Thursday, June 27, 2013

MY KU CANCER CENTER VISIT~

I went for my yearly mammogram follow up on June 25th. I have be diligent on all the followup appointments since my bilateral mastectomy on Decemeber 9, 2011. I arrived at 9:45...my scheduled appointment time. Put my robe on and sat in the waiting room with lots of other women who I assume had been through some of the same scenario that I had been and maybe even worse. They called me back to do the mammogram. I elected to have the 3D mammogram as I did last year. It cost extra, but it gives the radiologist a better look at the breast. They did 3 separate pics. I went back out and waited for a long while...knowing I had an appointment with my Dr. at 10:30....that time came and went, but finally the nurse came and told me to change into my regular clothes and go back to see Dr. McGinnis. So I did, and while I was waiting, another nurse came and told me I had to go back to imaging for another mammogram. I went back and they took another pic of the middle of my chest. I went back out and waited.... getting a little nervous at this point. About 30 minutes later...the nurse came to the waiting room and told me that they wanted to do an ultrasound. She told me to go get a bite to eat and the Dr. of Radiology wanted to to the ultrasound at 1pm. I went to lunch and arrived back promptly to have the ultrasound. Thinking to myself that my blood pressure must be skyrocketing by this point. Two ladies, one an intern and the other a radiologist, looked at the spot they saw on the mammogram. Then they said to wait and they would have the Dr. of radiology come back and look if he needed to. Well, about 15 minutes later, the Dr. of Radiology came in the tiny ultrasound room and showed me the spot he was concerned about. A mass at 2:00 measuring about 8 mm involving the chest wall. The assessment was a birad 4:suspicious. They told me I was going to have to have a biopsy, an ultrasound guided biopsy. I went on to see Dr. McGinnis afterwords and my blood pressure was 195/111. Dr. McGinnis said not to worry, so we shall see.   I am scheduled for the biopsy on July 2, 2011. Feeling positive right now, but knowing that the nuclear grade of the cancer I had was high which means it was more aggressive. So, I am ready to face the results, good or bad and do what is necessary! Right now, I have been cancer free for 1 1/2 years.