Dr. Dy… for real & Company!
Today is Thursday, March 29th and I am so happy to report that we are still in Palm Desert, CA enjoying the sun, beauty and warmth of a restful vacation.
I was relieved to get an email on Tuesday this week from Michelle… she is the receptionist at my plastic surgeon, Dr MacAdam’s office. Dr MacAdam describes her as a little bulldog when it comes to getting things done. I so appreciate that quality! So, Michelle managed to get my appointment at the Thrombosis clinic set up for April 27th. She also informed me that my BBB surgery (bye bye boobies – aka bilateral mastectomy) has been scheduled for May 3rd. As long as that cancer cell in my breast just stays sleeping in that milk duct until then, this is all good news. I have vowed to try to live my life as normally as my energy will let me until then. Nothing has felt normal for some time now and I am just craving that so badly.
The last few days I have even ate normally, having some sugar in a beautiful dessert and enjoying a glass of wine and a cold beer as needed. Its been lovely.
In order to get the blood work that I wanted here, I arranged to meet with an Oncologist here at the Lucy Curci Cancer Care Center. I am so glad that I did. She was so thorough, not rushed, confident and shared lots of information that will help me on this journey. She also completed my 3 tumor marker blood tests and gave me a requisition to have them completed every three months at home. The results will be sent to her and she will follow the numbers contacting me only if there is anything to be concerned about. If I was here, I would be in chemo now for my Stage 1C GCT, however when I challenged her on the success of that chemo to protect you from reoccurances, she agreed that there is inconclusive research to prove that. Even if I was here, I tell you, I would not be putting that poison in my body without solid proof that it works! She was concerned about me being on Estradiol. That is is the estrogen hormone replacement patch that I have stuck to my butt and I have to change every 3 1/2 days. (weird right) She said that I would have a hard time finding an oncologist here that would believe that I should be on estrogen therapy now or ever based on my family history of breast cancer. Once home, I will talk to my family doctor about this. She gave me some options that I of course want to research before jumping into. I will see her again next year when we return to Palm Desert as we do each year in March. I think it is great to keep abreast of any developments in treating GCT here and at home. The only downside of this appointment was the Dr’s name… for real, her name is Dr Dy – yes that is pronounced Dr Die! What a terrible name for an oncologist. Her first name is Irene, so let’s just call her that from now on. Thanks for seeing me Dr Irene!
I was so pleased to meet with Beya Ding who also has GCT. We met in our GCT Survivor Sisters Facebook group. It is a group that has aprox. 775 women from all over the world who also have this very rare ovarian cancer. I reached out to the group to see if anyone lived near Palm Springs. She was an hour and a half away and also looked forward to meeting with someone fighting the same unexpected battle. Beya was diagnosed early in 2018 and is now NED. (no evidence of disease). Her husband Nathan came along with her. They were married just a year ago and really want to start their family. She has kept one fallopian tube and ovary and I will keep her and Nathan in my prayers that they can conceive a baby as soon as her body is strong enough to do so. I loved meeting and spending time with her. She is happy, positive and we both enlightened one another about the things we have learned so far, our fears and our personal growth through this journey. We also planned to meet up again next year on my visit. I hope she has a big pregnant belly at that visit. I can’t, for one moment, imagine my life without my babies. Beya Djng would make a beautiful mother. I will pray for them.
Today was super special too! My longest, bestest friend Michelle and her family; Hartley, his parents and their beautiful daughters had been visiting Disneyland for the past few days. They were driving back to Arizona today and godwilling, the highway they travel on went right past us so they stopped in for lunch and a play at the pool! My heart is full. It was SO good to see them and to hug Michelle. Being away from those who are your real peeps is hard when you are hurting so the last few months we have been close with texts and calls but seeing one another was just perfect. Playing in the pool was a first this trip too and it felt great. The girls and I even hit the waterslide.🙂
I think I will nap now, with a smile on my face.
#igotthis
