Welcome!

Hey, friends and family. Welcome to my new blog which, from here on out, will be known as "The No Whine Zone".

I’ll be using this blog as my “Survival Journal” so that I can keep you all updated with what’s going on since my DCIS diagnosis. As you are all aware, I'm gettin' up there. So, what with everything that's been going on with me lately, I can't for the life of me remember whom I've updated and whom I haven’t, who knows what and who doesn’t, or even sometimes who the heck even wants to know. Hell, I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast most days so I’m sure you can imagine my dilemma.

So here we are. Let’s start with the latest news which basically is that there is no news. Heh. I saw the surgeon for follow-up last Monday (August 4^th) and he said the incision was healing nicely and that everything looked good. He had the pathology report and does not think that any additional surgery will be necessary, but the oncologist (Dr. Eisenberg) will likely be making the final call on that after possibly taking my case back to the tumor board. (And, seriously........can't they come up with a better name for it than the "tumor board"? Sheesh!!!) I called the oncologist's office for follow-up to find out the next steps but they hadn't received the pathology report yet. They are going to get it and then Dr. Eisenberg will call me. Personally, I don't see any point in having an appointment with him until they know what they want to do and the nurse tended to agree. So, I'm still waiting for the final "all clear", but I don't doubt that I'll get it. In the mean time I have to have a chest x-ray and bone scan done this coming Friday (originally scheduled for last week but postponed due to “equipment issues”) – both procedures are standard operating procedure according to both the oncology nurse and my sister. Woohoo.

For now, I am still restricted from lifting more than 20 lbs. until two weeks after surgery (which is tomorrow. Yay!) I have started exercising lightly in a regular sports bra; anything more strenuous and I have to wear the special bra they gave me after surgery. No golf, though, until 3 weeks after surgery. (The unkindest cut of all!) The surgeon said I could remove the steri-strips myself after 2 weeks if they haven't come off on their own and I broke down and did that today – they were driving me nuts! And up until this past Thursday I was still tiring easily, but for some reason that just seems to have magically gone away. I even went to work at a client site that day and I felt pretty darned good. I'm sure that was just an after-effect of the anesthesia and other good drugs that Marna gave me (thanks, Marna!) and it all just had to get out of my system.

So that's the poop for now! I have no idea when the oncologist will call me and, in fact, have very little faith that they actually will. So I figured I would just call them once a week and pester them until they realize I still exist and, until then, I'm not letting this interfere with my normal routine too darn much.

Stay tuned...............