I have never really been a good test taker

Welcome to the week of testing. Now I know how it feels to be a highschooler anxiously awaiting the state mandated tests. The type of tests you really have no control over and you just go in with a positive mind and hope you get free candy or food at the end of it. Well that is how I feel this week has gone. It has been a roller coaster of emotions dealing with any and every test my doctors can think of followed by the financial expenses of those tests that insurance may or may not cover. One word sums up this week....Exhausting.

Monday I had to go in early in the morning to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (I will refer to it as SCCA) to get a biopsy of my lymph nodes in my left armpit. During the MRI last week they believed the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes but they did know 100% without biopsying it this week. So Monday morning when I arrived I went to the third floor, which I feel has become my second home, to the room I am now all too familiar with. This is my 3rd biopsy (keep count). This biopsy wasn't as painful as the first two but still uncomfortable and left me unable to use my left arm for the day.

After my biopsy Daniel and I went to Best Buy to buy my new camera to help me document this year. We roamed around the camera counter a few times but I just couldn't keep my eyes off this one beautiful black camera.

So we purchased it! No buyers remorse today. Now I just need to learn how to use it :) After we got home from Best Buy I had to deal with insurance the rest of the afternoon. Why can't money fall from the sky? That would make things easier. Lesson learned from all of this...always read the fine print and sign up for the BEST insurance your work offers because who knows when you may get some alien disease. Epic Fail on my part. Oh well, I keep telling myself between tears that money is the least of my worries and I have amazing family trying to help me sort all that mess out.

At the end of my day on Monday I got a call from the Seattle Reproductive Center to go in and get some blood drawn. I did not mention this in my first blog but my oncologist told me due to the type of chemo I am taking it may induce early menopause therefore I have to have my eggs frozen if I want to have kids in the future. Now this isn't 100% truth that this will happen to me but at the rate my luck is going I better be safe than sorry in the future. I mean who doesn't want to see "little Shelby's" running around right? So this is a process I am also going through in the next few weeks. Fun.

Last lesson I learned on Monday was not to Google things on the internet because they only give you the crappy bad information. It is like when you google "why do I have green snot in my nose" and the internet tells you it is the crazy alien disease and you need to go to the doctor before you die. Who knows what is real and what isn't on the internet and really each case is different. I knew to take this advice, a friend told me, when I decided to look up the type of chemo I will be getting. I will spare you the name but tell you patients and doctors (according to the internet) refer to it as the "red death" or "red devil." Awesome. Can't wait!

On Tuesday I had a full day. I woke up early to go to UW Hospital to get a CT scan and a bone scan. I showed up with a backpack full of Star Wars cards and books knowing it would be a lot of waiting between tests. At 9:30 in the morning I was sent in to get a bone injection. To me, being a chemistry nerd, this process was fascinating. They injected me with Technetium-99 which is a radioactive substance that goes into my bone for the scans later on. This Tc-99m only has a half-life of 6 hours but they gave me a bracelet and told me not to try and cross the border or ride on a ferry for a few days because I was considered radioactive and they may come after me. AWESOME! This substance had to travel through my system for a few hours before my actual scan. That gave them time to do a CT scan.

Now I am not a huge fan of drinking a lot of water throughout the day, and anyone who has ever partied with me knows I can't chug drinks to save my life. As set up for the CT scan I was asked to chug a liter of water with 25mL of trace in it to prepare for the scan and I only had 45 minutes to do so. This was a major task for me, but I completed it in 42 minutes and man did I have to pee. After I chugged the magical drink they sent me back to get my CT scan. They told me they would be sending a IV trace through my body during the test and it would cause a warm sensation in my bladder that would make me feel like I was peeing but not to worry because its just a sensation. This made me nervous because anyone who knows me knows I can't hold my pee and with this sensation I may be in trouble. While I was in the middle waiting room I met an awesome breast cancer survivor who eased my mind with her comical rants. She was going in to get "new boobs" and she wanted everyone to know. Once I got into the scan it was quick. I did not pee my pants thank goodness and it wasn't painful. Once it was over I peed forever and then waited for my next appointment: the actual bone scan.

The actual bone scan was also quick and easy. I had to lay on a comfortable table as they scanned by head and body for about 30 minutes. I took a nap through this scan. After it was over I head home in a state of exhaustion. When I got home I slept most of the night with no problems.

Day 3, Wednesday, I had an appointment at 1:30 for an MRI biopsy. Now I had a MRI in week one and I hated it. A MRI requires you to lay still for 30+ minutes face down with your arms above your head. This is very uncomfortable. When you throw in a biopsy (number 4) during this scan it makes it all the worse. This test by far has been the most painful one I have had. It may be because I could not see what they were doing and the sounds were terrifying, but I do not wish this upon anyone. Luckily that night I got to eat dinner with my coworkers and they took my mind off the pain for a while and I even got to talk to a cancer survivor who eased my mind on a lot of things. The days seem to go by fast, which may be a good thing, I mean, they say I only have one year for all this. I just wish I could sleep.

Thursday was my free day! No appointments just recovering and lunch with friends. I also got my results in from both biopsies (lymph node and deep tissue breast) and they both came back positive for breast cancer. This means I definitely have to have a mastectomy and lymph node removal when it comes time for surgery. Not good news. However, I also got back my CT scan and my bone scan results and they were both negative for spread of cancer so it didn't metastasize. That's good news.

Today (Friday) I am going to meet with the Reproductive Specialist to make sure I am a viable young candidate for IVF to eventually freeze my eggs, but I'm not going to go into detail on that. Then the rest of the weekend I am going to wok my tush off at the bar so I have some money saved up before I can't work anymore and it keeps my mind busy. Next week is going to be another long week of tests and procedures.

Again, thank you all for following my blog. Your support is amazing. I will post updates every Friday for the week.