Saturday, October 29, 2011

Update

I have had a lot of people ask me to update the blog, so here goes.


I had the port out in June. I was very happy to have it out. I have a pretty big scar but the port hurt and now it is gone. So that is good.


It appears I may have a hernia from the DIEP surgery. I went to a specialist to have it checked. He said it feels like a pretty large hernia. He said it is because I had had previous abdominal surgery. I have a scar from my c-section which is low and horizontal. I also have a scar from an appendectomy that I had when I was 18. That is a vertical scar and it meets the c-section scar. This surgeon told me it was pretty much a guarantee that I would develop a hernia after DIEP with these previous surgeries. He said I was not a candidate for the DIEP because of this and they should not have done it on me. He sent me for a CT scan to see what was up.
I had the CT scan. It showed the area still has a very thin, maybe 1 - 2 mm of muscle membrane holding it in. The surgeon said I can have it repaired now, as we previously scheduled, or I can wait until it tears all the way through. He said he guarantees it will, but he is not sure how long it will take. He said I will get a better repair if I wait because we are then certain where the weakest points are. If we do it now there is a possibility it may have to be redone in the future. I decided to wait. It does hurt though. He said to take advil for pain and come back if it gets unbearable.

When I had the CT scan it also said that my ovaries were prominent and that my endometrial lining was markedly increased. It said that it needed to be further evaluated due to my breast cancer history. I was made menopausal from the chemo but that has recently reversed so I figured it might be due to that. I went to my gynecologist. She said I need to get ultrasounds, both abdominal and trans vaginal and have ovarian biopsies. I told her I would just rather have them out and sent to pathology but for some reason she does not agree with that. I am going to get the ultrasounds and then I am going to look for a good gynecological oncologist for a second opinion.

I have certainly had enough with breast cancer so I want them out no matter what. If there is a malignancy that would obviously be horrific but since there is no way I can have another baby through my own body I really don't see the point of keeping the ovaries. Ugghh.

I go to Dr. Citron regularly for checkups and everything seems fine. That is good.

My Dad is progressing with his Alzheimer's disease. Tough to deal with. We do go see them very often. He enjoys seeing Julianna and we all do have nice visits.

My plans for having another baby have been progressing. Everything is moving along and we are looking at an early December embryo transfer. It has been a very slow process and I am so excited about it. I am hoping that the ovary thing is nothing big. If it does turn out to be malignant I may have to cancel the embryo transfer and that would be heartbreaking in so many ways.

I am trying to keep my mind off all the medical stuff and enjoy life. Julianna is going to be a skunk for Halloween and she is very excited about it. She says "I turn around, shake my booty and spray you!" It is super cute. She has a Halloween parade at school and I am going to leave work a little early to take her trick or treating.




Happy Halloween!!!!

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