Sorry it’s been a little while. On top of my own personal storm, Hurricane Matthew thought it was an appropriate time to visit my current home town. We stayed around, and watched the nation’s oldest city get battered by wind and washed away by overflowing bays and oceans. Fortunately, we are far enough inland that we only saw some strong winds and lots and lots of rain at our house along with a few stray roof shingles taking off.
Okay enough storm talk. So as I revealed in my last blog the tumor and cancer was not as straight forward as I was first told. Knowing that chemo was now going to be required and additional surgery, it became apparent that I needed to look into finding treatment closer to home. I also needed to think about my surgery options. It probably took me all of 45 minutes after my post-op appointment to decide I wanted the full on double mastectomy.
It is really the principal of the matter, if you come after the queen (me) you will be executed. And so these traitors on my chest must go. I did actually take time to think over this decision, based on my pathology report, I was looking at a right mastectomy anyway. I also didn’t want to have to worry if the left one was a sleeper and was going to exact its revenge once I terminated its sister, and potentially have to go through another surgery at a later time.
With my mind made up I began contacting and researching hospitals in my area and the metro area. One hospital I contacted said it would be 3-5 business days to even process the appointment request, which is not really terrible I guess, but they then emailed me, well past 3-5 business days later and basically stated that they were going to have to actually contact my insurance company by phone to verify, and therefore could not schedule me until they had an opportunity to do that. Uhm… under “reason for care” I put cancer, not a rash, not low back pain, but cancer. I feel like maybe that’s the type of diagnosis that you get somebody on the phone the same day to do insurance verification for, just saying. Needless to say, I will not be getting treatment there.
The oncologist and staff I am working with now are a great group of people. I felt really at ease with them, and they seem to be at the top of their game. I prayed that I would have some kind of confirmation that I was in the right place before I met with them. Not to mention I adore my nurse navigator, she is the person who is my go to for questions and support. She stayed throughout my consultation and then at the end reviewed what the doctor had gone over with me and asked if I had any questions. As she got ready to leave she hugged me and said, “Alright baby-girl, we’re going to take good care of you. You keep up that positive attitude and call me if you need anything”. Now, this sentence is not really all that earth shattering, except that in my household my mom calls me “baby-girl” and when she addressed me that way, I felt the way you feel when you’ve traveled a long way to your parents’ house and you finally get inside and smell all the smells, and get to hug your parents’ necks. It’s the little things, but God knows what his girl needs and when she needs it.
Things are going to start moving pretty quickly here in the next few weeks and I will try and do a better job of keeping everyone up to date. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. ‘til next time.
flint & honey 