I seem to be getting some questions about when my appointments are so I decided I will add a page here with a list of appointments, past and present. The list will include what each appointment is for and what doctor it is with. Enjoy!

September 14th, 2012 9:00 A.M.-  Appointment with women's breast care at Tennova east for initial mammogram and ultrasound to check lump found by myself. While at this appointment the ultrasound tech decided she needed to get the pathologist to look at the picture for his own opinion. When he viewed the lump I found, he wanted to biopsy it that day, but could not due to me taking ibuprofen the day before. He then scheduled me for a biopsy for the following Tuesday. During my conversation with him he showed me what a fluid filled cyst looked like and what the lump I found looked like. He explained that it looked like it was cancerous material ( which still didn't sink in completely with me ).

September 18th 2012 1:20 P.M. - Women's breast care at Tennova north off of Emory Road. THE FUN APPOINTMENT! This appointment was the initial biopsy that was going to be done on my right breast to check my lump for cancer. I don't know how many of you have ever had a biopsy done, but I must say that this particular one is not fun, only surpassed on the "no fun" scale by the MRI guided biopsy which comes at a later date! 

September 19th, 2012 - Biopsy results! ( positive for cancer ) OK ... first I must say that if you EVER have to get results for anything like this, I highly recommend NOT allowing them to tell you over the phone because IT SUCKS! I was leaving work -driving- when I got my news. I proceeded to ball my eyes out all the way home, throughout the night alone at my house, and cried myself to sleep. I woke up for my appointment the next morning and cried on the way to the doctor to talk to her about the pathology results.


September 20th, 2012 8:00 A.M. - Appointment with Dr Gallahar ( The most awesome and compassionate breast care individual I have ever met in my life. She's AWESOME! Can't help but love her. ) OK so I have a three hour or so appointment with this great lady, accompanied by a breast cancer survivor from work. She begins our meeting, after introductions, letting me know that I HAVE caught this early and that I'm more likely to die from a car accident than my cancer. ( INSTANT RELIEF ) I took a big huge sigh of relief and proceeded to listen to her explain my pathology results to me about my biopsy. She gave me a lot of reading material and told me that I needed to take some time to think about what exactly I wanted to do. So after my hours of conversation, I leave her office fully armed with information and a lot of homework which was all reading and research. 

September 21, 2012 10:30 A.M. - Appointment with Tennova North to have a gazillion tests done! YAY! Bone scan, MRI, Chest X-ray, blood work, PET scan ( not approved by insurance so it hasn't been done yet. SINCE WHEN are insurance people doctors?! Idiots! )

I am going to take a moment to make a small note in here. Have I mentioned that I do not like doctors or going to the doctor ? Haha ... I've never HAD to go to a doctor throughout my life very much so I  guess I'm making up for lost time in the physicians office. OK back to my appointments now!

September 27th, 2012 3:30 P.M. - Appointment with the plastic surgeon, Mr. Dr. Gallahar ( Yes it is my great lady Dr. Gallahar's husband! How cool is THAT?! Yay let's go find out about fake boobs and how I get to get these done! ) OK, so during this appointment I get to find out that with my surgery he doesn't think that I will need any sort of reconstruction. I find out while I am there that they are going to take a LOT of pictures of my breasts. I believe they took 9 pictures! This is for insurance purposes so they don't make my boobs larger than they were before my cancer! UGH there goes my new boob job for free! I did find out though that after I am cancer free I CAN go back and have my boobs done with the blessing of my oncologist. 

September 28th, 2012 8:00 A.M. - Appointment with Dr. Gallahar to talk over which surgery I have decided to have done. ( I have decided at this point to have a partial mastectomy done ... AKA lumpectomy in non-doctor terms, for those who are scared of that M word! )

October 1, 2012 2 P.M. - Appointment with the radiologist, Dr. Mcdonald. This was an interesting appointment to simply get some information about radiation. I have been going to this office previously with my father so all the people there were very familiar with who I was and were heart broken that I now was going to be going to see them as a patient. Very compassionate people in that office including Dr. Mcdonald himself. 


October 5, 2012 9 A.M. - Appointment for Genetic testing. This appointment was to do some pretty expensive testing to see if my cancer had genetic influence or not from my family genealogy. During my meeting with a very lovely lady, she explained how this all works in our bodies about genetic problems on a DNA level. ( REALLY cool stuff ) We went over family history along with some other things and she came to the conclusion that it was very unlikely that my cancer had influence from my biological makeup. We got my DNA samples ready to send off for testing to the only company in the US that does this test. ( Yay no blood this time! I got to do a mouth saliva sample! PHEW) 

OK, so up near the top on one of the listed appointments I mentioned that there was a certain biopsy that was worse than the first. Well, it's next on my agenda!

