I Flunked the test---Yippee!

October 30, 2007

Hi there,
Apparently it's true the third time is the charm! I saw Dr. Koufman last Tuesday and the good news is in! The excision margins are now all clear! Yippee! Line up the raspberry martinis.

On Friday, Dr. Lange aka Leon Redbone, my oncologist, called with the news that I'd flunked the recurrence test, Oncotyping, which means I got a low recurrence score! Faboo news! It's the best test I ever flunked and I did it without revealing any of my prodigious deficits; just my tumor's un-prodigious genes, thankfully! It means that there’s a low risk of recurrence according to the genetic analysis of the tumor cells removed from me on 9/19/07. So another celebratory blueberry pomegranate martini was consumed!

So with these results, both Princess Di and I move to the next step: glowing in the dark via radiation targeted on my left breast. Once a day, every day, except for weekends, for 8 weeks give or take.

Here's a fun fact about B.C....60% of women get B.C. in their left breast; with only 40% in the right breast. I wonder if this correlates to democrats and republicans or liberals and conservatives...though I bet more than 60% of women are liberals ;-)

I go for what is called 'mapping' next week and then my BC BFF, Princess Di, and I will commute to radiation together beginning the week after Thanksgiving. Mapping is where they tug, push, and line me up into radiation position. I hope these guys are as cute as my yummy team of docs are! Once lined up, one of the nuclear hotties tattoos the points they want to keep in line while nuking my boob; yes a real tattoo and I get to choose any ink color as long as it’s black. This radiation thing is just a little scary to me; after all they’re nuking my breast! It’s closely adjacent to several very important bits of real estate, like my heart and lungs!

Well, enough of this nuclear speculation; all will happen in time, or as the Princess and I say one martini at a time! I’m still furiously walking and walking and walking, and harassing the folks at the Best Buy Ipod hospital to get my sick-o Ipod back with a third new hard drive all the prior Hard Drives died on the job! What luck is that? My Ipod died in the Beth Israel Hospital just before my first surgery! I’ve been using batteries (many batteries!) ever since to run my old portable CD player while I walk. Oy! Don’t even think about it! I can get started on Ipod harassment in an instant!

That’s the news on me, next week more details about the mapping and the more star wars aspects. Lenny has finally said yes to a Parisian trip during February school vacation week! I’m thrilled! Dan, Len & I will leave on the evening of Valentine’s Day and hang out for 6 days before we dash back home to get the laundry done before school starts again. The Louvre, Pont Neuf, Versailles here we come! As Dan says when one of my wonderful friends shows up with dinner. "Mom, it’s cancer Christmas!" I plan on working this cancer angle and enjoying my life for a long time to come! Paris is just the first stop!

Thank you for helping me get to this point!
Keep those vibes vibrating; if the Sox can win the series in 4 straight games, all is possible!
XOXOXO
Elaine