Yesterday was a long day. Kevan and I drove to Nashville at 7AM for a 9AM doctor’s appointment. Well, I had remembered the time wrong and didn’t look at my handy dandy calendar that I had put together in Word. We didn’t need to be there until 10:45! I don’t know why I ignored my calendar. Duh! But, they said they would try to fit me in earlier. Their office was so busy they ran out of chairs and had to bring some in from the cafeteria. So, Kevan and I ended up leaving at the time our appointment was supposed to be to get some lunch. We were pretty excited since we LOVE Qdoba and there was one down the road. We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather that God blessed us with as we ate our yummy lunch.
When we returned to the office we were called in to meet with the occupational therapist. She went over all of the potential side effects to having a sentinel node biopsy. Mostly, we talked about Lymphedema. Since I have cancer in both breasts I have to have a couple lymph nodes removed from both sides to have tested. This will give my oncological surgeon more information while he is doing my mastectomy and he will know if it has spread to my lymph nodes. The PET scan didn’t show any cancer anywhere else, but it can only find masses of a certain size so I still have to have the biopsies done. So, she (the OT) went over all of the precautions I must now introduce into my life so that I won’t develop lymphedema. I won’t be able to fly without a compression sleep on both arms, can’t have blood taken out of my arms (will have to use my leg/foot), no blood pressure cuff on my arms (they will use my thigh) and I have to try not to hurt my arms in any way. No cat scratches, no working outside without gloves or sleeves, etc. Basically, I just need to make sure that I do not get an infection or hurt my arms in any way because this could cause excess fluid which could result in lymphedema.
The OT measured my arms and she will use the measurements to compare to my “after surgery arms” to see if there is any fluid building up and then she will check me about every 3 weeks. There are a few things that can be done to stop the lymphedema (therapy, draining, etc) so we will want to catch it early. The OT also gave me the cute crocheted chemo cap below. I’m not sure if I will be brave enough to wear it out of the house as I am a “plain” person who doesn’t wear bright colors or flowery things, but it is definitely very cute! We will see.
Then, the doctor did a quick ultrasound to see if he could find the mass that the PET scan revealed as cancerous on my other breast, but he couldn’t locate it. He was going to try to do a core biopsy to get a better idea of what type of cancer it was and to confirm it is cancer, but all he saw was fibroedema and cysts. So, no luck there. We will have to wait until after the surgery (when they do the full biopsy) to find out more. The nurse practitioner gave me my Oncotype DX Score. It is a test they run on the biopsied tissue (from my lumpectomy on April 3) to determine the aggressiveness of the cancer as well as the recurrence rate. My score was 70. Which means, “The cancer has a high risk of recurrence, and the benefits of chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer are likely to be greater than the risks of side effects.” So, this helps to confirm the 6 rounds of chemo I will be receiving and why I will have to go through it.
First, she pinned my hair and put this “wig sock” on my head. <Kevan took the pictures with his phone and he was trying to hide the fact that he was taking pictures so she wouldn’t tell him not to so they aren’t great pictures…sorry!> I look TERRIBLE. I guess this gives me an idea of how I will look soon.
You'll look great no matter what color or what wig-style you pick baby! We'll have fun on Friday! Mom
Jayde, I actually liked the middle one – it look alot like your hair but shorter.Judy
All of them are good looks on you or either you make them look good. The bangs are different but nice and it does look a lot like your natural color. Maybe I could use it when you get well.Willie Dale
You look great in all Jayde. But the bangs look awesome on you!! 😀 You look very young ( 21 on 22 year old) and very cute too. :)Sandhya
Jayde, my daughter, Jocey, and I read your blog together. The first thing she said to me was, "She's gorgeous!!", which is totally accurate. All of the wigs looked good on you, but I agree with Willie Dale that the bangs are a really different/cute touch and it's YOU that make the wigs look good–not the other way around. Dante and I are also in agreement that you might want to pass them along to WD–we'd love to see him as a blonde! We can see him now with his long, flowing blonde hair blowing in the wind (in Sheri's face) on the scooter.I've had some really beautiful patients in the past who purchased real hair wigs that were such high quality you never knew at all. They start with the basic wig and style it just the way you want. The one thing you didn't mention is whether or not you have asked about insurance coverage. Almost all of the insurance companies we dealt with covered it as long as the doctor wrote a script for it. Love you both so much–Joy