skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Hello everyone! So last week I finished my last chemo session. Hurray! So with radiation quickly approaching in the next few weeks, I had to decide what kind of reconstruction options were available. I traveled to San Antonio on Sunday to stay in a hotel and get up Monday to visit with some doctors who are highly skilled and knowledgable with the DIEP Flap procedure I have been researching. This is not an implant surgery. With most implant surgeries, the use of expanders are necessary and put in place before radiation. They are filled every two weeks to stretch the skin, and sometimes skin graphs are necessary. With this, often comes a great chance of infections & pain. Also, there is the inconvenience of an extra surgery. I had been researching a new procedure called the DIEP Flap, Deep Inferior Epigastric Perferator Flap. This is different than the TRAM flap, where the breast are rebuilt from an abdominal muscle and tissue that is "channeled" under the skin up to the breast. This often causes complications with sitting up and using the abdominal muscles which have been partially removed. This tissue is still attached to the lower part of the body, but runs like a "tram" under the skin so that it has blood supply. With the DIEP FLAP procedure, the belly fat and skin along with blood vessels from the groin area are completely detached with incisions across the lower tummy, like a tummy tuck procedure. The breast shapes are then cut out of the tissue and shaped. The surgeons work under a microscope using microsurgery techniques and reattach the arteries and veins using suture material barely visible to the naked eye. The surgery is long and tedious and requires highly skilled surgeons. Currently there are about 40-45 surgeons in country performing this procedure and 5 of them are at a facility in San Antonio, Texas. They are the Plastic Reconstructive & Microsurgery Associates. They perform over 500 a year. If you google "diep flap San Antonio" their site will come up in the top few.
There are many benefits to this procedure. First of all, no surgery for expanders. This procedure uses your own natural living body tissue and because of this, their is little risk of infection or rejection. The surgeons are moving healthy, non-radiated tissue up to the chest area. The appearance is more natural looking than implants, and you get a "tummy tuck" with a much flatter, attractive appearance left in the abdominal region. The abdominal muscles are left in tact and remain strong. So it was worth the trip to San Antonio to get all this nailed down. Insurance of course has to be approved, but they don't seem to think it is a problem. This group of doctors do not "balance bill" what the insurance company won't pay, which is a big plus for me. I have heard that standard reconstruction surgeries can cost in the range of $90,000. A friend of Kevin's said that is what theirs cost to the insurance company. His wife had a Tram flap procedure done on one side and an implant procedure on the other due to the burns from radiation on one side. I am sure this DIEP Flap procedure is well over $100,000. That is one of those things that you won't know until everything is said and done. It all depends on the rates negotiated with insurance companies. Thank God for our insurance. We found out today that they have paid out over $140,000 to date in medical payments. We also found out that I have a lifetime maximum benefit of $2,000,000.00. Two Million Dollars!!! Time to start praying that there are no recurrences with this cancer and no other major medical problems. That could add up really fast with scans and tests 2-3 times a year, and I have many years ahead of me that I will need medical coverage (I am thinking positive here).
There is only one doctor in all of Dallas/Fort Worth that is doing this procedure, but I feel more comfortable with a "team" of doctors who perform hundreds a year and have accountability to each other. The surgery is quicker with a minimum of two micro surgeons working at a time, so their is less time under general anesthesia. I was really impressed with the doctors and staff. Assuming everything is approved with the insurance, I will possibly have the first phase of reconstruction in November, about 8 weeks after radiation is finished. This is much sooner than we anticipated and it will depend on my healing from radiation. The second phase of the surgery is nipple reconstruction and any modifications needed. The last phase is tattooing the nipple color.
To all my blog followers, this is probably too much information. But to some who are facing these decisions and wondering about their options, I wanted to share this with you. After all the abuse my body has taken in the last few months, it is good to think about getting "rebuilt" to a new and improved me. In the meantime, I will be trying to shed about 30-40 pounds in the next 4 months before reconstruction so I can wake up from surgery with a new, healthier, fit me! Getting off these steroids will be wonderful, and I plan on starting Weight Watchers next week and getting to the pool at least Monday through Thursday. Being on a low-fat diet and exercising is crucial with survivors of triple negative breast cancer. It is the number one thing that increases the chances of keeping the cancer at bay after treatments are over. It is something I can control. So it is now not only about looking better and feeling better, but about staying alive and extending my years. Still love getting your comments and please join my blog by clicking "follow" on the right hand side of the page if you have not already. Until next time my friends...
