It’s been 11 days since my final chemo, and I’m  starting to feel better. I can function on a normal night’s sleep (without sleep aids like melatonin or Advil PM) and only one small, hour-long (or so) nap in the afternoon. This is in contrast to last week’s 20+ hours of sleep a day. I can walk further distances without my oxygen dropping, but there’s still a way to go to build back my stamina. Taste is coming back; bone pain is gone; the neuropathy on my right side is the same (ugh).

I’m slowly crossing off the last few tasks prior to surgery – I have a few more appointments and tests before I can schedule the surgery date.

I meet with the plastic surgeon next week. Even with a lumpectomy, there could be reconstruction and shaping necessary, but I have a mind-block about seeing a PLASTIC SURGEON. I’ve put off scheduling the consultation for weeks. While any reconstruction would be the result of a medical issue, the thought of walking into a plastic surgeon’s office just seems…icky and vain. I have images of sitting in the waiting room among supermodels seeking ginormous boobs and lip injections or the Human Barbie Doll looking for her fifth nose job and butt lift. It’s my personal mental block, and I hope the visit next week puts that to rest.

But the BEST NEWS involves the mammogram and ultrasound I had yesterday. The mammogram was fairly routine and quick. But it took more than an hour in the ultrasound room because the tech couldn’t find the tumors. She eventually called the doctor to come in. The doc COULDN’T find them either. Finally, after much searching, pulling up the images from December and April to compare “landforms” in my breast tissue, and MORE searching, the doc finally found the clips that were placed during the biopsy. The tumors are so small now that the doc couldn’t measure them. They’ve changed from football-shaped masses with tentacle-like things in all directions (December) to smaller eyeball-shaped masses with “cat eye” tails on each end (April) to small, narrow, flat masses (now). The doc explained that given the current shape, what’s left is most likely scar tissue from the biopsy and/or the breast filling in the spaces left from the tumors. But basically, the tumors (the cancer) are GONE, at least the masses aren’t “cancer-like” on the ultrasound. The masses don’t look like cancer anymore. Six months of chemo worked! Of course, we won’t know anything for sure until surgery, but the images were so positive that the tech, doc and I exchanged high fives in the ultrasound room. Can’t wait to get the thoughts of the oncologist and surgeon on this latest imagery.

Given the decrease of the tumors, I’m comfortable now with the choice to have a lumpectomy. Just have to get through the plastic surgery appointment…