First Trip to the Cancer Center

I got in to see the radiation oncologist at the Cancer Center the next day. Walking into the Cancer Center is stressful enough. I didn't feel sick and I was just pissed off at the world. I felt like it was a complete waste of time because I wouldn't be getting radiation for at least 6 months. I was also a little miffed that the Dr. seemed a little po'd at me that I didn't know anything about cancer or radiation. Not a real friendly guy. They explained that when the time came, I would have an orientation day with the radiation team. They would mark the area that would be radiated with small tattoo marks. He also made mention that I would probably be having chemo and that I needed to think about my future of ever having kids since the chemo would cause damage to my eggs. I don't know if I want to have kids! I'm way to young for that! I was totally freaking out because I hadn't really come to terms with the fact that I had cancer yet, and now I was needing to decide if I wanted to have kids- all in about 2 weeks.
I dropped Amy off at her work after the appt- she asked me if I had thought about freezing my eggs. I said that I really hadn't thought much about it at all- no other doctor had mentioned the fact that I may not be able to have kids after all of this is said and done. She also questioned me as to if I thought about having a second opinion about the cancer and treatment, possibly at Mayo Clinic. It was all too much to think about and I didn't want to deal with it. I had no idea where to even begin and whatever I decided to do, I needed to do it fast.
The next day I met the medical oncologist, that I had seen last year. Holy cow we waited hours to get in to see him! I was really getting honked off by the time he came in. I was concerned that since he was running so late that I would be hurried out the door, but he spent at least an hour with my mom and I going over everything. He broke the news that I was dreading- I needed to have chemo and yes I would lose my hair. I bawled through most of the appt. He went through my mammograms and showed the lump to me, which was the first time I had seen it. I was able to see both the regular mammogram and the digital mammogram, which looked like night and day. So my advice is to always get the digital mammogram! Mom asked the doctor about how do we know all the cancer is gone? I had what was called "multifocal cancer" meaning there were several small spots in the tissue around the actual lump that were cancerous. I wanted to make sure there weren't other spots that weren't taken out, but they believed they were all concentrated in that area. So I was set up for possible petscan and MRI the next day after my surgeon and he were able to discuss what I should do next.
I had a MRI the following day in Omaha, where the experts are in reading the images. That was an experience in itself. They set me up with an IV and there was blood shooting out of my hand and it was pretty disgusting. Even the nurse doing it was taken by surprise, she had hit a valve in the vein and it only went in partially. I told her I'm not normally queasy but OMG there was a 12 inch circle of my blood on the floor!
To do the MRI, I started out on my back and then they flipped me onto my stomach. This is the funny part, the nurse built up some materials that I would lay on, which included a large hard foam piece with two giant holes in it. She told me to crawl on, face down with my arms above my head and I just started laughing! I was like, are you serious? My boobs are going in those holes? She commented that no one has ever laughed like that before- I thought this was completely hilarious that my boobs were going to hang through holes. So after I got on, she reached from under the table to positon 'the girls' in the holes. What an experience!