4th Email

4/25/08
Hello Family & Friends,

First and foremost thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, cards, phone calls, emails and texts. I appreciate them all and hope that they continue through this little speed bump I'm going through.

Now to catch you all up on things. I will go back and give you all the details!!!

Last week, after much thought and prayer I decided to get a second opinion solely for treatment options and such. I decided to go to City of Hope National Medical Center. This place comes highly recommended and is one of the leading Cancer Research and Treatment facilities in the nation. So I did the preliminary stuff and they were to call me on Monday to schedule my actual appointment.

I had my MRI on Thursday and with the help of some great drugs, it went smoothly!!!!

I felt very comfortable with this facility and the surgeon that I was seeing so I just thought this second opinion would be another option to what I already had, but God always has plans for us that we are not aware of.

Monday morning, I opened a couple of letters from my insurance company, that had come in the mail on Saturday (I was busy and didn't open the mail....my bad!!!). The letters stated that I was approved for services to be rendered on providers that were OUT OF NETWORK !!!
CRAP!!!! Ok, not to worry, I will call my insurance company to verify what all this will mean money wise when I get to work. Before this could happen, a rep from City of Hope called and set up an appt. for Friday 8am (today). Cool. I call the insurance company and they explain that in & out of network thing AGAIN but they also confirm that City of Hope is IN NETWORK !!! Very Cool!

Monday afternoon I get a call from the radiology clinic where I had the MRI done and they said that the dr. wanted me to have a secondary look ultrasound and biopsy and wanted to schedule it for this week or early next week. I explained that I just found out they were not in my network and I had already set up and appt. at City of Hope. They were all very understanding and said the last thing I needed was to worry about money and started working to make sure I had all my reports, films and slides to be picked up to take to my appt. today. I asked what was on the MRI and of course the nurse said a dr. would have to tell me that.......so I had to wait until today!

I met Dr. Paz this morning and had an initial exam and he reviewed all my films and MRI. He came back in the room and did the most amazing description I could have ever asked for!!! He drew diagrams, flowcharts, bar graphs and a few portraits too (ok, just kidding) but really he drew diagrams, and gave me figures, all my options that were available at this point and what was coming next.

He explained that the were very curious about my genetic predisposition, especially because of my age, so they set up an appt. with an genetic counselor (Monday 2:00). Then he explained there were some other areas on the MRI they wanted to look at and scheduled another ultrasound and biopsy for Wednesday (2:15). Yes, Mama will be here Tuesday. I have a follow-up appt. on Thurs. May 8th to discuss those findings and the next steps. They are also in the process of making an appt. with the oncologist as soon as possible ( they want me to see them before I go for my follow-up w/ Dr. Paz).

All other information is the same as before (size, location, etc) oh except it is NOT contained only in the duct, it is invasive so that means it started in the duct but in also in an area outside the duct. And during the biopsy they are going to look at the lymph nodes as well.

I hope that I have given you enough info to feel informed and in the know. If not too bad cause this is all that I know!!!!

Okay, thanks again for all your support KEEP IT COMING!!!! Please know that it is much appreciated. As for my attitude and feelings. Well, to be honest......I'M FINE!!!! I know you may think I'm putting on a brave front but I'm not. I have occasional thoughts of what comes next but I just pray about it and keep kickin!!! The doctor said that "THIS IS CURABLE!" with more confidence than Kobe about his skills.....so I'm good. I will update you at least once a week from now on I promise. I will be setting up a blog soon so you can just go there to see what's going on as well. I will update you on the progress of that as it materializes.

Love you all and take care of yourselves,

Nina