The Call

I got the call the afternoon of January 4th, 2012, my second day back to work.  All I can say is thank goodness Mary had planted the seed, or I would have been a complete disaster.  As it was, I could only listen in stunned silence as the radiologist confirmed that all three samples had come back positive for invasive ductal carcinoma.  There were still more results that needed to come back, blah, blah, blah, but in the meantime Mary would call me back to schedule a breast MRI and provide a list of recommended surgeons.  Surgeons?  OMG.

As it turned out, Mary did call me back.  She gave me the name of a breast surgeon and told me I was going to beat this.  Whoever created the position of breast care navigator deserves a medal.  I also remember her saying so matter of factly, "You're probably looking at a mastectomy with reconstruction, " and my mind flipping out.  I would think her job must be tough, being on the front end of the diagnosis.  You have to talk the patient off the ledge, but you don't get to see where they end up.  Once I get past my surgery, I definitely need to send her a card to thank her for her candour and guidance.

I was hustled in for an MRI on January 9th.  I would describe myself as mildly claustrophobic so I was fairly nervous about the whole procedure. The technician tried to ease my fears by describing it as more of an upright doughnut than a cylinder - you can see the picture here - but keep in mind the "doughnut" is 4-1/2 feet long so that's a pretty thick cruller.  It actually wasn't terrible, more due to the fact that I was face down and just kept my eyes closed.  If I'd been on my back there would have been a sedative required I'm sure.  What I wasn't prepared for was the noise.  With no exaggeration, it alternates between standing beside a jackhammer and an ambulance siren.  I read somewhere about people listening to music during the procedure, but that has to be total bs.  Anyway, I got through it.  I kept telling myself if I can't suffer through a 25 minute MRI then I'm not going to get very far in this whole battle.  And battle it is.  My good friend in Winnipeg sent me this awesome quote:  "I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!" ~ Dr. Seuss