This week I’ve been in and out of doctor’s offices:

I had a follow up appointment with the radiation oncologist, an that appointment seemed superfluous. I suppose I should be grateful that I really didn’t “need” to see him, that there don’t seem to be any complications of the radiation–at least ones we can see or sense at this point. He seemed eager to teach me something, so we focused on the risks and benefits of Tamoxifen and other aromatase inhibitors.

I’ve trekked to Oak Park and Dr. Nielson’s downtown office to have the lump drained three times in the last week. Each time it would fill back up over the course of the next hours or day.

This morning (4th trek) he made a small cut in the surgical site and inserted a drain/wick of iodoform gauze and stitched it in place. The idea is to keep the space drained for the next few days so that the cavity will close up and heal. We’re hoping when the drain is removed on Thursday the problem will be fixed.

After that appointment I went three floors down to visit Sheila, Dr. Kouris’ nurse, who does my bi-weekly fills. The first appointment made me late for the second one, so I had to wait a bit longer until they could fit me in.

Over the course of the last week, 24 cc have been extracted from my lump (not including the unmeasured amount from today.) 25 cc was injected into my expander today. I guess that about makes things even, though somehow it doesn’t quite add up that way.

But Anne and James are coming IN tomorrow night and that makes up for a lot of other stuff.