The last chemo and 2nd stage reconstruction surgery

Her last chemo was October 24 and she wore her Carmen Miranda hat. The oncologist found it difficult to concentrate and have a serious exam while she was wearing it, but it brought a lot of smiles in the chemo treatment room, where there were a lot of people that could use some cheering up as you can imagine.

While she was recovering, we received three hats from one of my newsletter subscribers... just because she wanted to. Isn't that special? She only knows us through the newsletter, and she went to all that trouble. Wow!

The plastic surgeon wanted to do the second stage reconstruction between the final chemo and the first radiation, so that involved some scheduling challenges.

1. The surgery itself, including pre-op and post-op appointments, and an appointment with our local internist who had to clear her for surgery.

2. It turns out that they need to do an echocardiogram whenever a patient has some of the chemo drugs that she had, so we had to fit that in before the surgery as well.

3. Radiation requires a consult and a simulation, where they mark the exact areas for treatment, so those two appointments had to be made, along with scheduling the treatments. A cute little complication was the fact that the doctor only does simulations on Thursdays, and Thanksgiving was right in the middle of all of this.

4. Radiology needed copies of her entire medical file, and even THAT has to be scheduled.

5. We couldn't do anything within a week of the chemo because Chris was in no condition to go anywhere.

6. Radiation treatments had to begin with six weeks of the last chemo, and Thanksgiving week was right in the middle of that time period.

It was a challenge, but we pulled it off and everything went amazingly smoothly, except for the getting the copies of the medical records to the radiologist.

The surgery day was hecticl, because she was scheduled for her echocardiogram at 9:00am, so we left the house at 6:00am and just barely made it on time because of rush-hour traffic. They did the test and we had a couple of hours to kill because her surgery wasn't until noon. Chris had the brilliant idea to see if they could take her early... and they did! Georgia was there so she and I went to lunch and by the time we got back she was in recovery and wide awake. We got out of there just in time to miss most of the traffic home.

The post-op appointment was fun because Chris wore her Carmen Miranda hat. The surgeon, who is normally a pretty serious guy burst out laughing and just couldn't believe that she actually walked around in public like that. I think it threw him off, because when we got home we discovered a stitch that he forgot to remove.

The stitch that he forgot to remove almost became a problem because Chris and I both forgot about it and by the time we remembered the skin had almost completely grown over it. I didn't have a scissors that was pointed enough to get in there, so we called Kathy, our wonderful neighbor who also happens to be an ER nurse, and she came over about 9:00pm and took care of it. Frankly, I was getting nervous with visions of another doctor appointment and more discomfort for Chris if they had to cut the skin to get the stitch. I was very relieved!

In the midst of all this, the car decided it needed a valve job, so we had to give that up for over a week, not to mention $1900 that we don't have. The result of that was we had to go to UCLA a couple of times in our other car, which is a two-seater and too uncomfortable for her to sleep as she had been able to do for other trips. More crap for her to deal with.

Today is Thanksgiving and I'm certainly thankful that Chris has done so well through all of this both mentally and physically, and I'm also thankful to have so many people, like you, who care so much about what's going on.

I don't know if you read the short version as well, but I want to repeat this last little tidbit. Her attitude is still remarkable. We received a renewal notice for a health newsletter and Chris sent them this note, explaining why she was NOT renewing:

"I've always loved your newsletter and followed what it said. I got breast cancer anyway. So, now I don't read any health material and I eat pie. Thanks anyway, Chris Balch"

This update was posted on Thursday, November 28, 2002 at 4:23:40 PM (USA Central Time)
Last updated on Thursday, October 02, 2003 at 12:07:03 PM (USA Central Time)