Looks like that tumor didn't stand a chance against chemotherapy! It's shrinking faster than a snowman in a heat wave.
(we are, after all, in the global warming era)
Today, halfway through my first chemotherapy treatment cycle of 8, I met with my oncologist. After 4 weekly chemo sessions, the tumor in the breast is noticeably smaller, by half it seems, and the lymphatic nodes are smaller to touch as well!
So, it is working!!!!!
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.
