Good news. My Mom only has to have one mastectomy, on the right side. The left side is benign. She will meet with the plastic surgeon on March 8th and go for surgery March 30th. She will spend the night in the hospital (possibly two nights,) and come home with a drainage tube and a "place holder" breast. What that means is that they will not be doing the reconstruction after the mastectomy until she is healed, instead they will put in a temporary "place holder" to keep the skin where they want it.
After two to three weeks the drainage tube will come out but she's still not allowed to do anything. Not for a total of four weeks. Then she will have a few smaller surgeries to finish the reconstruction. In the long run, those reconstruction surgeries should seem like cake after the mastectomy.
On a side note, my morning sickness is almost completely gone! My appetite has returned and now I'm finding myself hungry all the time. I have my next OB appointment the first week of March. I've declined doing the genetic testing. Tony and I don't have any known history of genetic diseases and it really just seemed like one more thing to worry about. At this point everything looks really good so why find something to worry about?
Showing posts with label pregnant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pregnant. Show all posts
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Worrying about breasts. Mine and others....
So I'm pregnant with a singleton! At this moment I am nine weeks and five days, my due date should be somewhere from August 30 to September 1. Apparently there is a difference of opinion based on the method you use when calculating an IVF pregnancy and all three resources that my OB uses give a different date. Oh well, how many people actually give birth on their due date?
I debated about continuing this blog, as it was to be about getting pregnant not being pregnant, but its therapeutic and I definitely need a little therapy right now (more on that later.) Lately its hard to find the energy to do anything other than work and sleep. Fatigue is definitely a side effect that I am feeling right now! I haven't really had an easy time of weeks five through now. Nausea has been a constant companion, and vomiting an occasional enemy. I tend to fight the urge to vomit though and most of the time I win.
Despite not vomiting much, I've lost weight. At least five pounds. Nothing sounds or smells good. I made dinner a couple of weeks ago and I swear it smelled like mildew. Tony said it didn't, that it was just in my nose, but that's what it smelled like to me. I found that I could eat cold foods much easier than hot so that was a trick for a week or so. The last four days I've been feeling better though. More and more foods sound good and taste good. And my stomach is a little steadier. I'm hoping this means that morning, noon, and night sickness is almost out the door.
In addition to fatigue and nausea, I've also had a permanently runny nose and sneezing. This is apparently a pregnancy side effect too. Let me tell you, I am sick of sneezing and constantly blowing. My nose is so dry I keep getting little bloody noses throughout the day. Hopefully this one gets better as time goes on.
Another weird thing is constant, incessant, diarrhea. Sure most women end up complaining about constipation through their whole pregnancy. Well apparently I'm special and have the opposite problem. And up until today I didn't know what if anything I could take for it which equaled a fun time for me. Thank GOD Imodium is on my approved drug list!
I had a consult with a nurse at my OB's office today. It was basically, here have some free crap and let's get your medical history. Friday I have my actual first OB's appointment with a completely different Dr. C. I'm going to mention the diarrhea to her and see what she says. I honestly wonder if its not partially due to the metformin they have me on.
Friday is also the last day of my medicinal supplementation of progesterone. First I was on the shot, lately I've been on Prometrium 200 mg, one capsule vaginally twice daily. While I definitely like it more than the shots, the stuff is messy and I won't be sad to see it go. Just a little nervous, truthfully.
Alright so that's the whats what in my pregnancy so far. I'm not too far in so there isn't much to report other than seeing the heartbeat on the ultrasound was the most amazing feeling in the world. Friday I might be able to hear the heartbeat! I have ultrasound pictures, but honestly right now it doesn't look like much. The last ultrasound I had was two weeks ago and I swear the baby looked like the side view of a gummy bear! Large head, tiny arm and leg buds, and so sweet!
So on to the title of this post. Worrying about breasts. Mine. I'm a 38 DD. So far I haven't noticed any breast changes and had very minor tenderness. I worry that this will not stay the case. Everything I've read says that they will get bigger by an average of two cup sizes. What does that make me then? A quadruple D. Is there such a thing? And where am I going to find a bra that freaking huge? A tent store? Circus People R Us? Not to mention, what is my back going to feel like after lugging those mammoths around for a couple months?
But really, my breasts aren't the ones that worry me. The breasts that are foremost in my mind right now are my Mom's. She was just diagnosed with invasive ductile carcinoma. Breast cancer. Its small. She's had yearly mammograms so she caught it early. The "lump" is so small you can't even feel it yet. Last week we met with the breast surgeon and while it is serious, it looked like it would involve an out patient surgery called a lumpectomy and six weeks of radiation. Probably no chemotherapy required.
We still don't know about chemotherapy. It doesn't look likely as a CT scan did not show lymph node involvement, but only surgically removing a few for testing will tell for sure. But the out patient surgery is out of the picture now. Her CT scan showed more spots in her right breast and possibly one in her left. So right now she will have to have a mastectomy on her right breast and biopsy's to determine if the left one will need to be taken as well.
The mastectomy involves an overnight hospital stay and two and a half weeks of at home care of a drainage tube. If she opts for reconstructive surgery she will have to have two separate surgeries. I hope she opts for it. Especially if she only loses one breast. If that happens and she doesn't opt for reconstruction she will have to wear a prosthetic. A bra won't stay up with one breast.
