Weekend Report

 We had a beautiful weekend in Washington DC. We walked around - a lot! We went to Air and Space Museum. 

There was whining. There were near temper tantrums (including one of mine). There was quite a bit of hanger.

Favorite things this weekend: 

Saturday: Library of Congress, the amazing weather, the view of the Capitol (we couldn't go inside), Lincoln Memorial and the Reflection pool, WWII Memoiral and the fountains. The wide streets, the architecture, Iran human rights demonstration, the activity near the White House (road blocked off! black fancy car*! multiple security cars! EMT truck!). Also, futuristic-looking electric unicycles people were zooming around  on!

Sunday: space shuttle, military planes, Concord, WWI-era planes, Japanese kamikaze plane, old computers and equipment used for space exploration and reconnaissance missions, treasure hunt through the museum with C, eating outside and watching the airplanes land. Visiting my best friend from college before she and her family leave for another country.

*Oh man, I haven't thought of "Chaika" in decades - those were the black shiny government cars back in the USSR.

And, like a sword over my head - the upcoming imaging (end of this week) and then, on a different day (yet to be scheduled), a biopsy. And the dark thoughts that I waited too long, that I should have pushed for it more, and earlier, and got the results back sooner...

October Snapshots

Kids activities:

• E has the most stuff. Weekly violin lessons and Young Musician Orchestra rehearsals. At school, he has cross country (although the season is over this week), Honor Strings, and French Club. He also helps out at Hebrew School.
• H has piano lessons and she is doing rock climbing once a week. She is also in French Club. She started taking lessons to prepare for her Bat Mitzvah.
• C has piano lessons and is doing soccer. (Need to find something else for her to do, sports-wise, for winter months). Plus, Hebrew School.

Parent activities:

• Work, occasional walks, reading, TV shows, updating the mud room (painting, new furniture, etc).

Fun stuff: 

• Hilary Hanh concert with E and my mom, followed by chocolate treats. 
• E and H went to a local scare-park (Bates Motel). They went on different days, with different groups of friends. E (who is 14) said “not scary at all!” but had fun hanging out wit his friends. H (she is 12) said that she had her eyes closed most of the time (and got around by holding someone’s hand or getting piggy-back rides*) but had fun with her friends.
• We are going to Washington DC with my parents this weekend.
• E had friends over for dinner and sleepover.
• We went on a very nice hike last weekend! Miracle of miracles – no one complained!
• Family bike ride two weekends ago. There was some complaining from kids (too many hills… too tired… too bored… not going fast enough…) but we survived.
• A walk at a local arboretum with friends (and their kids). The kids got lost (or the parents got lost, depending on who asked), but it all worked out. One of the kids borrowed a phone from the person at the entrance check-in and called to tell us where they were. (E, the oldest, wasn’t there because he was planting trees somewhere else with his friends).

Not good stuff:

• A neighbor and a friend was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer.
• I need a biopsy.
• My parents are depressed (because of health stuff).
• War in Ukraine
• Politics

Good stuff:

• We are alive.
• There are lots of books at the library.
• Fall colors are beautiful.
• I can go walking in the park.
• There are exciting concerts coming up (Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos! Shchedrin’s version of Carmen! Peer Gynt performance for kids!)
• Our local theater is doing Sound of Music
• I can hang out with my parents during E’s YMO rehearsal.

*H is very small for her age.

MRI, Risks, etc.

Hello again. It’s been a while. 

I’m high risk for breast cancer, so I get to have an annual breast MRI in addition to an annual mammogram. MRI is expensive, so there are a bunch of hoops I need to jump through every year in order to get it scheduled. There is an authorization code that the ordering physician needs to obtain and send me, and then I have to send it to the MRI office. I have to do all radiology (including MRI) at a different provider than the one all my doctors are affiliated with. Which means I need to physically bring CDs with mammogram images to the MRI office, and then take CDs with MRI images to my surgeon’s office (except it seems like this year they finally managed to share electronic records – so maybe I won’t have to do it next year?). Also, breast MRI has to be done during a certain time of my menstrual cycle, so that complicates the planning and scheduling.

I had my MRI done a few weeks ago in September, and then I waited patiently for the results. As usual, hoping “not yet”, hoping that they wouldn’t find anything of interest.

Unfortunately, they did find something. There was a small mass that the radiologist at the MRI office flagged as bi-rads 4, and recommended biopsy.

Except then another radiologist (at my usual provider’s office) looked at the MRI results and said “not so fast”. He disagreed with the conclusions of the 1st radiologist – because that mass was not new, it’s been there for a couple of years. So, he said “no biopsy needed – have the original radiologist take a second look.”

I was temporarily relieved. No biopsy – great – who wants biopsy? I’ve had a few – they are not fun. I wouldn’t want to undergo an unnecessary biopsy.

Except the 1st radiologist stood by her initial assessment and said “yes, biopsy”.

At which point I began to slightly freak out. I mean, freaking out because one needs a biopsy – OK, it’s scary, because there is always a chance that it may be cancer. But here I was freaking out because I didn’t know what to do – 2 experts were giving me opposing opinions. Also, both radiologists pretty much refused to talk to me in person (or on the phone). 

After numerous phone calls with the nurse practitioner, asking her questions that she couldn’t really answer, I finally managed to get an appointment with the breast surgeon who did my surgery back in 2020.

I had a whole list of questions to figure out why there was such a discrepancy between the different radiologists, and what should be done, etc, etc. Most questions turned out to be unnecessary because the breast surgeon said – you have 45% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer (because atypical ductal hyperplasia plus a few other factors), you are doing everything we asked you to do in terms of screening, so yes, let’s do a biopsy. 

I actually feel better… Yes, I need a biopsy, but it’s better to know, one way or another. If it’s indeed nothing interesting and the 2nd radiologist was correct – fantastic. If it’s cancer – it best to know while it’s still small.

There is still one caveat – they may not be able to see the mass on the ultrasound. In which case, I’ll need MRI-guided biopsy.

In the meantime… I’ll do my best to not give into the panic mode. I’ll keep saying “please…. Not yet.”

Dear cancer, I know you’ll probably get me eventually – but can you please wait…. 

Just wait.