Pre-operation prep

The day before my operation, I had to go through a series of delightful events. First up was the blood work and then pre-operation RSL. According to Google, RSL involves sticking a radioactive substance right smack in the center of my target area. In layman's terms, it's like having a needle play pinball inside me with a radioactive ball.

So I checked my schedule and realized that the blood work was scheduled at Dana Farber in Newton, while the RSL was at Dana Farber Faulkner hospital in Jamaica Plain, with a measly half-hour gap between them. Now, I may have survived all the chemo like a superhuman, but teleportation isn't one of my superpowers. Sadly, I couldn't magically be in two places at once, especially not in half an hour.

After a hour on the phone (by this time it was evening and I was bounced between several schedulers) I was told that the blood work in Newton was cancelled and that I should just "drop by" Faulkner lab and that the hospital has my order and everything was now all set.

Fast forward to the next day -- Faulkner lab spent a hour trying to figure out first who I was, then if there was an order, and then trying to "unlock" that order. After an hour I walked away with no blood work, hoping that it would not be a crucial requirement for the next day's operation.

The second act of the play for the day was the radioactive insert. I found myself in a freezing room, half naked, feeling like a contestant in some survival reality show. I had to sit with a straight back in an uncomfortable chair in front of the ever fun mammogram machine that always feels like something out of a medieval torture chamber, but the real star of the show was the array of endless needles on a table. They could give any horror movie prop a run for its money, the only thing missing was the drill... I kept having flashbacks to all the mafia tortures in the basement from a few movies I watched while fatigued and in chemo brain fog.

The procedure itself wasn't a walk in the park, but not as scary as the buildup in my head waiting in that freezing room.

First Results

As per instructions, I signed up for the Lahey portal and now would get results notifications the same day they became available -- so wouldn't need to wait for the doctor to view them and then reach out to me several days later. 

2 days later, 10/31 the results were in: inconclusive, require follow up diagnostic and ultrasound mammogram as we knew from the get go....

Spent several days writing and calling my primary care doctor to get that additional referral.

Now, in my head, it would make sense to just do a biopsy right-a-way, as the ultrasound is required in order to get the tissues anyway and the lump is there and the only way to figure out if it is benign or not is via biopsy. 

But nothing is that easy or logical -- according to the protocol, I first need to get a regular ultrasound and only after that get another referral to be able to schedule a biopsy.

The first available regular ultrasound appointment was 11/18, because, it seems, there is a shortage of ultrasound technicians.

Mammogram 10/28

Thank God for friends! 

Alya drove me to the Lahey Clinic in Burlington and sat with me in the waiting room to get my mammogram. 

I mentioned the lump to the technician and she wanted to do a diagnostic mammogram, but couldn't do the same day, nor would it be covered by insurance, and again clinic required another doctor's order. So we proceeded with the regular one. 

It was uncomfortable, but manageable, and then they said that results would be soon and I would need to come in for a follow up ultrasound one anyway.

To lift the mood, Alya and I went to the nearby Fogo De Chao bar, which is this beautiful restaurant and a cozy bar to drink to a better outcome.

Discovery 10/25

It all started the evening of October 25th -- feeling a hardened lump in my left breast the size of a golf ball. Relatively small, no pain or discomfort whatsoever. First thought -- high density tissues are pretty common, but, just in case, decided to get a mammogram.

Turns out this is not an easy feat -- the hospital requires a referral from your primary care doctor (no one cares that I have a PPO and don't need one). As luck would have it, I didn't have a primary care doctor at that moment. The one I always went to at Fenway Health left the practice back in March 2022, but they forgot to notify me, and now I needed to start from scratch and find a new primary care. For some reason, they wouldn't let me switch to another doctor within the practice.

Several days of phone calls and help from an insurance rep to find a doctor that took new patients on now -- and, with my luck, the only doctor available was the one that totally missed my pregnancy by three months 10 years ago! 

While I was on the phone, George called around to schedule a first available walk-in mammogram at Lahey, and later we were able to confirm the referral from the new primary care.