Oncology Office visit Report

I saw Dr Toma this morning. Here is what I found out.

• I am down 27 lbs from when this all started. Dr T wants me to gain at least 12 lbs back. I wasn't overweight to start with but I don't want to gain more than 15 lbs.
• Dr T says that Dr Henric did a great job with my surgery. She was very pleased with it.
• Dr T wants me to increase my prescription to hopefully fix my neuropathy since that is still an issue. Hopefully it will but she says it's not out of the question that this never gets back to normal. I may always have problems with it. Let's just hope not; let's hope the additional medication helps.
• Dr T wants me to walk 10 minutes a day for now. She told me that studies have shown that woman who have had breast cancer who walk 30 minutes a day are less likely to have a re-occurrence. This is definitely food for thought.
• I thought that I'd be getting a scan of some sort to see if I'm cancer free. Dr T says she will not be doing a PET scan or an MRI. PET scans are used to see if cancer has spread; not to see if cancer is detected. I didn't know this. She says I am as cancer-free as anyone is. My radiation and an anti-cancer pill (I'll be taking for 5 years) should ensure a cancer-free status.
• Did you know that if breast cancer spreads to your lungs or liver or another major organ you can not be cured? I didn't realize this. I am so fortunate that my cancer did not spread. If it had, the best Dr T could do was give me time. That's so majorly scary.

So, all in all, I am very lucky! I will see the radiologist on September 9th. I'll have more info about that then. Stay tuned.