Tuesday, October 9, 2012

BRCA Tests and Port-a-Cath's

I'm barely able to keep my eyes open after my surgery to insert the port-a-cath but we got good news today so I want to share it!  The results for the BRCA test came back negative!  That means I'm less likely to get ovarian cancer and less likely to have a recurrance of breast cancer.  At least I think that's what it means :)  Seems strange to not carry the gene yet still get breast cancer but whatever.  I suppose if I researched I'd discover something like the BRCA only tests for certain genes, not all of them.  Regardless, that is great news!
Now, for the port-a-cath... I had no idea this was such a big thing.  The doctor told us the actual surgery was only about 45 minutes so I was thinking it'd be no big deal but I think I was wrong.  I was knocked out for a few hours, when I woke up I was in pain so they started adding pain killers to my IV drip and I was in and out for another 3 hours.  Now that I'm home I only keep my eyes open for a few minutes before falling asleep.  Really, it's not that big of a deal, it's just not what I expected.  And I have another Rx for Vicodin.  The pharmacy might stop filling my prescriptions!
I start chemo tomorrow morning at 9:30.  I was hoping to try some Xanax tonight to mellow me out but I think my surgery drugs are doing the trick. 
Here's a before pic of my chest
And an after pic (bandaged up)
Just the beginning of my 'changes.'

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