<\/p>\n
\n
This morning around 10ish I received a call from Dr. Brooks, the geneticist on the “boob board,” with my BRCA 1\/BRCA 2 genetic testing.\u00a0 (Remember, this is the genetic study that checked “me” not “my tumor.”\u00a0 Drum roll please……Genetically, I’m gold.\u00a0 (Well, in the area of breast and\/or ovarian cancer anyway.)\u00a0 This means I’m not predisposed to “grow” tumors.\u00a0 I do NOT have the BRCA1\/BRCA 2 mutation!\u00a0 Yay, I thought.\u00a0 However, my geneticist reminded me of what I realized last week.\u00a0 This is good news for Mary Clare and McCanless.\u00a0 (I can’t pass along a faulty gene if I don’t have it.)\u00a0 But, it leaves the unanswered question:\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why in the world does a healthy 34 year old, with no family history or crazy mutated gene have breast cancer?\u00a0\u00a0 I think this is what kills these doctors, oncologists, geneticists, surgeons.\u00a0 They can’t explain it.\u00a0 There is no reason.\u00a0 I just have it.<\/p>\n
I swear I’m buying a lottery ticket tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Then around 2:00, Dr. Sweatman called. (On his vacation week, I might add, yet still called me, himself.)\u00a0 I so love this man.\u00a0 Rephrase, I have so grown to love this man<\/em>.\u00a0 He said my Oncotype DX results were in.\u00a0 (Remember, this is the study of the biological activity of my actual tumor.\u00a0 The tumor was given a score between 0 and 100 that correlates with the likelihood of a my chances of having my cancer return, and the likelihood that I will benefit from adding chemo to the treatment plan.)<\/p>\n I was sitting on the bench under the front breezeway at THA, my second home, watching parents eagerly walk in to gather their babies or stop by the office to chat with congregating mama hens.\u00a0 Where I’ve taught, worked, loved for as long as I’ve been married.\u00a0 Students watched me learn to be a better teacher, grow huge with the pregnancies of my own two baby girls.\u00a0 The place where I remember parading through the high school halls in a huge homemade Jack-O-lantern costume on Halloween as a third grader, loving art class because I sat beside my best friend, Cyndi Hill, as a new kindergartener.\u00a0 The school that simply adores Mary Clare and gathered to pray all decked out in pink on March 30, 2011.\u00a0 So many memories in this little school.<\/p>\n You know how you just know?\u00a0 The sound of someone’s voice is such a tell-all.\u00a0 I know I’m not the first person he’s had to give these type of results to before.\u00a0 I may be the one millionth for all I know.\u00a0 But, I think it’s just human insight to know.\u00a0 To feel it.\u00a0 We can all read between the lines, between the words.\u00a0 As he began to tell me what I feared most, my mind wasn’t on the specifics of numbers, oncologist information or well-wishes, it was in a state of shock.\u00a0 I think it took my brain a few minutes to digest it all.\u00a0 Did I really hear that?\u00a0 Maybe I’m misunderstanding.<\/p>\n Dr. Sweatman was honest, straightforward and very reassuring.\u00a0 He explained that my Oncotype DX results were not low (no benefits of having chemo) nor were they in the high range (straight to chemo).\u00a0 I’m in the intermediate range, but given all of my results, thorough information and questionable onset, Dr. S feels chemo will be what is best.\u00a0 Since chemotherapy it is, surgery will be postponed until after chemotherapy.\u00a0 It’s likely that chemo will shrink the tumor making surgery less invasive.\u00a0 Fingers crossed.\u00a0 He referred me to Dr. Butler in Columbia with SC Oncology Associates, who is also on the boob board. Dr. Sweatman “warned me” that Dr. Butler isn’t a “warm and fuzzy” doctor.\u00a0 He’s very honest and straightforward in his approach.\u00a0 “Now, don’t be alarmed,” which was all hysterical coming from Dr. S, when so many others “warned” me the same about him<\/em>.\u00a0 It was nice little jewel, this inside joke.\u00a0 It made me laugh when I so wanted to cry.<\/p>\n Originally, he scheduled a surgery date of September 7.\u00a0 I didn’t “pen-in” this date because I knew it could change.\u00a0 It was a tentative date of a lumpectomy.\u00a0 I would have had my lumpectomy followed by radiation treatment.\u00a0 That would have been the best case scenario.\u00a0 But, just like I always tell Mary Clare, “you can’t always get what you want.”\u00a0 So, September 7 surgery date has been swiped.<\/p>\n Mel and I will head to our favorite capital city tomorrow morning to meet the man who will juice me up with a cancer cocktail plan.\u00a0 I have the utmost respect for Dr. Sweatman and I just feel that what he is doing is exactly what I need.\u00a0 He said Dr. Butler is the best, so I’m going with that, non-fuzzy and all. Hopefully, we’ll have Chemo 101, get a time frame and schedule and possibly a ball park idea of a new surgery date.<\/p>\n Not what I was hoping, but after a quick and very therapeutic three minute cry with a few friends at THA, (Dr. S called just as I was heading into carpool) and a few laughs about a pink wig and sign-up sheet for those who wanted to drive me to treatments, I realize God has given me all I need to get through this:\u00a0 lots of laughter and tons of love.<\/p>\n At 3:00,\u00a0 I made another realization.\u00a0 I had four giggly girls staring at me who needed to get changed and rushed through homework so I could haul them to dance by 4:00!\u00a0 Dance, Mexican, Wal-Mart run (sans girls-once Mel came home from a late meeting) and I’m home.\u00a0 Life as usual carries on.\u00a0 This will not keep me down.\u00a0 I’ve had my three minute cry and I’m done.<\/p>\n Tonight, I’m bracing myself for my non- fuzzy oncologist, Dr. Butler.<\/p>\n I’m ready.<\/p>\n \n \n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This morning around 10ish I received a call from Dr. Brooks, the geneticist on the “boob board,” with my BRCA 1\/BRCA 2 genetic testing.\u00a0 (Remember, this is the genetic study that checked “me” not “my tumor.”\u00a0 Drum roll please……Genetically, I’m gold.\u00a0 (Well, in the area of breast and\/or ovarian cancer anyway.)\u00a0 This means I’m not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6490"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6493,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions\/6493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}