Doctor appointments and first mammogram

Well, it's been a crazy week for Dan and I. I saw Dr. Kaplan last week. Just love him. Everything seemed to be fine. He examined me and ask me how things are going with my arimidex. No crazy lumps or anything yeah! I seem to be handling the arimidex fine. I maybe experiencing some minor fatigue, but not even sure of that. There is a list of symptoms one might experience and I don't seem to be experiencing them.

Then I had my mammogram this last Tuesday and my world was rocked...again!! The radiologist told me he wanted a couple more views. So they take me back and take a few more shots of my left breast. He brought me back into his office (you can imagine the crap that is racing through my mind) he told me that everything was okay, but he wanted to see me again in six months to check some small calcium spots he sees. I am like, you are freaking me out. He says I don't want to freak you out we just need to check things in 6 months. I then leave there office and walk straight over to my appointment with Dr. Buchanan. I bawled the whole way over to her office. I am like really? How can this be? I wanted a double mastectomy and they didn't want to take them both. This is one of the many things that was racing through my mind. I am thinking that i will get over to Dr. Buchanan and she will reassure me that it is okay and we will just continue to move forward. I have my reconstruction surgery scheduled, so I am thinking I can't go ahead with reconstruction if there might be something in my left breast. So I walk in to see Dr. Buchanan, she has already received my scans and report. I could tell by the look on her face that it wasn't good. Now I am crying and totally freaking out. She suggested that we do a "stereotactic needle core biopsy" right a way. They scheduled it for the next day at 3:00pm. She said that 80% of these come back benign so there was a great chance this would be nothing. I left her office and started my trek back to Harborview to go to work. I called Dan and of coarse he is pissed and scared and wondering what the heck. I got to my clinic and walked straight into my bosses office shut the door and started hysterically crying. My boss was crying with me. It was horrible. Thanks Jo for the hugs, love and support. Dr. Kaplan called me and told me his toes were crossed and he just wanted me to know he was thinking about me and hoping for the best. His call was great, but it also kind of scared me because it made me realize shit this could come back bad. As you can imagine that night, the next day, the procedure...it was all awful. Poor Dan. Poor me. Poor Nancy. Thank you Nancy for coming and picking me up from the procedure and bringing me home. I didn't even tell Nancy what was going on, I just ask her if she could pick me up from a procedure that I needed to have. So she was freaking out too.  After the biopsy the doctor told me it looked like all of the tissue and the calcium deposit looked benign. That made us all feel better, but you don't really know until you get the true biopsy report. So Dan and I had another night of wonderment, fear, worry, ugh!!

They didn't think I would get the results until today, but I got the best call ever from Dr. Buchanan last night just after five. She called and said all the tissue was benign and that everything is A OK!!

Praise the Lord and hallelujah!!! We are so happy and relieved.  

I have my reconstruction surgery scheduled for the first week of January. I will have about 6 weeks of recovery after that. Then I will have implants place in late spring. Kimmy's rack will be back :)

Lets just stay on this schedule with no more scares PLEASE!!

Doctor tomorrow.......

I see Dr. Kaplan tomorrow for blood work and my 3 month check up. I feel pretty good about it, but there always is a bit of fear too. What if? Seems to creep in, but nothing I dwell on at all. I am just positive and I am feeling good and doing good. I am handling the medication that I am on really well. I haven't had any side effects. Yea!!!

I saw Dr. Isik my reconstruct doctor a few weeks ago. Surgery will be scheduled around the first of the new year. He feels my skin is looking really good. The better my skin heals from radiation the better my out come will be so I was glad to hear that. I did learn that this surgery is another big one :( It is more uncomfortable than my mastectomy. Bummer!!! Not excited about that. But I can do it! I will be off work for about 6 weeks. Then I will have the final surgery around May. Then I should be rebuilt :) Yes!!!!

I see Dr. Buchanan my breast surgeon next week. I also have my first mammogram next week. Its been six months since I have had any scans. Amazing how fast time fly's by.

I am feeling really good. My energy is back. My hair is coming back. Wish it would come in a little faster haha :) 

Summer has come to and end and now it is time for football and time to watch my girl play basketball. woop woop!!!

The 3-day walk

The 3-day Susan G. Komen walk was so awesome! My team and I just rocked this walk. It actually turns out to be a bit more than 60 miles in the 3 days. It was myself, Jody Nelson, Courtney Edelbrock and Jenn Stendera. We came in in the top 200 out of 1400 each day. It wasn't a race, but we seemed to just truck along at a good pace everyday. It is so cool! Camp is a see of pink tents. I must say it has been a few years since I have slept in a tent :) but I totally loved it. The weather was perfect. Nice and warm. My husband was totally amazing through the whole event. He set our tent up, which was so great. We came in after 22 miles our first day to our camp totally ready for us to enjoy. Most people had to arrive after there 22 miles and still put there tent up. The first night we came in showered and then had our little "happy hour" at our tents then we went and ate and enjoyed others. My credential tag had a little gift box on it which meant someone had purchased a sweet treat for me. I was so surprised and tickled when I went to pick it up and I had two, one from Greg and Katy Mowrer and another from Ric and Terry Owen. Thank you guys so much!

The second day we were all a little sore, but ready to hit it again. Our camp was at marymoor park in Redmond. We left camp and headed straight up a trail heading to Bellevue. It was a brutal way to start the day. Through the day you have certain areas that are cheering stations. These were pretty emotional for me for some reason. It is just amazing how people come out and I mean a lot of people to just cheer you on and thank you for walking to support breast cancer. It was just really cool.   Courtney's friend Jenny was meeting us at one of the cheer stops so we all were excited to see Jenny.

When we got to the cheering station that Jenny was at she had made this great sign

Thanks Jenny! Also thanks for the peanut butter balls. They were so good!

Big shout out to Jenny. Jenny has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer also ;( She was going to do the walk with us and then was diagnosed her self. Isn't that horrible. Ugh!! Jenny anything I can do for you please let me know.

The final day of the walk was very cool and emotional. Dan was fabulous again....he was at our camp at 5:30 am ready to tear our tent down and pack it up so that we didn't have to do it. Wow!! We were able to just get up get dressed go have breakfast and go to the bus. It was really nice. They bused us to the University of Washington and we walked from there. We walked through the UW campus over to the Ballard locks then up to and through Magnolia and ended at Memorial Stadium in Seattle. When we got to the finish line it was really cool. Dan was there taking pictures of us and we got all confused and passed the entrance and had to run back to enter...

We were all so excited!!  We all got t-shirts. I got a pink one since I am a survivor and the others got white ones. I got really emotional when I got my shirt. It was weird, I just started bawling. The whole experience was just amazing. My team was amazing. Thank you all for experiencing this event with me. "Kimmy's breast friends" rock!!! And our goal is to each bring in at least one more person to the team next year. So anyone that wants to join us let me know. It is a weekend that you will never forget.

                                  Haley made this sign for our tent. Loved it!!! Thanks Haley

                                                    My team.....ready to go day one.

                                                               Opening ceremony

                                                         Walking across I-90 bridge

                                                     Volunteers really get into this event

                                                                    Lunch day one

                      My friend Libby from boot camp. Diagnosed the same week I was :(

                                                               Coming into camp day one

                                                                  The pink tents

                                                              Courtney and Jenn

                                                            Our new 3-day hats :)

                                 Lake Washington.....day two with our groovy pink glasses

                                                                closing ceremony

                                                                   We did it!!!!!

The closing ceremony. My dear friends Nancy, Amanda and Sammy Pugh. Also Kristen (Jody's daughter). So so sweet of you guys to come to this event. I love you all lots!!!