This will be quick...

Its the middle of the night... or very early in the morning... depends on your perspective. I am wide awake... and I wish I weren't.

Its a few days after chemo... and I am in pain. Not quite misery, but quite uncomfortable. I am aching in my bones, my joints ache really badly. My fingertips and toes are still numb/tingling and I just want to rest. But it doesn't seem to be for me tonight.

I have an appointment in the morning to see the plastic surgeon. Things are going to move pretty rapidly from this point, I'm guessing. Dr. Siegel, my oncologist, wants/needs for me to be in surgery for my mastectomy by the first week of January. Not sure how that's going to happen but I'm sure it will work out somehow.

Unfortunately, time is not on my side... or rather... time has gotten away from me. It seems that the general surgeon that I've been consulting with and talking to since this entire journey began, is not available to do my surgery now. She is booked until the end of January. That won't work for me. So, Dr. Siegel's office has made arrangements for me to consult with Dr. Abell, who happens to be Dr. Lee's boss. (interesting huh?)

The plastic surgeon I am meeting with later today, Dr. Lenert... also happens to work under Dr. Abell as well. So, it is my strong hope that all of these doctors can coordinate with Dr. Siegel to get me into the operating room in a timely manner. I truly do not want to go through another dose of chemotherapy. I don't fully understand the details, but it seems important/critical that I am in surgery not longer than 2 weeks after my final chemotherapy.

One good thing... Dr. Siegel did a breast exam on Thursday and it seems that my primary tumor (Fred, the big one...) has shrunken considerably. When this ordeal started, Fred was the size of a golf ball (maybe a little smaller). Now, it might be about the size of a pea (maybe a little smaller). Dr. Siegel was extremely pleased with the shrinkage. I was too. At this point though, I'm so ready to be done with this that I am happy with every little bit of progress... no matter how tiny the step.

I mentioned to Dr. Siegel that I was experiencing some insomnia and he prescribed ambien. (rolling eyes) So many folks gave me dire warnings about using ambien... "it will knock you right out"... "make sure you're laying down when you take it"... blah blah blah.

You know that those doggone pills don't hardly work on me, right? They take hours to kick in, and then only allow me to sleep for a couple of hours. And I do mean... two.

Since it is so late, I won't take any tonight... I'll just suffer through tomorrow somewhat sleepy. I'll rest when I get home.

...so, that's all for now folks. I'll update you on the next steps once I get home from my doctor's appointment.

~Nic