October 9, 2012 1:00 P.M. - Appointment at Women's breast center Tennova North off of Emory Road for MRI guided biopsy. ( OK, so when they tell you they are doing this procedure, they don't really tell you that IT SUCKS. They mention that it's "different". It was DEFINITELY different.) OK so I'm already nervous about this appointment. They are checking my left breast for some tiny speck that they found on the MRI previously and they want to biopsy it. On the previous MRI they had some measurements that gave the coordinates as to where exactly this tiny spot was. Neato! Except ... well they compressed my breast for the actual biopsy ( AKA squished it ) CHANGING that measurement. OK, so they have me all numbed up ( so NOT a fun process ) and ready to insert the needle. It goes in ... too far OUCH. I now almost have a really messed up piercing. They realize what has just happened and leave said needle in and put me back in the MRI machine to find out the position of the needle so they can pull it back out to the correct spot. ( Thank GOD I'm numb! )  I finally make it through this procedure and really never want to have THIS done again. So glad that one is over with!

October 10, 2012 Afternoon - Biopsy results for second biopsy. ( Negative! PHEW! )

October 15, 2012 10 A.M. - Appointment for day surgery at Tennova North off of Emory Road. The big day has arrived. They are going to take out my crazy tumor, the first step is becoming cancer free! YAY! Well again I am so clueless as to how bad of an experience this is actually going to be. All of the procedures have already been explained to me, but that didn't really prepare me. Nothing really can honestly unless you've done it before. OK, so I have to have three things done on this wonderful day, half of which will be NOT under the influence of any sort of calming aides. So first on my agenda was to get a wire guide put in so the surgeon had a guide to follow for surgery. It was going to be like the ultra sound biopsy ( my first biopsy ). That wasn't too bad. Then I have to get some dye injected into my breast nipple. I don't know how many of you have piercings in your nipples, but I can assure you that putting ANYTHING into your nipple or through it HURTS. Not only do they put a needle in, but they push it INTO the nipple OUCHIES. By into I mean not the part that sticks out from your body, but the other that is all flush with your chest and then behind that point. IT"S DEEP IN THERE! OK so I make it through that and the doc says, " Well all done and you did better than most people do. " . Well now I get to go get a mammogram to make sure everything is in place where it should be and I will be on my way to visit with a great guy, Wes, who brought me to my surgery. So the tech lady does the first picture. Oh crap the wire guide has moved! She has to get the doc to see what he wants to do. ( OK already at this point I have one, gauge 5 wire, that protrudes from my body by a good 8 inches! ) They get into a discussion about how they are going to have to REDO that procedure and put in ANOTHER wire guide! yay me! So I proceed to get light headed thinking about it and end up having to lie down in the floor. ( Thank goodness they mop! ) After a little bit of lying there and finally getting up and put back into my wheelchair, I get to wait to have the second wire put in. All goes well with the second one and it doesn't move. I must mention here that the first one that was put in, the tech was pulling on it to bend it and during this process it decided to move out of place therefore causing me to have to endure the procedure AGAIN. Thanks Chika! OK, so back up to a recovery room to wait to see Mrs. Gallahar. So I get up there and get to see Wes and my dad who are there and have been waiting for over three hours to see me. I have a sigh of relief that now maybe I can get something to calm me down after the huge ordeal on another floor of the hospital. Nupe, they want me good and awake to talk to the surgeon! -pout- So I endure the pain of having these wires hanging pretty much out of my arm pit and a painful IV in the other hand. SO much fun this visit is. Well a bit of time passes, probably over an hour or so and the surgeon is here! -bounce- Now I can get drugs to help me RELAX. OK so we talk and they decide that now they can give me something. I got told that anything else that happens to me at this point I will be knocked out for it! HOW AWESOME! They go to wheel me out of the recovery room and I don't remember anything after that point other than telling Wes bye and I'll see him when I'm out of surgery. My dad had already left to go get something to eat.

October 23, 2012 8:30 A.M. Checkup with Mrs. Dr. Gallahar Near Tennova North off of Emory Road. Good appointment. She say my incision looks good and I have some swelling but it's nothing to worry about. She goes over the extensive pathology report from where they have been dissecting my tumor and the lymph nodes she removed ( 3 of them ). They found something on a microscopic level in one of the lymph nodes and she explains that it is highly recommended that I do chemo. She lets me know that they are going to set up an appointment with an oncologist so I can consult with him about it. She mentioned that if he doesn't want to do chemo, her and I need to have a check back so that there can be a tie breaker in the decision to do chemo. ( I think I'm getting chemo no matter what! ) She said she'd feel very uncomfortable about my cancer if I didn't do chemo, but that's a pretty standard procedure when they find stuff in the nodes. She says that they can do some testing to see if chemo will respond to the cells they found or if radiation would go ahead and kill what "could " be hanging around in my node system. I'll know more about this on October 30, 2012.


