Like Getting Into College

I spoke with Sloan Kettering this morning, and they let me know that thanks to the numerous threats phone calls they've received from my loving and diligent family, friends, and family friends from New York down to Brazil and over to India (thank you all), I was able to get appointments with both a surgeon and a medical oncologist, for June 10th (at 11:00am if you wanted to set countdown timers - I know it's pretty exciting).

The surgeon is Dr. Tari King and the oncologist is Dr. Maria Theodoulou. (all you avid Googlers out there are more than welcome to sharpen your research chops and tell me what you find).

Honestly, getting into the best hospital for breast cancer in the US is a weird sort of triumph, like getting into your first choice college all over again, except without any kind of fun or awesomeness. I was in the Museum of Natural History and kind of had to restrain myself from shouting "I AM THE BEST AT CANCER!" I'm sure that if we made cancer into a competitive sport I'd win, but it still seemed in poor taste.

Anyway, more tests on Tuesday, but for now I'm going to enjoy my Memorial Day weekend. Since doctors are probably all going on vacation, I think cancer should take a break for a few days as well. Happy long weekend, everybody!

Not That I Don't Love the Attention

But it does get difficult appropriately responding to all the very kind phone calls, emails, texts, and facebook messages from the large number of wonderful people I have either tricked into being my friends or who are stuck with me because we're family. Thanks, guys. It really does mean a lot to know you're thinking of me (especially when your thoughts are accompanied by food - just sayin').

However, to streamline the whole process, I've decided to start this blog so there's an easy one-stop shop to get up to date on what you're all dying to know about: my boobs. Yeah, you're welcome in advance.

So here's what's going on so far (skip past this if you're not WebMD-ing along at home):

I have an approximately 3 cm lump. It's invasive ductal carcinoma, and the cells are moderately to poorly differentiated. At this point it doesn't seem like lymph nodes are involved, but who knows until they pop them open and check. I met with Dr. Beth Siegel at NYU Cancer Center yesterday, who seems nice and competent, and she scheduled me for a PET/CT scan, an MRI, and a mammogram. I had the PET scan this morning and the the MRI / mammogram are next Tuesday. I also spoke with someone at Sloan-Kettering today, and they are having a nurse read over my file to see whether I should be scheduled to meet first with a surgeon or a medical oncologist.

That's all the information I have right now, but I'll try to update this regularly so that I can hopefully spend less time talking cancer, and have more time to sit on a tuffet, eat bonbons, and pull the cancer card with enough success to get free appetizers at restaurants.