Recheck and Hematoma

Had my recheck today with Dr. Knaysi's nurse practitioner, Susan. Everything looks good ... I am healing well. I have developed a hematoma ... that hard, painful lump at the site of my surgery is apparently a hematoma. She said to apply heat to it several times a day.

Everything is healing well with my surgery but there is a drawback -- with the HER-2 test -- mine has come back positive. This means that the type of cancer I have is aggressive and now chemo is back in the picture. There is a new drug to treat this type of cancer -- Herceptin, but it has to be given with chemo ... crap ... crap ... crap!

I had hoped to escape big bad chemo but apparently this is not to be. But the oncologist has to decide what the treatment is going to be. I can do some research before meeting with her now that I know what I may be facing.

I also have a copy of the pathology report so I got to study that at home. My cancer is Stage 1. There is something else on the report I don't quite understand ... it also has "Ductal carcinoma in situ" as Grade 2. I guess my cancer started there and moved into the invasive stage. It is so small ... 7 mm. So it looks like Stage 1, Estrogen Receptor is Positive; HER-2 is Positive.

I am not liking this Herceptin. No chemo drug is a cakewalk but this can cause congestive heart failure. I'd better stop reading before I scare myself.

I may have made a mistake but I asked for a Return to Work form for April 21. I am going back to work a week before my disability is over now that I know that I may have to have chemotherapy because I bet that there will be days when I won't be able to get out of bed. All the things I have to look forward to ...