Second Opinions and Trusting the Process

So what do you do when you get a diagnosis of terminal cancer? Ok, yeah, you freak out. I’m pretty sure that’s what I experienced the first week of this new life. You start thinking of all the last things you will be doing. That’s where my head went.

When we met with our oncologist, who came very highly recommended and, as it turns out, was the Dr my primary Dr team WANTED for me, I had only known for exactly a week and had only had my biopsies done that morning so we still didn’t know exactly what kind of breast cancer I had. The meeting was a blur. I remember having two questions…should I change my diet and what is the prognosis? 

So, let me step back, Dr V (Dr Maria Vershvovsky…..yeah, no one can pronounce her name well, thus, the Dr V!) is with Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and associates with Chester County Hospital….the best cancer center in this area of PA and one of the best hospitals….20 mins from home, so we are really lucky. My Dr was very certain that this is the Dr I needed to see and I’m very lucky to have gotten an appt with her as soon as we did. Penn Medicine provides a nurse navigator who helps make all appts which was amazingly helpful since I basically had no clue what to do after hearing the word cancer. My care team, from my primary, the nurses and my oncologist have been amazing through this! 

Dr V told me I did not need to change my diet…eat what you want, drink in moderation. And when I asked about prognosis, she rolled across the room and took my hands and told me, we aren’t there, and we shouldn’t think like that….if I had what she expected (which I do) my quality of life should not change much and based on all the weapons oncologist have in their arsenal, quantity is more than you may think! So we needed to stay positive!

Immediately we were very comfortable with Dr V. The thought of a second opinion really became something we didn’t think we needed. I did talk with my primary Dr about it and even she said that I have one of the best Drs and the fact that we saw nothing of this cancer 18 mos before, she didn’t think a second opinion was warranted. She suggested we ask Dr V. So we did and she welcomed a second opinion….she did say the treatment I would be on is standard of care and she didn’t expect that the second opinion would disagree, but she said that is up to us. She did suggest we go to an institutional oncologist as they have access to clinical trials more so than Dr V as a clinician does. 

I called my nurse navigator team and they found me an oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia. We had that meeting with Dr. Jankowitz last Tuesday. 

Over the weekend prior, I popped my rib again (while towel drying my hair!) and had been experiencing some pain again in my left mid chest area….I noticed a shortness of breathe on Tuesday morning when I fed the horses, wasn’t sure if was the rib pain or a side effect of the meds I was taking. Brock and I went down early, had lunch at the local Irish pub and walked back to the center in time for my appt. 

Dr. Jankowitz was very nice and very thorough….at this point, I think I am more engaged in these meetings, my mind is a little more clear after the initial shock, so this was a great meeting. She really explained things to us, reviewed my scans in depth with us (Dr V did too, but I think I was still in shock and I don’t think it sunk in at all!). She totally agreed with Dr Vs assessment and told us that there are no 1st line treatment clinical trials right now because they have so many good treatments right now. Most clinical trials are for 2nd line treatments, those I would go to if this 1st line fails. I could be on the 1st line treatment for YEARs! And both Dr V and Dr Jankowitz believe that it could be a while before we need to think about 2nd line….when we get there, we and Dr V will bring Dr Jankowitz in and make decisions on where we go next and we all hope that is a long time from now!

I did mention the shortness of breath and Dr Jankowitz wanted to be on the safe side and get a CT scan to rule out a PE in my lung (because apparently that is something that can happen to people with cancer…the gift that keeps giving!) So downstairs we went to radiology and had the CT which came back clear of PE! While it was a pain in the butt to go through, I’m happy to have found another (woman) Dr who was looking out for my best interests and am very happy to have Dr Jankowitz on my team!

I’m trusting this process more and more….while I still have occasional moments when I hate what is happening and I feel like shit (sorry, hard to find a better way to describe it!), I feel like I have a team of medical professionals I can trust to help me have a quality and QUANTITY of life while living with terminal cancer. I am hoping that once we have all the drugs on board my pain will subside a bit more and I’ll be able to do more (right now, I am limited by the pain I feel- hard to lift heavy things and move around a lot). And when this omicron variant starts to die back, I hope to go back to swimming to help strengthen my body. 

So for now, I’m almost a month into treatment and will have some blood work to see how I’m doing in the next week or so, this will go on every couple of weeks for a few months until my Dr has me to get scans. The next few months will see how I’m handling this treatment….I am hopeful it will work and I’m trusting the process! 

And that brings y’all up to date!  More as I go through the next few weeks/month. And maybe more that doesn’t have to do with medical stuff!