Update – Dallas Doctors

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Last week, I had my endoscopy. My mom came to Austin to help out and take care of the boys during my procedure. Everything looked good. The biopsies were benign.

My mom, Evan, Noah, and I drove to Dallas on Tuesday. Morry stayed in Austin to work, but drove to Dallas tonight. Then, we (The Belkin family) will drive back to Austin on Sunday.

Wednesday I had an appointment with the plastic surgeon. He was pleased with my progress. I got another expansion. It wasn’t too bad. I’m just a tiny bit sore.

Thursday was a big day for many reasons. It had been 3 weeks since my last chemo treatment. My treatments were every 3 weeks, so it would have been another chemo day if I hadn’t had completed my treatments. It feels great to be finally done and be able to actually recover from chemo without getting hit again when I just started feeling better.

Thursday, I had three more appointments with the breast surgeon, oncologist, and gynecological oncologist. We brought Evan and Noah to Grandma/Bubbe’s house. Sherah (my cousin) watched the boys including her 2 boys, Nolan and Court. We were gone from 9:30 am until about 4:15 – a very long day for all of us.

The breast surgeon said everything looked good and I see her again in 6 months. The oncologist confirmed I’m definitely done with chemo. She said I can now have my port removed. The breast surgeon will be able to remove it during an office visit. I just need to figure out when I will be in Dallas next and schedule it to be removed. Since I’m triple negative (the cancer is not affected by hormones) there are no further drugs I need to take. I will have follow ups every 3 months now. The gynecological oncologist discussed the ovarian cancer risk with me again. She believes I don’t necessarily need to do the hysterectomy or oophorectomy (ovary removal) next month as originally planned, but I should definitely have my ovaries removed by the time I’m 35. She ordered base line tests (blood and ovary scan), which my dad took me to today. Basically, as soon as I feel I’m ready, we should remove my ovaries. The risk of getting ovarian cancer by the age of 40 is only 2.2% (from BRCA1 mutation), but it goes up significantly after that. Until then, I will meet with her and get the blood test and ovaries scan every six months. Right now, I want to focus on feeling better and getting back to normal. Then, I’ll start thinking about when to have another surgery. Anyway, I walked out of the appointments feeling pretty optimistic about everything. I have been so pleased with all of my doctors and the whole UT Southwestern system. The doctors are very professional and knowledgeable. They also have great bed side manner. All of them have taken the time to sit and talk with us as long as we needed. I have never felt rushed. I hope you never need these services, but if you or anyone you know does I highly recommend UT Southwestern Medical Center and my doctors; Dr. Teotia (Plastic Surgeon), Dr. Leitch (Breast Surgeon), Dr. Harker-Murray (Oncologist), and Dr. Kehoe (Gyn. Oncologist).

I must have picked up a stomach virus or something. For about a week now I haven’t been feeling so great. The doctors weren’t concerned about it.

And in the meantime, Noah came down with a fever last night. That was after playing with Evan and Nolan and Court all day. We took him to the doctor today, who said his throat is very red. The preliminary test doesn’t show strep, but we’re waiting for the five-day results. He’s now on antibiotics, and is generally asking for even more attention than he normally does. Now that Morry is here we’ll have two more much-needed hands to help out around here. Evan and Noah were very excited to see Morry tonight. As soon as they heard Lizzy (the dog) run in the house they ran over to see Morry.

Overall, besides the stomach bug, I’m feeling pretty good now. I still have a few more procedures to think about in the near future. The next will be one or two more expansions and then the implant surgery. We are thinking that surgery will likely be in April or May. I won’t know until the last expansion.

We have a lot of fun times to look forward to. Morry and Evan will be meeting Jack (Morry’s Dad) in Florida for baseball Spring Training in March. I’m hoping to make a trip to Chicago in March as well for a cousin’s wedding. Evan and Noah’s birthdays are coming up soon and we’ll have a joint party for them the end of March.

I’m looking forward to moving on and getting all of this behind me. I have starting tutoring again. I really enjoy tutoring – not just for the extra money, but it gets me out of the house and doing something that helps others. I enjoyed seeing all of the kids again.

Well, I just wanted to update you all on what has been going on. I know some of the frequent readers of the blog were concerned when they saw I hadn’t updated in a while.

I hope you all are doing well.

Love, Rachel