October 30th, 2012 10:15 A.M. First appointment with Dr. Antonucci, M.D. Today I got to find out whether or not I was going to have to do chemo. Well it turns out it's a sure fire thing and I get to start way faster than I though. My surgeon though maybe  I'd start when I was fully healed from surgery. I get to  get my first dose of liquid poison three weeks after my surgery! YAY ME! Anyhow, I've started a page on chemo already so I won't go into detail here. Today I got my first flu shot EVER IN MY LIFE. I told the nurse she should feel awesome cuz she got to give me something I swore I'd never get. Guess I shouldn't say never huh ? It was covered what all I could take in my appointment ( I brought a bag of supplements for him to look through ... Muahahaha! ) and I can continue on my b-complex vitamins, calcium, vit D3 and he said I need to get a childrens muti vitamin with 18 mg of iron in it. The other 20 or so supplements he said to hold off taking those until I get over the chemo and radiation treatments because all of those cancer fighting anti-oxidants get in the way of the other cancer treatments.

October 31st, 2012 HALLOWEEN - 8:00 A.M. - Park west hospital to get myself an ECHO. They want to make sure my heart can take some of the great poisons I get to partake of.

November 5th, 2012 8:15 A.M. Dr. Antonucci, M.D. for my first poison injection. Assigned seat of chair # 03 located in the treatment room.

November 6th, 2012 8:00 A.M. Dr Caren Gallahar appointment to check back with her for status on what Dr. Antonucci said about doing chemo for me & to see how I am doing after surgery. This lady is just awesome and very passionate about her work and her patients. Kudos to Dr. Gallahar! You rock lady!


November 6th, 2012 10:00 A.M.(ish)  Dr. Antonucci, M.D. for my first shot to boost my white cell count.. Assigned seat of chair # 12 located in the treatment room.

November 12th, 2012 9:45 A.M. Dr. Antonucci, M.D. checkup to see how I took my poison and if I had any complications from them.

November 19th, 2012 8:30 A.M. Seeing Dr. Antonucci and getting my poison cocktail today WOOHOO! We'll see how ths one goes. 

November  27th, 2012 9:15 A.M. - Checkup with Dr. Antonucci to make sure I'
mm doing OK after getting my poison cocktail last week.


December 3rd, 2012 8:30 A.M. -  Poison cocktail day today -cheer-  and to see Dr. Antonucci to make sure everything iss going ok and that I don't have anything weird going on. Heh .. if only he KNEW.


December 17th, 2012 8:30 A.M. - To see Dr. Antonucci and to get one more dose of that awesome red crap they keep putting into my veins claiming it's going to make me better right ? Then I get sick for 8-9 days and can't eat ... but prior to chemo I felt GREAT. WTF?!


December 28th, 2012 10:00 A.M. - Acupuncture appt

December 31st, 2012 9:00 A.M. - Dr. Antonucci's office for new chemo today. Supposedly this new one isn't going to be AS hard on me or make me as sick. I HOPE they are right cuz I'm over not being able to eat and being so worn down and tired ALL the time. Oh well though. This will be all done soon enough and then I can start the second leg of my treatments and hopefully be done and back to a normal life soon!

January 2nd, 2013 11:00 A.M. - Dr. Antonucci office for my Nulasta shot. I am really beginning to not like these shots.!

January 11th, 2013 10:00 A.M. - Acupuncture appt -bounce- This lady always makes me feel so much better around my treatment times. REALLY look forward to seeing her every week when I go. Thanks Trudy! You're awesome.

January 14th, 2013 9:00 A.M. - Dr. Antonucci appt and treatment day -flop- YUCKS. We'll see how it goes though.

January 15th, 2013 10:00 A.M. - My Nulasta shot day Yay!!! -sniffles-  Do I really have to get another one ?! Can we not just do chemo WITHOUT Nulasta? Nope they say! Oh well ... ...

January 25th, 2013 10:30 A.M. - Acupuncture appt! AWESOME DAY FOR ME! Get stuck with needles and lay on a comfy table for a little over an hour then wake up and get "unstuck" and go home and nap for like 5 hours ! I love my acupuncture days!

January 28th, 2013 9:00 A.M. - Dr. Antonucci appt and treatment. OMG NEXT TO LAST ONE -BOUNCE- Could it be true?! light at the end of the tunnel finally!  Soooo going to ask if they can reduce my nulasta shot for tomorrow if my bloodwork loks good enough to do that! *crosses fingers that he will!*

January 29th, 2013 8:30 A.M. - Nulasta shot today *bleh* 

January 29th 2013 3:30 P.M. - Acupuncture appt today again. Soooo look forward to these days. Trudy makes me feel so much better after a chemo treatment and helps reduce the side effects of everything my body is going through. Thanks so much Trudy for all you do for me! Great acupuncturist!