Election Day at Cleveland Clinic

Epipany for Will:  So, boobs are breasts?
Epiphany for Dave:  If you found the lumps a week earlier, we could be at the World Series the night before all your appointments!

My genetic testing ("My Risks") came back negative.  That is good news.

We arrived in Cleveland last night.  Got a sweet suite - for real, a nice hotel that delivered chocolates at 10pm - right at the hospital.

Today, we had 6+ appointments with a mammographer/ultrasound, a surgeon, oncologist, chemotherapist, radiologist, psychiatrist, plastic surgeon, and then some more lab/EKG tests.  We arrived at 7:30am and walked out of the hospital at 5:30pm.  Appointments were back to back.  Unfortunately, we did not have breakfast prior to arriving.  At 10:30, Dave smuggled a breakfast sandwich to me in the surgeon's office - and that was the last we ate all day.  I had more hands on my breasts today than I've had in my entire lifespan. I got photographed in a real photography studio, wearing just a little paper half-circle that got taped over my lower parts.  Not exactly how I ever envisioned my nude modeling career to start.  Exhausted does not begin to explain how I was feeling.  We missed a gorgeous 65 degree day and when we left the hospital it was raining like crazy.

We did get some different gems of information that were new.  Nothing Earth-shattering, but things that will help me iron out what I want done.  I do think this is the direction I am headed:  Unilateral mastectomy with reconstruction using the DIEP flap (fat, skin, and blood vessels from my abdomen). That surgery might have to happen in two different sessions because it will not be clear if I need radiation therapy until the surgical biopsies come back a week later.  Doing radiation on a reconstructed breast could ruin the live tissue that is trying to connect.

We also found out that, if I do need radiation, I need to find a place that does "heart sparing radiation" so I do not get heart damage.  This is tricky since my heart is behind my affected breast.

We drove home in the rain, listening to what we thought would be a Hillary win.  I fell asleep for 20 minutes and when I woke up, the world had changed.