After meeting the Doc . . .

GG

This will be long and disjointed post covering: our appointment, the doctor, next steps, our feelings, and telling our kids.

Short answer.  Jill has an aggressive cancer that would be called stage 2 as it is somewhere around 4cm in size and has traveled to her lymph nodes.  The doc is confident in a treatment plan of chemo, break, surgery, and then radiation.  Approx 7 months of treatment is the guess at this point.  We are confident in the doc and were impressed with the time he took with us and how he explained the course of treatment and the reasons behind it.  The kids know and at this point seem okay with it.

Long answer . . . this will be all over the place.  Sorry.

We had our appt this afternoon.  In a nutshell, we talked to a nurse at first who looked over the files.  She explained the game plan.  The doc would come in and talk to us briefly, then jill will take off her top.  Then he would come back in and do a manual exam.  Then he would leave to look at the films and test results.  Then he would come back.  This all took a while.  He confirmed both lumps manually.  When he came back he literally probably spent an hour with us.  Drew on about 4 pieces of paper with all kinds of drawings.  He answered everything, often before we asked it.  We really liked him.  Jill, Pam and I were all there and thought he was great.  We were there late enough that the place was closed and he had to let us out.

The tumor is aggressive, but we kind of knew that as it is a decent size and was not there a year ago.  And is has spread.  He made one thing clear - aggressive does not = outcome.  It does, however, drive the treatment.  

Tomorrow Jill is getting some tests to check to see if it is anywhere else in her body.  Well, lungs, kidney and bones.  

He explained to us that we know this cancer is travelling as it went to the lymph nodes.  

To treat Jill, the plan is to do chemo starting next week.  They are going to leave the tumors as they are, as they are needed to watch progress.  Basically, we need to see the tumors shrink from chemo.  This means that any place else it has gone (especially if they are too small to show up in the scans tomorrow) it will shrink and kill too.  We will get it tested in a month so see if they shrank.  The doc believes that it will shrink a lot even in one month.  If not, we will try a new mix of drugs.  

The tentative plan is chemo for 3 months.  Then one month of recovery.  Then surgery.  Then radiation.  If she test positive for the breast cancer gene, she will have a double mastectomy for sure.  If not, it will probably just be a lumpectomy on the one breast.

We have our first consultation with oncologist on Thursday.  More info then.

I am taking the next few days off to go with Jill. 

We told the kids and they took it much better than expected, but I am sure the worst is yet to come.  I think Holly took a great deal of comfort in being included and being able to be part of something as a family.  Lauren . . . well, she does not really get it, but that makes sense.  

Over the coming weeks and months I am sure we will have tremendous ups and downs, but for tonight we feel actually fairly well.  We have a great support group around us in family and friends.  We really like the doc so far and chemo will be here in Noblesville.  The other location of the oncologist is at the same place where our breast surgeon is, which is right where I work. That means I know people at all places we will be (from my time at Riverview and now at St.V's).

We are going to try to make the best of the holidays.  I am sure we will.  Things will just have to be a little different.  Thoughts and prayers are what we want right now.  We need nothing right now - like food or dinners or taking the kids or helping around the house, etc.  We will ask when we need something.