Thanks so much, Oceantide. And thanks for the hug, too. Always welcome!
Today was the big f2f meeting/consultation with Dr. E, my soon to be surgeon. I also "met" with my nurse coordinator in the car (on the phone) as DS and I returned from the initial meeting with the surgeon. Boy oh boy, are they efficient! The nurse coordinator said that she will be my "advocate" ♥♥♥ and that she is assigned to me as part of my staff and/or team. Wasn't that me that was asking for, longing for "a friend" only a short while ago? Always be careful what you ask for! I now have my myriad of angels sheltering me with their wings as I stumble through this life experience, but at what a sacrifice. Still, I am in great hands and I have a lot of faith in my care team. They are all gentle, kind, and talented in whatever their roles are. They are also very honest with me, which I appreciate beyond all measure. I really like KK, my oncology nurse coordinator, too. I'm still a bit scared (naturally), but I'm feeling much more confident, too.
They offered me the surgery beginning next Friday, June 3rd, but I declined that date because I want to absolutely FINALIZE my Living Trust and Power of Attorney for my DS before undergoing surgery. My Living Trust is just not notarized yet and hasn't been paid for. I will probably be just fine through the surgery, but you never know.
The surgery begins at 6am and lasts about an hour and a half. My tumor, by the way Dr. E sees it as a surgeon, is more like 2 cm rather than the 0.8 listed on the pathology report. And she's going to remove and test "a couple" of lymph nodes "just to be absolutely sure that they are not involved". Good idea. Afterwards, a couple of stitches here and there, a lollipop and a gold star (if I'm good) , and they send me home! No hospital stay for me!
Then they send my still tiny tumor (which is sort of slow growing, thank heavens) and the "sentinel nodes" (lymph) off to the lab for diagnosis, and in about a week I'll get the results and recommendation for treatment from what they find. And that's it. Take it easy for a week or so. Then even gardening is on the menu again. Probably I'll get 3-6 wks. of daily radiation, have to take estrogen lowering pills for several years so I don't "feed" any remaining possible cancers (I'm ER+ and PR+, meaning that my cancer can "eat" or benefit from any estrogen or progesterone that I'm still making, even after menopause), but PROBABLY no chemotherapy because I am HER2 negative. They even tested me for any genetic cancer problems I may have, but probably don't.
So it's all still pretty much a crap shoot until after the surgery and after the lab work is back. Then they can be more specific.
====================(Sat. noonish)
Really good news! I'm finding out that both my low carb/sugar free diet coupled with the intermittent fasting that I've been doing for YEARS now is just what the doctor ordered for breast cancer survival! I need to eat less beef (no worries, it's too expensive anyway), but outside of that, I'm good to go! No more Sucralose artificial sweeteners, but I think that the erythritol-monk fruit combo that I normally use works just fine. Who would have dreamed that this would have happened??! I started reading the information on 'what to eat and what to avoid' and began to cheer!! ALL BRASSICAS are ok!!!! That means that my cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, AND COLLARDS, both tree and regular, are not only GOOD to eat, but act in the same way as do the dreaded AI pills (aromatase inhibitors)!! They BOTH reduce the estrogen in my body that "feeds" the breast cancer! So...
Eat some collards, enhance the effect of the pills! Stir fry some cabbage OR broccoli with some organic chicken, enhance the effect of the pills! Make some Faux-tatoes with cauliflower or throw some RED RICE or PURPLE RICE (a new discovery for me!!) into the Instant Pot with chicken AND/OR ♥dry beans♥ and...well, you get the idea! I don't have to "miss" anything!!!!!!! I am so happy about that!!!!! (And relieved!!) Even oats (my beloved oats! YAY!) are back on the menu!! I'll just have to keep an eye on the amount of carbs eaten, but the rice is only 19 net carbs per cup, so with lots of chicken in the dish, I can happily make a nice filling meal of it...once a day. That works for me!! And the whole shebang (even the rice and organic chicken) is sold at Walmart. My nearest Whole Foods is over a mountain range away (literally!), so Walmart it is. I order online, the Walmart employees "shop" for it in the store, and DS picks it up and brings it home, and there you go. How nice is that!
It seems (emphasize "seems") that I can also help myself through this bc jungle with EXERCISE as well! (Didn't I wish for more exercise in my life, too? I have to watch out for what I ask for! I just might get it! ) But my house is like a gym...with other benefits than just weight loss and strength training, like the soul-deep satisfaction of a clean and uncluttered house, a functional garage, and a productive and beautiful garden. Now, however, it also even means a lesser chance of any cancer, breast or otherwise, returning, so that's even more incentive! It's like God saying to me, "Haven't you gotten the HINT yet?? A-hem!" "Uh...yes, Sir. Exercise it is."
====================(9pm Sat.)
So tonight I watered the entire yard. Most needed it. It's been pretty windy and hot here lately, but nothing blew over and nothing died from lack of water, so I'm good. Then once back inside, I restocked the dog's dry food bin with their custom food mix (but they pick out the tastier treats first as they eat, smart girls ) and now their 6-gallon dry food "garbage can" (with a lid) that holds 20 lbs. of this dry mix (really fancy!) is full and mixed. I also rearranged their area to be cleaner and more manageable. And I swept the floor and organized their MANY bags of treats into differences of hardness. I gave them their "nighty-night" treats (treats with some staying power) which they gnawed on happily.
Then I headed for the front room to cut up boxes...but...DS is working until midnight tonight. On my area to cut up the boxes are MULTIPLE and EXTREMELY HEAVY 25# bags of all sorts of grains waiting for the storage room to be cleared so we can store this stuff elsewhere. But there it sits in my front room, on top of my box cutting station, plopped down there when it was delivered weeks ago, blocking my ability to cut up and dispose of the empty cardboard boxes. I do have to stand while doing so, so I guess that that is exercise, too...but I'm unable to until DS decides to move them into a less crucial place.
BUT there are "standing" chores in the hobby room tonight, important ones, pressing ones, so that's where I'll work for a while. It's all about getting my plants TRANSFERRED to bigger pots, mixing the soil up, giving the plants a chance to live. I keep putting it off. Now I can continue to sit on my butt and complain about it or DO something about it. And help to stave off the growth of this bc inside me. Seems an easy and blatantly obvious choice, doesn't it?! I believe I'll wash out the hummingbird feeder by hand and fill it tomorrow so there's no ant problems tonight. Then re-pot at least ONE plant! I know the one: the Purple Tree Collard that's been sitting in the deep hobby room sink for all this time, looking tired and needing some attention. And then my poor little peppers, grown from seed, trying to survive my procrastination, begging me with their sad condition to simply replant them. Not that much to ask.
So that's my focus...and it can be done in the nighttime inside when it's dark outside. Let's see how I do. I'll let you know tomorrow honestly. It's super important now how I either get over MD and the barbs she left behind in me like mental IEDs with the intent and purpose to snag and destroy me, OR whether I allow her to win at her vicious game. I'll be damned if I'm going to let that happen at this late date. I can overcome it and thrive despite all of those long-buried "roadside bombs" she bequeathed to me on her passing.
Honeybera