Clint the K - What he Say! Blondie gets the Postsurgical Word!

September 25, 2007

Hey Y'all,
I saw my surgeon yesterday and there's good news and not so good news! No positive lymph nodes! No LVI which is lymphovascular infiltration, also great! The tumor was less than 2Cm so it is considered stage 1, also good news. And because the tumor is estrogen responsive it means I am a candidate for one of the estrogen receptor blockers, but that's for the next doc, the oncologist, to sort out.

The not so good news...my surgeon wants a wider CLEAR margin around where the tumor was. This means that after seeing the lab results on the cellular aspect of what was removed Dr. Koufman wants to go back in and take a bit more just to be very clear and sure. I said fine, but if he has to go in a third time, he does a freebie tummy tuck! This surgery will be easier says Clint the K, and it will be the lovely twilight sleep, not full general anesthesia--way easier on my blonde brain. It happens next friday early morning and I'll be home by noon sleeping it off. Then the next part is radiation for 7 weeks and then the blockers or whatever.

So I took a few extra days after last wednesday's surgery to clear my anesthesia-addled brain and get myself walking up the bike path, feeling like me again. I'm healing really well, though it does take two bras to get out on the bike path while keeping the jiggle factor low.

There's no adequate way to express the depth of my gratitude for you, my friends! I'm simply overwhelmed by your support here in Belmont and literally around the world. It is humbling to bump up against my mortality, but the outpouring of positive thoughts, emails, good vibes, and of course those yummy meals brought over by my 'sisters in the hood' here have nourished me, spurred me out the door to walk it all off and getting me back to feeling like Blondie again.

THANK YOU for the emails, cards, flowers, faboo food, martinis and everything!
XOXOXO
Elaine

Blondie's Bitch Slap

Life is what happens while you're making other plans said John Lennon in his song, Beautiful Boy. All it takes is one bad mammogram to hammer home this truth!

I love going for my annual mammogram because it's always been negative and I could feel, for one more year, that I'd cheated my genetic heritage. So this year I went with my usual let's do it attitude, because I had many other things on my to do list. Yes that was been, past tense! For now and evermore mammogram day will be vastly different for me.

The good news is that in my case the system worked. On Monday the mammo folks called and said they wanted more pictures of my left girl, so my BFF Princess Di said you can't go alone and came with me. The radiologist was there and pointed out to me a funny tiny spot...and said get an ultrasound. So Friday August 31 I went for an ultrasound...Dr. B., the lady radiologist, spoke to me with that deer in the headlights thank god I'm not you this is bad news look on her face...you need a biopsy! This is a mass, says Dr. B, whatever it is--it needs to come out, but don't worry about it over the weekend! Like I couldn't not worry?! So I walk out to my car and call my primary care doc, and she was in. Dr. G. says, well one step at a time, yadda yadda, and I say whatever it is, it needs to come out. I called and left messages with my sister, gal pals and BFFs, and I drive home in stunned shock. At that point I just knew in my bones, it was not nothing...it was going to be very bad news. A karmic bitch slap by my maternal family tree--reaching out of the grave to put a period on my mortality! Thank god for the healing power of martinis & BFFs, I got through the weekend to Wednesday when the biopsy was to be done at 9:00 am. Mostly I got through the weekend by strapping on my Ipod and heading up the bike path for 10 miles or so. I only wanted to walk, and walk and walk. Somehow moving along at blondie speed listening to a novel or a song kept me sane, kept me feeling in control of some part of my body and life.

I wanted to get outside and walk and walk and walk some more. On Wednesday after the biopsy I walked 10 miles, on Thursday I walked 7, and on Friday I walked 6 after I got the call from Dr. G. that yes it is my worst nightmare, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma less than 2Cm and the biopsied lymph nodes were clear, finally the hint of some good news.

What do you do with your gal pals? Drink coffee or martinis? Check out T.J.Maxx bargains? Well I've one upped you there! My BFF Princess Di and I are doing the breast thing together. We're the breast cancer twins of Belmont! Amazingly, a week before me...her highness was diagnosed with breast cancer! Now I must confess here to being a competitive kinda gal (especially when playing Trivial Pursuit) but I never wanted to play this game and win!

Life works in mysterious ways and Di had already lined up all the best Jewish breast cancer docs in Boston. After all, I joined the tribe to avoid buying retail and enjoy all the benefits of fine Jewish doctors and if they were cute and had great chest hair well that's just the icing on the cake, right? My HMO couldn't find a surgeon to see me for over almost 2 months! So, I just decided to join Princess Di's medical team and we would traverse this road together. Sisterhood IS powerful!

Dr. K. could see me on the Monday after my biopsy! So there I was in the surgeon's office still in shock but with an X-ray showing my diagnosis! Dr. K. the most un-surgeon-like cutter I've ever met said, as I was sitting down, "don't worry you are going to be fine!" I said my goal was to rock my grand babies in 15 years, and he said no problem. What a dear, sweet guy, with a terrific sense of humor since he guffawed when I told the ketchup-story of my decision to bolt from Felix & the farm so long ago.

More in the next post. . .3 surgeries! He just couldn't keep his hands off my breast, whatz a gal to do?!

"Sometimes Delores, being a bitch is all a woman has!" Steven King, Delores Claiborne.

“I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore;
And I know too much to go back an' pretend.
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again!

Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain;
Yes, I've paid the price,
But look how much I gained!
If I have to
I can do anything!
I am strong,
I am invincible,
I am woman!”

Hair Spray: The Metaphor

Oh boy, where's Blondie going with this one? Well it's quite obvious, when Blondie thinks about the qualities of a wicked great hair spray: stickiness, stiffness, long last-ness, and shiny-ness, friends come to mind!

Friday night, my CLM gal pals threw me a cosmo & chardonnay fueled birthday dinner. These gals and I worked together for 5 years over 10 years ago! They were there for Blondie in the good times when I was pregnant and had my super son, or when we scored a huge success with Club G-Med, and the bad--when I was the target of the month for a maniacal boss. We've been friends for almost 17 years! So, is that not sticky? not long lasting? with shining moments of success and support? Spells wicked great hair spray to me! Sometimes, there is a moment when women walk into your life and you know instantly that they'll be there, for always! And all I can say, is Phyll, JR, SM, EW, and AR you'll always will be on my Hair Spray Honor Roll of Fabulous Friends--Best Friends Forever!

On Wednesday, Di & Munya took me to breakfast, and we dished and noshed and drank gallons of coffee kicking off my week of birthday blasts. Gifts were in the mix, too. Amazing how the name of something, in this case wicked bold nail polish, can set a tone. Well how's Women Without Boundaries do for setting a fab birthday tone? And Cherries Jubilee lipstick? What's not celebratory about that? At this stage in my life, everyday is a gift, and so by definition, is every birthday! After racewalking 7 miles Wednesday afternoon, my hubby and son took me to dinner which, after all that hoofing earned me a pomegranate martini! Ahhh, how sublime it was! And bless my hubby, he organized a little birthday cake w/Paulette & Steve back at our house.

For me, life is made most meaningful by my friends! By the steadfast and constant and wonderful support of great, good friends...and while I am thankful for each day, I am most thankful for this! Plus, of course, martinis and hairspray!