Anderson 360

First-I would like to thank Don't Worry Be Happy Shirts and all of you who bought t-shirts. It helped make this trip possible.
Referring back to the title Anderson 360, no, not Anderson Cooper, MD Anderson in Texas. I went to Texas last week to get a third opinion about my treatment options. I have had surgery and chemotherapy. The conclusion is usually radiation therapy followed by hormone therapy. That is what has been recommended by my doctors in CA. Normally that would have sounded fine by me, but the pathology did not come back as well as expected after surgery. I had positive lymph nodes and several positive margins throughout the breast tissue. So it was time to have another look see.
Christian's sister lives about 10 minutes away from MD Anderson and has been asking me to come out since my diagnosis. I finally went and it was good. They want to treat my cancer much more aggressively because I am so young. The really nice part about all of this cancer stuff is that everyone keeps telling me how young I am at every office visit.
By treating this cancer aggressively they are suggesting another surgery. I had a simple bilateral mastectomy-they want to give me a modified radical mastectomy. That would possibly be followed by more chemo and then radiation with reconstruction much farther down the line. They came to these conclusions by running a multitude of tests-CT, MRI, ultrasound, blood work up, and X-ray. No part of me has gone untouched. You get used to walking around in scrubs and gowns and I met some really nice people. There was a man from El Paso, Texas who had stage IV prostate cancer, but was just raving about his wife's artistic talents and his sons who are both graduates of Texas A&M.
Sally Kim took good care of me while I was there-waiting at the doctors, cooking great food, and taking great notes during each visit. Christiev came to spend some time in the waiting rooms with us and hang out in Sally Kim's kitchen. My mom held down the homefront-getting the kids to their specified locations, feeding those picky little eaters, and tackling homework.
Now that Christmas is here we are going to enjoy some time together and thank God for all that we have.
Merry Christmas