Update 7/24

Hi all,
Well yesterday I was feeling great so I went to the gym. While I was there, I saw Elli Tourje and that was great to talk to her. Later on in the day, someone had gifted me with a massage at Spa Las Palmas so I went and it was fantastic! Afterwards my body was mush so I picked up something to eat, dropped by Lou and Dave Sexson's house to pick up some things that they graciously offered to get for me at Costco, and headed home to crash. It's kind of funny becuase at first the spa said that they wouldn't work on me without a doctor's note. Their logic was that they didn't want to stir up the cancer cells. That, to me, sounded totally crazy. I mean, I'm going through chemo, so let's flush them out of their hiding place so they can be killed. Get 'em! So, I procured a prescription from my doc last week so that I was good to go. I did feel a bit chemo-ey after the massage which surprised me, and wasn't so fun. Perhaps along with the cancer cells being stirred up, all of the toxins from the chemo were as well. Anyway, I had planned nothing after the massage so that allowed me to just come home and read a bit then crash. I am a bit tired today, so I didn't go to the gym like I did yesterday but that's okay..I'll go tomorrow.
Tomorrow I'll also go to get bloodwork done to check on my red counts. I have to go weekly now to check these levels since they were so low last time. They gave me a procrit shot to help boost them but it doesn't kick in for 2-3 weeks. So, I'm taking iron daily to try to help that somewhat.
Tomorrow I will also see a surgeon in the valley to consult about the type of surgery I might have after I'm finished with chemo in October. I'm interested in hearing the input. At this point, I'm not pursuing the surgical option at City of Hope because I don't feel that the surgeon I consulted with there is specialized enough in breast. In addition, he didn't return any of my follow up questions from my original visit. Thus, I'd like to find someone who lives breathes eats and sleeps breast for consultation. I will likely check out the Revlon Breast Center at UCLA, as Dr. Peter Schulz recommended, for a second opinion. I'll let you all know what the surgeon I see tomorrow says. I've heard very good things about this local doc, but as analytical as I am, I want to know the pros and cons of all of the options so that I can weigh them to come up with the best decision. It will likely prove helpful for me to talk to people my age who have chosen a double mastectomy with reconstruction to hear about their decision making process (since everyone's cancer is a bit different scenario) and about the reconstruction process. If I were to go this route, I'd like to do immediate reconstruction rather than waiting. Of course, that depends upon whether or not they feel that radiation is necessarily going to be a part of the therapy if I do decided on the "double." If so, then you have to wait until the tissue heals, etc. Even without the radiation factor, some docs still like the tissue to heal before doing reconstruction. Thus, the necessity of seeking a place of surgery where they do this often and have seen all different permutations of this kind of an operation in younger women as opposed to older women, since age is a factor in recurrence and recovery.

I'm good to go for the port surgery on Friday. Lou is going to take me and pick me up since I'll be out of it. I'm glad she's going to do this :-)

Last week was really great because, for those of you who live out of the area, it was around 125-125 on Thursday or Friday of last week = yuk. I had a chance to go to Orange County for a couple of days and it was great. Even went to California Adventure and Disneyland. So much fun!!! It was even warm there, though.

The next round of chemo is the 31st, this coming Monday. My sister Jenni is coming this Sunday night and will be here until Wed or Thurs. morning :-)
That's all for now :-)
Bless you,
Julie