So close!

Infusion #7 (of 8 total!!!!!) is complete!  Yippee!  

Dr. O told us my tumor is now "smaller than a pea" and the other areas are barely detectable!  Hooray!

(As a side note, he explained how tumors react to chemo.  It isn't like a balloon inflating and then uniformly deflating. Rather, segments of cells are killed randomly throughout the mass, causing a "crumbling" effect, which is why he mentions a few small masses versus one large tumor during my exams these days.)

Did I mention that he told us a few weeks ago that this cancer mass has been developing for 5-10 years?  Yikes!  

My final appointment is booked, along with a heart exam, a meeting with the anesthesiology group, and a pre-op with my plastic surgeon!  Yea!

All in all, it's been a great visit.  Very productive, filled with plenty of good news and plans in place for all of the necessary pre-op meetings. And a fun, relaxed pre-chemo evening with my wonderful family and far too much delicious Chinese food.  Success!

Backing up a little bit, some people have been asking why my surgery will be so long (12 hours) and involved.  I am opting for a bilateral mastectomy with an immediate DIEP flap reconstruction, which will basically work like this (the New Wave side mullet she's sporting is optional):

While it is a complex surgery and difficult recovery, I will have my own tissue forming my new and improved "girls" and will not need a long second surgery.  There will be a brief second surgery in the fall to make adjustments after I complete radiation and to remove a strip of skin that will be attached along the scar during the initial surgery that somehow monitors whether the tissue is "taking" after being transplanted.  Or, in David's words, they will remove "my gills."  He was pretty proud of his "gills" joke.... oh, dear.  I don't think I've heard the end of that one, friends.

Anyway, it will be very difficult and painful up front, but my plastic surgeon Dr. C assures me that I will be quite pleased with the results.  My surgical oncologist Dr. L explained the scar patterns to us yesterday and they don't sound quite as bad as I was expecting.  So that's good.  Plus: tummy tuck!  Score!

Moving along, we received the good news I mentioned earlier at today's appointment and settled in for an especially long visit to the infusion suite today.  It took almost two hours for my blood work results to come back.  They have to make sure my white blood cells are high enough to receive the infusion, so nothing happens until those numbers come back.  Luckily, I had great visitors to keep me company today.

Here are the Bain Train reps from today:

I enjoyed having great conversations with my father-in-law Lorne....

...my mother-in-law Michelle....

And David's uncle Blaise, my mom, my aunt Melissa, and David!

If that last shot looks familiar, it may be because we had so many folks we recreated the infamous Oscars selfie!

The pictures are grouped this way because everyone comes in to visit in shifts, so we don't overwhelm the room (but just wait until my final chemo-- they have been warned)! It was a very light-hearted, social atmosphere throughout the room today--lots of visitors, patients and nurses chatting. 

The dose of Benadryl they give me prior to the Taxol knocks me out, so I squeezed in a guided meditation and a nap. Not a bad way to pass the time during an infusion!

And that wraps up my NEXT TO LAST CHEMO! Which is music to my ears!