I’m super!!

 

I had my appointment with the Mayo surgeon today. My hope was that he would have the results from my PET scan last Thursday, and I was a little disappointed when he didn’t lead with that. He hadn’t seen it yet. After a little searching in my file, he was able to find the PET scan report. I think we were both a little nervous as he read it to me live, neither of us knowing if it was going to be good or bad. It was all good!!!! The report said I had outstanding metabolic results and that all previous areas of cancer have been resolved. He said I’m what they call a super responder. I’m usually pretty happy when someone calls me super or outstanding, but today those words mean more than anything. I think I’m in shock that cancer could come and go in and out of my life so quickly. I know cancer and I aren’t done with each other; we’ll likely be life long adversaries, but this is a huge triumph!

As for surgery decisions, he recommended against rushing into aggressive surgery options for treatment. Systemic treatments for breast cancer (ie chemo, antibody and hormone therapy) are getting so good, especially for us super responders, that the standard treatment is moving away from always including surgery. This is even true for early stage breast cancer, not just stage IV. Of course, there’s lots of debate among doctors and very little hard data that fully supports either side. I’m still in a grey zone of whether surgery would be needed or beneficial for me. He said that I could still be treated with curative intent without having surgery. He presented a few more conservative surgical options that I definitely want to go over with my oncologist. I’m so thankful for this team of doctors at Mayo who are striving to cure patients AND give them the best quality of life after active treatment. I feel like I get to have my cake and eat it too if I can be “cured” and keep my boobs!

I have two more surgical appointments lined up this week. One with a plastic surgeon and one with another breast surgeon in the Twin Cities. I like to have the most information possible when making decisions. It’s especially helpful to get different opinions and perspectives because I’m in this grey zone of whether surgery is the right call or not. 

My next chemo infusion date is February 8th. I’ll continue with the last two rounds of chemo even though my PET scan was clear. It is possible that there is a small amount of undetectable cancer floating around my body, so hopefully these last two rounds can kill it all dead. I’m feeling almost reenergized for the last rounds of chemo knowing that all the crappy side effects have been worth it and it really is working. 

Prayers have to start with a HUGE PRAISE for these PET scan results. I was holding back my expectations because I didn’t want to be disappointed, so I’m blown away by this great news. 

Pray that I will continue to stay strong through my last rounds of chemo. 

Pray for good conversations with my doctors as we decide next steps for treatment. I know I have two awesome teams of doctors in the Twin Cities and at Mayo helping to make these tough decisions. Pray that I will have peace knowing we made the best decision with the information we had.