Part 4

After I seen Dr Chow on the 4th. It was the following week I had appointment for a Bone Scan on the 11th of Aug. And had appointment with a Dr. Bayouth on the 12th of Aug. to talk about putting in a port. And then on the 16th of Aug. had appointment for a CT Scan. They really hit me hard with all those appointments at once. Needless to say my work was not happy about it. But what can you say it was beyond my control. Sure I could have reschedule them all and give them a 10 days request off. But didn't want to why should when you have cancer you want to get it taken care of and get things rolling why wait.

On Aug. the 18th had appointment with the Oncologist Dr Oommen. La Sha and Jonathan went with me to that appointment. This is what he had to say after he examine me. My breast is 90% cancer. We would first try chemo. My chemo was set up to be done every other week. The day after chemo I go back and get a shot. The shot was to bring back up my blood cells to keep from getting any infections. The following week after chemo I had lab done. It seem like it was something every week. He also explain that the chemo was to get the tumor smaller before surgery. Just for the fact that the tumor was so big that if they remove it now there would not be enough skin to close up the incision. When I go back to see him on chemo day he would measure tumor. If the chemo was not doing its job then we have a back up plan Hormone Therapy. He wanted to get aggressive with the cancer first by using chemo.

Stay tune for my first chemo treatment.

Stressed Spelled
Backward Is
Desserts. Turn
Your Stress Into
Something Good.

Dr. Results

Went to the doctor today since I have been on hormone threphy. It measure it and it went from 13 cm to 12 cm. So the new treament is working. He said it has gotten smaller and not so hard. So that is a good thing. To me it is the same size but it measure smaller. The lymph nodes have gotten smallar also. I can tell that they have gotten smaller. They are hard to find. I go to Dr Chow on 11/10 that morning and go back to Dr OOmmen on 11/10 at 1pm. So by the time I go back to see him and her it should be even smaller.

Great News!

Part 3

So waited from July 2nd to the 8th to find out if it was cancer. To me that was a long wait. Just for the fact that it was a holiday weekend which delay things. I started calling back that following Tuesday. The results were not in yet. Then call again on Thursday and they told me that they should have already been in so the nurse call the lab. The lab told her that it would be Friday for sure when they are in. Call early Friday morning and got the results. They told me that the left breast was benign and that the right one was as they thought cancer. I ask about the lymph nodes and she said they were involved. I was surprise but not to surprise since I suspected any way. I ask her what they stage was and she inform me they didn't know until surgery. I ask her what kind it was and she told me Infiltrating/Invasive Lobular. I ask about the growth and she said my was a 2 which meant moderate, not to bad. First thing I did was call Moncrief and left them know that it was cancer. They told me to call The Tarrant County Health Department. I call them and they set me up appointment to come in and apply for Medicaid. Now in the mean time I still have not heard from JPS to see if it got their discount program. I went in on the 13th of July to apply for medicaid. They said they were going to do a fast track Medicaid. That is were it will only take 2 weeks to find out if I approve instead of the 40 days it usually takes. I was told to call them about on July 24th even if I don't here any thing about it. Then guess what I got a letting in the mail that I got JPS. But didn't get the discount program. I only got their regular program. I would still have to paid a co-pay. Don't get me wrong that's not bad at all. But I would have to pay 20 percent of any hospital bill or any kind of treatment. Can't do that I don't make enough money today specially if it comes to surgery. So I waited to see if I got medicaid. On July 22th I letter in the mail saying I got medicaid. I was so happy and relief. I call JPS and drop the program. I had to go to the nearest Tarrant County Health Department and pick up a temp medicaid card. Take it back up to the main office and show them I had medicaid so that the mammogram and biopsy would be paid for. It was on July 29th that I got my July medicaid in the mail. I call Moncrief again and told them I got medicaid. The next step they said for to find a breast surgeon. They gave me a list of several names on the phone. I pick one out and call. I pick out Dr. Chow and they schedule me appointment for August 4th. This is were it all begins.

August 4th. La Sha and my sister Shelly went with me to this appointment. They call me back first did vital signs and ask alot of questions. Then Dr Chow came in and talk with me and ask question then she examine me. When she was done she said she would meet me in the conference room. I went to go get La Sha and Shelly we went in there and Dr. Chow explain everything. She got a piece a paper and as she was talking she was drawing on the paper and writing everything down. She told me what the goals were. The were to 1. local control and then 2. system control. Which means to do medical chem and that means to do chemo. Then we would do surgery and then radiation. I will do 4 months of chemo every other week. Then I will do Surgery and then 6 weeks of radiation every day. Dr Chow told me I was not candidate for Breast Conservation Surgery. I would have to have Modified Radical Mastectomy. La Sha ask her about the left breast. She said it would not be unreasonable to remove it also. Just for the fact that I have had problems with it also. She said that they would set me up to have a Bone scan and Pet scan and set me up with a Oncologist.

