Tuesday morning got up very early. The appointment was at 7:30am in the morning. My mom took me up to the hospital, but ended up dropping me off because she had to go to work. Not to long after that my sister was coming to pick me up after and take me home. She was going to try to make it in time to go in the doctor office with me but I told her to be safe, if she made it she made it.
So I was going to my visit with my normal oncologist. I was going be go alone for the first time in a long time. Especially when it came to going to hear news from a scan or something like that. 99% of the time, I do feel great and don't expect to hear anything bad at all. Regardless, Chris and my mom and my sister do not let me hear news alone ever. Good, bad, or regular news it all works out to be stressful just the same. They know that I am left to think about everything after the doctor visit. I do stay positive and brave.
I got out of the car and went in the hospital. I ended up being seen even earlier than they thought so I did end up going in by myself.
I first had to get labs done which consists of them drawing blood. And if you remember I didn't have a great time getting an IV the day before that. I had bruises from the day before. I went into the room and showed the lady my arm. She saw my port and asked me if I was having chemo that day. I said no I am having chemo tomorrow. So she decided to draw blood from my hand since I had bruises on my upper arm and not from my port since I wasn't having chemo that day.
I saw a doctor that I haven't seen before come in and visit with me. He looked at my scans before he came in and told me that they saw 3 new places that the cancer has spread to. Possibly. There was a spot on my liver, a spot on my sternum and there was some sort of spotting on my left chest area where I had my radiation. He examined me and he could not feel any sort of tumor on my chest area where the new spot was supposed to be. As for the spotting on the liver, lots of people have liver spots. Normal people have spots like that and nine times out of 10 they don't know it. They are normal and harmless. He also said that the spotting also might still be from my radiation healing. He said that they would be doing another scan in 3 months to check again and they would use this scan as a baseline. I said OK and he left and I waited for my doctor to come in.
I didn't wait to long and my doctor came in. She gave me a big hug as usual. She asked me if I had any questions about what the other doctor had said. I told her no. She was explaining that I hadn't had that type of scan in a year. I felt good about that. If its been a whole year and that is all that is coming up then I am great. I told her that I feel great. She told me to keep doing what I'm doing to feel good and that we would go from there.
I knew I would be there the next day for pain management and my chemo, so I got out of there as fast as I could. I called my sister and she picked me up and took me home.
I was so tired, I crashed out the for a couple of hours until my daughter got home from school. I tell her like I always do that I had a good doctors appointment, and she tells me like she always does, I know mom... and we go on our day.
I love my family...I would not be able to go on without them....
About Renee and my blog!
- Renee Bravo
- Dallas, TEXAS, United States
- I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer at the age of 29 years old. I am a work in progress. I am learning, growing, and trying to raise awareness for Early Detection. I believe in Girl Power and the power of Prayer. I am a mother, a wife, a strong woman in the 30th century. I have zero history in my family, and I have tested negative for the BRCA gene. I should not be facing this right now, but I am. I figure its for a reason. I decided to share my experiences more for awareness but also a place for my family to get updates. I do not send out email updates to anyone, I post it here. Here I am, I hold nothing back. If I ask anything, its to learn something from what I have been through, and make your life better because of it, treat someone better because of it, love someone more genuinely because of it. And most important of all, make sure all the women in your life have regular mammograms or MRI's. No choice. I believe 40 is too long to wait. Women today need to start early. I would love to hear or talk to any of you. God Bless.
