We set out alarms for 5:30 a.m. so that we were sure we would be awake when the final shuttle, Atlantis, went over our area. At 5:56 a.m. we heard the distinctive double Boom Boom as it traveled at super sonic speeds through the atmosphere. We then turned on NASA TV to watch the landing live. What an awesome accomplishment and a little bittersweet knowing it was the end of an era.
I had great news yesterday in the mail. Drew Medical, where I had my mammogram and ultrasound last week, sent me a letter stating that both tests were normal and showed no signs of cancer. WHOEEE!! That is the news one wants to get!
It is tinged somewhat by knowing that in April of 2010 my last mammogram also came back normal. Two months later I found the lump by myself in a hotel room on vacation. Well, I prefer not to worry about that right now. I am taking this as the good news it is!!
Our day worked out perfectly yesterday. We delivered the bra to the seamstress, had lunch at Chipotle (OK, but not as good as Q'dobas), went to the lecture on GYN cancers (I'll talk about that later), did my weight routine at the gym, ate an early dinner, and drove to Lakeland for the ballgame where the home team won 9-0. There were only 5 NARFE people there, but we sat together and had a great time.
There was a little miscommunication on the ticket price. It was $3 for the ticket and another $6 for an All-You-Can-Eat special night. We didn't intend to buy the dinner part because we could only eat the chips and soft pretzels. Unfortunately, the leader of NARFE had already bought everybody's tickets and dinner package when we got there, so we paid him back for it. Then we proceeded to eat our weight in chips and soft pretzels. Well, to be completely honest, Mark ate one bag of chips worth $1; I ate five soft pretzels worth $15. So we got our money's worth. Because we had told the leader that we didn't want the package, he had actually tried to get his money back for them, but the ticket seller said he couldn't have it. The leader of NARFE felt bad about that. Unbeknownst to us, he went to the management, complained, and got the money back, which he returned to us. So we ate all those pretzels and chips for nothing and for free. I felt a little bad about that, but the pretzels really were DELICIOUS!!
The lecture on GYN cancers was presented by a young lady doctor who does robotic assisted surgeries on such things, as well as more traditional surgeries. She's a GYN Oncologist at the Osceola hospital, right across the street from my cancer center. She had an excellent power point presentation on the three main types of cancers she treats, how many people get them, how many die from them annually, signs and symptoms, prognosis, treatments, all kinds of things. She also took questions.
I asked her three questions:
1. Should my 24 year old daughter get the Gardasil shot, and should her fiance? It is now being given to young men ages 9-26 to prevent genital warts. She said absolutely they should even though they are near the end of the age limits because it will basically prevent her from ever getting cervical cancer or genital warts.
2. Would a prophylactic complete hysterectomy for me, because of increased risk of those cancers after having lobular breast cancer, be covered by insurance and would her practice perform such a surgery? She hedged her bets. She didn't really know the answer about the insurance and recommended I call them. She would perform the surgery if I insisted, but she would want to talk to me all about it and discuss the risks/benefits. Obviously, those are the right answers. She did say that if I got tested for the genetic mutations, BRCA1 or BRCA2, and came up positive, the insurance would most definitely pay for it. I have been told I didn't need to get tested because I had none of the risk factors like strong family history.
3. Should my daughter get tested for those genes? She said probably not. She seemed to think her risk was no higher than the general population based on the little that she knew about my situation, but she said more discussion with a doctor might be necessary to decide for sure.
Interesting day.
Today I am going to the cancer support group in about 30 minutes, then some refreshing pool time and lunch out, a mani/pedi, a very important training session on my new Flexi-Touch lymphedema management machine at 4:30 (lots about that another time), and dinner at Lakeside with free wine and two new friends. Wow! Another good day in paradise.
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