We will know more next week.
I am in a state of shock.
We have no history of cancer, let alone breast cancer. Sure my Mom's Dad died of cancer, but he was a painter back in the days of lead based paints. That surely doesn't count. But hello, one in eight women get breast cancer regardless of family history. But why in the hell does that have to include my Mom? I'm seriously pissed off with fate right now.
I debated about continuing this blog, as it was to be about getting pregnant not being pregnant, but its therapeutic and I definitely need a little therapy right now (more on that later.) Lately its hard to find the energy to do anything other than work and sleep. Fatigue is definitely a side effect that I am feeling right now! I haven't really had an easy time of weeks five through now. Nausea has been a constant companion, and vomiting an occasional enemy. I tend to fight the urge to vomit though and most of the time I win.
Despite not vomiting much, I've lost weight. At least five pounds. Nothing sounds or smells good. I made dinner a couple of weeks ago and I swear it smelled like mildew. Tony said it didn't, that it was just in my nose, but that's what it smelled like to me. I found that I could eat cold foods much easier than hot so that was a trick for a week or so. The last four days I've been feeling better though. More and more foods sound good and taste good. And my stomach is a little steadier. I'm hoping this means that morning, noon, and night sickness is almost out the door.
In addition to fatigue and nausea, I've also had a permanently runny nose and sneezing. This is apparently a pregnancy side effect too. Let me tell you, I am sick of sneezing and constantly blowing. My nose is so dry I keep getting little bloody noses throughout the day. Hopefully this one gets better as time goes on.
Another weird thing is constant, incessant, diarrhea. Sure most women end up complaining about constipation through their whole pregnancy. Well apparently I'm special and have the opposite problem. And up until today I didn't know what if anything I could take for it which equaled a fun time for me. Thank GOD Imodium is on my approved drug list!
I had a consult with a nurse at my OB's office today. It was basically, here have some free crap and let's get your medical history. Friday I have my actual first OB's appointment with a completely different Dr. C. I'm going to mention the diarrhea to her and see what she says. I honestly wonder if its not partially due to the metformin they have me on.
Friday is also the last day of my medicinal supplementation of progesterone. First I was on the shot, lately I've been on Prometrium 200 mg, one capsule vaginally twice daily. While I definitely like it more than the shots, the stuff is messy and I won't be sad to see it go. Just a little nervous, truthfully.
Alright so that's the whats what in my pregnancy so far. I'm not too far in so there isn't much to report other than seeing the heartbeat on the ultrasound was the most amazing feeling in the world. Friday I might be able to hear the heartbeat! I have ultrasound pictures, but honestly right now it doesn't look like much. The last ultrasound I had was two weeks ago and I swear the baby looked like the side view of a gummy bear! Large head, tiny arm and leg buds, and so sweet!
So on to the title of this post. Worrying about breasts. Mine. I'm a 38 DD. So far I haven't noticed any breast changes and had very minor tenderness. I worry that this will not stay the case. Everything I've read says that they will get bigger by an average of two cup sizes. What does that make me then? A quadruple D. Is there such a thing? And where am I going to find a bra that freaking huge? A tent store? Circus People R Us? Not to mention, what is my back going to feel like after lugging those mammoths around for a couple months?
But really, my breasts aren't the ones that worry me. The breasts that are foremost in my mind right now are my Mom's. She was just diagnosed with invasive ductile carcinoma. Breast cancer. Its small. She's had yearly mammograms so she caught it early. The "lump" is so small you can't even feel it yet. Last week we met with the breast surgeon and while it is serious, it looked like it would involve an out patient surgery called a lumpectomy and six weeks of radiation. Probably no chemotherapy required.
We still don't know about chemotherapy. It doesn't look likely as a CT scan did not show lymph node involvement, but only surgically removing a few for testing will tell for sure. But the out patient surgery is out of the picture now. Her CT scan showed more spots in her right breast and possibly one in her left. So right now she will have to have a mastectomy on her right breast and biopsy's to determine if the left one will need to be taken as well.
The mastectomy involves an overnight hospital stay and two and a half weeks of at home care of a drainage tube. If she opts for reconstructive surgery she will have to have two separate surgeries. I hope she opts for it. Especially if she only loses one breast. If that happens and she doesn't opt for reconstruction she will have to wear a prosthetic. A bra won't stay up with one breast.
We will know more next week.
I am in a state of shock.
We have no history of cancer, let alone breast cancer. Sure my Mom's Dad died of cancer, but he was a painter back in the days of lead based paints. That surely doesn't count. But hello, one in eight women get breast cancer regardless of family history. But why in the hell does that have to include my Mom? I'm seriously pissed off with fate right now.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
I'm PREGNANT!
Yup, I'm pregnant. Queue the tears of joy... I went for my follow up from my hyperstimulation, which I feel much better by the way, and as soon as we walked into the office Dr. C said "Congratulations, you're pregnant! I never get to tell anyone." I'm so happy, but it does feel a little surreal right now. We will find out in two weeks if its one or two babies. My Mom is convinced it will be twins...
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