Well friends, it has been one week since my 7th Taxol chemo took place. What does that mean? It means that I have exactly one week before my final chemo session happens. It will be almost exactly four months after my double mastectomy. These were four hard, long, educational months, months that give you a whole new outlook on life, love, family, and your health. Being diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer is definitely educational. Why? Because most people have never heard of it, or they can tell you very little about it. So the search is on...on to find everything out that one can about this nasty horrible disease. In a nutshell, I am going to enlighten you about what I have learned.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) affects women who are mostly under 40 years of age. The majority are African American young women, and several are Latino. Most will express mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which means a 70% chance of having breast cancer in one's lifetime and a 40% chance of having ovarian cancer. I myself am 42, Caucasian, and negative for either of the gene mutations....a rare breed so to speak. Very little is known about TNBC except that it does not express receptors for estrogen, progesterone, or HER2 like most breast cancer tumors. Tumors that are positive for these receptors are now more easily treated after normal therapies with drugs like Tamoxifen and Herceptin and others that block the hormones from feeding the tumors. TNBC tumors are not fed by these hormones and there are no drugs to follow up with after chemo or radiation. Chemo and radiation are the only current treatments for TNBC survivors. TNBC has a higher recurrence rate, a higher mortality rate, and a much greater chance for distant metastasis. This kind of cancer will often spread to the brain, lungs, liver, or bones. The time frame for metastasis often peaks between years two and three. These years are crucial. Once a metastasis-free time period of 5 years has passed, one is virtually out of danger and considered cured. These tumors are rapidly growing, very aggressive types. Their cells often have up to a 60% chance of leaking out and looking for someplace to land and grow into more tumors in other areas of the body (stage iv). Chemo will fail in 50% of these cases and the disease will recur or advance to other areas.
So next week is my 7th chemo since I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. I have 8 total and now it is time to start thinking about radiation. This past Thursday we went for cancer counseling, blood work, and then to meet with the radiation doctor. I still don't know what those doctors are called....not a radiologist....hmmm....I don't know. So we met with her and she said my case was controversial ( oh how I love being controversial:) That normally when they see negative nodes and there was a double mastectomy they may not radiate. However, since I am relatively young and my tumors were not ONE but FIVE and two of them being 3 cm., and because I am triple negative with grade 3 (the worst) tumors...she feels like we should. She left the room to consult with my surgeon who actually removed the tumors along with the breast. She too agreed that I should be radiated to help prevent recurrence. Even in the last six months, studies have shown that younger women benefit more from radiation...bettering their chances of survival and not having a recurrence. Triple negative has higher recurrence rates than other types of breast cancer. So I have come this far and gone against pretty much everything I believe in when it comes to accepting this modern day toxic chemical torture....so why not? Just radiate me...and lets get it over with. If I can put up with this chemo, radiation should be a breeze! They were talking about doing 30 radiation treatments, but now 25 seems to be the number. So here I go. I am going to let them have their way with me...finish me off with a scoop of radiation and a cherry on top. But here is the deal...I am doing this and "doing my part", but I know who is really in control. If God wants me to be healed, I will be healed, radiation or not. I have heard people say that it is not God's will for me to be sick. I will be honest. I am not quite sure how that works, but I do know that I have left this situation up to the Lord. I know that he takes all things and works them for good. I also know there are a lot of people who have died and completely trusted in the Lord. I don't think they died because of their lack of faith. We all must die sometime...our bodies will give out eventually. I don't want my time to be now or anytime soon. However, I am not afraid. Living is much more scary and tough. However, it is a challenge that I want to face. I want to go through the ups and downs of life. I want to hold my grandkids and watch my husband grow old, fat, and bald (hehehe ....sweet justice). I want to live to experience all that I can. However, if my life was meant to be short for some reason...I just want to say that I have married the man of my dreams; I have the best daughters in the world, I love my career and I built my dream salon. I have the best friends and co-workers I could ever ask for, the best in-laws and family....how could I ever feel short changed in life? Ok so I am having a good day today, and I can think positive.
Susan, one of my co-workers has a husband that has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His name is Jerry. Please pray for them. My heart goes out to them for all that they must face. To my singingwarrior blog follower....I hate this cancer too! I hate it with a passion and I wish it would show its ugly face in person... the little demon. I wish I could meet it in a dark alley and take a baseball bat to its head and beat the hell out of it too! I am sorry about your friends who have been diagnosed. As a friend or a loved one of a cancer patient...the feeling is one of helplessness I am sure. Sometimes I think it is harder on the caretakers and loved ones that it is on the cancer patient. But all is not lost singingwarrior, I know you are out there praying for me and many others. That means the world to me. It makes me want to "sing" and gives me strength to be a "warrior" knowing that I have prayer warriors out there fighting for me. It just makes me want to fight harder, and trust me...I need that motivation every now and then (because this is getting old.) So thank you, thank you for your prayers and your words of encouragement. Like always, I love to read your comments. I will post them as soon as I read them. Until next time my friends...
