Mammogram results

Oops. I was so excited about reporting back about Faithless, that I forgot to post about the result of my mammogram. Only 7 weeks after I had it, and I finally got to see Mr Ghosh, the consultant surgeon.  As I thought, no news was good news and there was nothing of concern on the x-ray, and he did a hands-on examination and there was nothing wrong there either.

We had a brief catch up about my treatement so far, and how far along the herceptin I was, and he wants to see me again in 6 months time.  That concerned me slightly, so I asked why so soon, and the response was that due to Dr Iqbal leaving, they didn't want me to fall through the gaps.  I think I will see another oncologist for future heart scan results, but it does feel better to know that Mr Ghosh, who has been with me from the start, will continue to take a close interest. As I was waiting outside his room, the husband of the patient before me was chatting about how brilliant Mr Ghosh was. I think most (if not all) of his patients feel like that. Reassuring.

I also took the opportunity to ask about reconstruction. He said to give them a call when the herceptin was all done, and they would arrange for me to see a plastic surgeon. Mr Ghosh doesn't do that bit, he leaves it to the experts. However, he did say that they prefer to be able to do a reconstruction using tummy fat now, and potentially no muscle. This would be great. The current (old?) way was to take muscle from the back or the tummy to hold in an implant, and this obviously is a big operation and can cause problems in the donor site (e.g.weak tummy muscles).   An implant also isn't always what you want. Having a foreign body in you after what you've been through isn't the most reassuring.   So they are starting to use tummy/thigh fat instead. Its less likely to be rejected, although it can be reabsorbed into your body, and you get a tiny bit of lipsuction at the same time! Result!    A friend who recently had this done was black and blue afterwards, but still able to come along to a party in the week after the fat suction!

Herceptin No 10 tomorrow. Bupa nurses have confirmed by phone, and we are again hopefully of a pre-9am start. We shall see.

Oh, and we're moving house on the 20th Dec. And I'm changing jobs (just location & role, not employer) and finish in my current post on 17th Dec. Don't talk to me about Christmas. So I still feel like I have a lot going on at the moment and am a bit tearful. Happy, busy, all positive - just a bit exhausted.