweetie, and serving whatever her needs are after her surgery on Monday.
It is surprising how many folks we’ve met who have been down this road before, either because of breast cancer or another form of the disease. We should take some comfort in how many there are who have told us, almost nonchalantly, “we went through that 6 years ago”, or 8 or 10 or 20… but we’re here today, and we haven’t gone all the way through it yet, so it is still a bit daunting. We know that the Lord wasn’t surprised by this, nor is it some random thing. We’ll “take what is on our plate”, and learn and grow as we go.
Right now we’re not looking much past Monday, surgery day. I would love for it to turn out to be mostly a long, boring day for me, and a scary but quickly over day for my Sweetie. Best case, that is how it will go. Do you know how this breast cancer thing works (it’s a “takealumpouttame”)? According to a friend of ours who is a doctor, this is what Monday looks like
Just a little education regarding Cathy’s upcoming surgery. Soooo, I thought I would give my two cents of education for your benefit. Cathy is supposed to go to the hospital @ 0730 for preliminary stuff and then scheduled for placement of a wire that localizes the tumor around 9-10 o’clock. This is done in radiology (X-ray for you oldies). Then someone, I am not sure who, injects radioactive material into the area where the tumor is located. This radioactivity drains the area of the tumor and goes to the particular first lymph node that drains the area of concern. It takes a while (hours) for the radioactivity to drain to the lymph node, so the planned surgery where the surgeon does the lumpectomy and then lymph node biopsy is around 2pm. Any additional and subsequent surgery/chemo etc. will generally be based on the findings of the tumor and the lymph node. Normally, Cathy will be out of the hospital in the later afternoon and home recovering for the evening.
The surgeon told us he’ll have to remove at least one lymph node, and about a golf ball sized piece of breast tissue with and around the tumor. If those pieces come up clean, he’ll do a little “booboplasty” (my word again) and she’ll be finished. Then it will be a few days recovery, few being anything from two days to a week until she can “resume normal routine”. If the tumor is worse than they think, the plan adjusts. Later on she will receive radiation treatments five days a week for about five weeks. And if the tumor is worse, or it has spread, she’ll then need chemotherapy. That’s a fork in the road we don’t want to go down though.
While I was at the hospital the other day paying bills, I remarked to one of the billing gals I had started a separate file just for the bills and records for this one thing. She told me that’s good because it could be an inch or so thick before we’re done. Every single medical person, and every single treatment will have its own record and bill. We’ve been doing this now for about two months, and the billed prices add up to just over the MSRP of a Barrett .50 with a Nightforce scope on it, and a couple hundred rounds of ammo for it. Not that I’d ever want one of those mind you (he said, turning his head so no one could see his nose grow an inch). And she hasn’t even gone to the real surgery yet… whew! Thank goodness for a decent insurance plan. We have a very serviceable plan through her work that really helps out on this big stuff. It’s not one of those everything-every dime plans, but for major medical it is great to have. Once all this is over and the paper storm has subsided, I’ll total it all up and let you know how it comes out.
One of the side effects of all this is the mental strain it is putting on both of us. We would have loved to have had the surgery done as soon as it was found, but that isn’t how things work, so there has been way too much time to “sit on hold” as it were, waiting for each step. Boomershoot is not the only thing we’ve had to cancel because of this, and making plans for the rest of the summer has been difficult. And day to day, many of the things that might normally seem important just don’t carry the weight. In case you haven’t noticed, writing here lately has not been easy. I’m a bit afraid of my mood and my preoccupation with my wife’s situation to trust myself and how I see things right now, so I have avoided posting the last couple of days. I’ll put up a Sunday Music post tomorrow, but that might be it until Tuesday. If things go real smoothly, and my wife isn’t in too much discomfort or need, I may get an update posted on Monday evening. Otherwise, I ask your indulgence, and your prayers, as we get ready for the next step. You’re all great, thanks.
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April 25th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Hope everything works out. Will pray for you.