Still tune for Part 4

Therefore, I choose for today:

Peace and not anxiety,
Good and not evil,
Love and not hate,
Gain and not loss.

When today becomes tomorrow, this day will be gone forever, leaving it its place what I choose today. I, alone, can choose to use today wisely-

Cancer Can't Rob Me Of This Day!

Part 2

So I still have not heard any thing. I have a client that i care for at work and i was telling his mate what was going on. The next day when i went to work she told me that she stay up until 2am looking up all kinds of info and phone numbers on breast cancer. I belive that she is my angle. So Monday I started calling Moncreif Breast Center and left several message and kept calling every day until I got a hold of someone.

It was July 1 they call me back and i had appointment that afternoon for breast examine. After the exmaine they set me up appointment on the 2nd for a mamogram. La Sha and I went to the mamogram and sonagram that morning. During my sonagram the tech had call back the doctor. And as he was looking at the screen i was watching his face. His expresion was not a good one. He seem very concern. He sat me up and said this looks like the start of breast cancer. He i can't be for sure without a biophsy. He look at the tech and said lets jump on this and work her in for the biophsy this afternoon. He said my breast tissues are really dens and he needed to do the bio to be sure. The tech schedule me to come back at 1:30 to have 3 biophsy done.

Went back for the bio they did one on the right side and one on the left and one under my arm where the lymp node were. I ask how they did it. Explain they would deaded the area. Then insert this needle and as they are watching on the screen they will hit the part of tissue they wanted to cut. Once he was in there all i felt was him pushing and it was a hard push but didn't hurt. Then he said ok fixing to cut. He counted to 3 and then click like pulling a trigger and then he took the needle out and put the tissure in a speciman jar. After that he said he is going to put in a marking, like a clip just to mark the spot that he took. He did that to both breast. Then he took a needle and took so fluid from my lymp nodes. I ask him about the clips if they would come out and he said not unless they would do surgury. He said the left one probley would alwasy stay in cause more then likly it was ok. Then he said "the right one life I said before I really think it is cancer and if it comes back ok am going to insit that they do surgury to get more tissue out". After he was done he said I will call Moncreif and have them set you up with a breast surgeon. Thats how for sure it was cancer.

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is limited...

It can't cripple LOVE
It cannot shatter HOPE
It cannot corrode FAITH
It cannot destroy PEACE
It cannot kill FRIENDSHIP
It cannot suppress MEMORIES
It cannot silence COURAGE
It cannot invade THE SOUL
It cannot conquer THE SPIRIT
It cannot steal ETERNAL LIFE

Stay tune for part 3!

My Story!

This is the beginning of my story.
In April of 2010 I noticed a lump or knot, I call it a knot. In my right breast behind my nipple, off to the left side. I remember thinking that it was strange since it wasn't there before, but I have a lot of cyst so I figure it was just because I was having my monthly period. So just didn't give it too much concern, it will go away when I finish my period. Didn't give it no mind for the rest of the month.

May rolled around and it's that time again and the you know what was still there. Hard and a little bigger. I told my youngest daughter about it and she came to look at it. I ask her to feel of it and she said no I can see it. She told me I need to have it checked out. I told her I couldn't since I didn't have any insurance. Later on that month I was changing for bed one night and I noticed that the breast was taking a different shape. It looked like it was caving in under the Areola I thought that was strange. I text my youngest daughter and told her my breast was caving in. She said I got to come see this. She came down stairs and I showed her. She said "Mom you really need to have that checked out." By this time it has gotten harder and bigger. The nipple was really sticking out and the knot was really noticeable. Went to go visit my oldest daughter and showed her. She suggested that I wait and see if the knot is still there come June's month cycle.

Come June it was still there. So I knew it was not right and it should not be there and it was not going away. So what can I do? I had no insurance. I decided to apply for JPS Connection. I printed the application on line filled it out and gathered all the info i needed to fax it in. I waited, waited and waited never heard from them. I finally called and talked to the social worker that was handling my case and she said she needed a bank statement. That's hard to send when you don't have one. I went on line and look at my Ace statement and printed it out and faxed it in. Still heard nothing.

Continued at a later time stay tune for more!

IT IS NATIONAL BREAST MONTH

Stay tune as I tell my story coming up next week From the first time I found lump to present. I hope you all will read and understand the diesease.


Rhonda