And the ball starts to roll...

I had my appointment with Dr. Pierce yesterday, he was my first oncologist two years ago, but had moved to a different office in Virginia. To have spent two hours listening to him talk, I still don't really know anything different. But I'm not complaining, that's the very reason I love this dr! He makes sure that Doug and I understand whats going on before he lets us leave. He's also very good about keeping up with the latest studies and research, so if there is something new to try, he knows about it. As a matter of fact, he told us he would be going to a conference in May for a lecture on triple negative breast cancer, which is what I have. Thankfully, there are more and more studies being done for triple neg, whereas, two years ago there were not that many. So this is a good thing for me!! Anyway, back to my visit, I left happy. I could leave you hanging at that, but I won't. He said that although he knew he couldn't have prevented it from coming back, he's pretty sure that he could have caught it sooner, had he still been caring for me. But we can't rely on the "what-ifs" so I'll just leave it at that. We still don't have a treatment plan in place, but for a good reason. He wants the biopsy results before he makes any definite decisions. He wants to make sure that it is, for sure, the breast cancer relocated. There is a possibility that it's a different kind of cancer all together, like lymphoma, so of course it would be a waste of time and resources to treat it as breast cancer if it's not, in fact, breast cancer. And your question now is, when is the biopsy? I have to be at the surgery center at 9:30 a.m. on Friday 13th! ACK!!! Good thing I'm not superstitious, huh! But Dr. Holt will perform the biopsy and put the port back in all at one time. Doesn't it sound fun? At least I like the dr!!! This will make the 3rd time I've been put to sleep, and the 4th procedure he has done on me! And then next week, I will be having a MUGA scan to make sure my heart is strong enough for chemo, a nuclear bone scan to so Dr. Pierce can get a closer look at the spots on my bones, and a MRI to make sure that the brain is clear of any spots. Those things will be done on the 17th and 20th, I think that's what I wrote down. The downside to seeing Dr. Pierce was that it's close to a two hour drive. The thing that makes it nice, besides being able to have him and Kelley back on my team of dr's, it's a new facility and it's super nice! There is no comparison with the last office he was in. The chemo treatment area then was a small room lined with recliners, which if several people reclined created an obstacle course for the nurses, and one tv that no one could ever hear, the chemo area in this new place was unbelievable! There were probably triple the chairs, there were half walls between each recliner, and a flat screen tv for EACH chair, oh and one whole wall was windows so you could see the gorgeous mountains of Va. I'm sure that he mentioned other things, but honestly, I can't remember half of what was said, I had a headache while I was there and it was hard focusing on what he was saying.
There is my update! Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers, they mean more than words could express!