Angelina Jolie announced this week that she had a preventative bilateral mastectomy. It came out in the New York Times when her op-ed was published. In her article she revealed that she tested positive for the genetic mutation BRACA1. I tested negative for the gene (lot of good that did me). If you have the breast cancer gene you are at a very high risk of getting the disease, and ovarian cancer.
After reading her article, here’s what I think… Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
I still need to decide on an oncologist. It’s been weighing heavily on my mind and becoming very stressful. Seems like the more people I talk to about it the more I get different names. Its like picking a realtor, everyone has somebody they love and want to recommend, which is great, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t interview every doctor in the state. I’m looking for one or two names to come up more than once so I can at least narrow down the list.
Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
I won’t let cancer win, these are my five words. A couple days after we got back from Mayo I went to the Bon Jovi concert with some girlfriends. It was a blast, but more importantly, I actually went. I had accepted the invitation before all this cancer business went down, and was on the fence about going when I got home from Mayo. Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
I’ve told you how wonderful the doctors are at Mayo, and how it’s like a Four Seasons with the customer service of Nordstrom’s, now add the Guggenheim to the mix. The artwork on display at Mayo is amazing. Without the art the facility is top notch, add the art and it’s on a whole different level. I imagine there is some connection to being around inspiring things like paintings, sculptures and live performances and raising the spirits of patients, someone should study that. Meantime here are some of my favorite art displays at the Mayo. Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
The first week we were home we saw two oncologists, my regular doc and a doc at another facility. We weren’t necessarily looking to switch doctors but the opportunity came up to see the second guy and so we figured why not, three opinions are better than two. It’s the same strategy I use when deciding on whether or not to cut my hair short, so I thought I’d stick with it.
Posted in Pink Posts
This might be too much information for those I don’t know really well. But I’ve never really held back on this blog so why start now? If you do read it, let’s just act normal next time we see each other and pretend it didn’t happen.
On the morning of surgery Josh and I reported to the hospital at 6 am. Got checked in quickly, because there was no one else there at that hour, and was showed to my room. I was instructed to change into a hospital gown and robe and told my nurse would be in. Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
The next day we were on a plane home. Both of us emotionally exhausted but eager to see the kids. Josh had to schlepp everything since I wasn’t allowed to pick anything up heavier than 15 pounds. I’m also not allowed to drive for two weeks or do any strenuous exercise for six weeks. We’ll see how that all goes.
Posted in Pink Posts
Today’s Schedule
6:00 am Check in for surgery
7:00 am Attempt to self administer enema
7:15 am Have the nurse assist with enema
8:00 am Oopherectomy
I’ll spare you the details of the morning. Surgery went well. I felt good after, maybe like I’d done too many sit ups, but that’s it. No unmanageable pain, just three little band aids across my tummy. While I was in recovery the surgeon came in to chat, and show me pictures from the surgery, of my insides, during the surgery. Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
Today’s Schedule
9:45 am Gynecological Surgery Consultation
10:40 am Venipuncture Specimen Collection (fancy way to say blood test)
11:45 am Preoperative Evaluation Assessment
This morning we met with the gynecological surgeon. She’s really tall and eight months pregnant with her second baby. She’s from Minneapolis and her husband is from Denver. He’s a skier.
She specializes in cancer related issues like ovarian cancer and works closely with the breast cancer doctors. Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
Today’s Schedule
1:00 pm Medical Oncology Evaluation
1:30 pm Surgical Consult
Today I learned that I can log on to my Mayo account and find all my records, reports, results, procedure notes and doctor write ups. We also learned that you can buy a 5-day parking pass for the parking garage that is cheaper than paying daily – wish we knew about both of these things three days ago. Read more
Posted in Pink Posts
Subscribe to this site's RSS feed.
