A few good results!

Oh man, I am so exhausted from my errands!

At the end of my day, Dr. Oncologist tacked on a brief appointment with her.  She said she couldn't go without seeing me.  It was great to touch base with her, in person, for the first time since receiving the preliminary pathological results last night.

The bonus was that she had the results of some of my scans:  there does not appear to be any cancer in my bones (huzzah!) and my brain is also "unremarkable" (I beg to differ, but huzzah for no cancer!).  There are more data to come, regarding whether cancer cells are in my blood and whether cancer cells have taken up shop in my internal organs.  A blood test and a PET scan, respectively, will provide those data.  I gave the blood sample today, and the PET scan will be on Monday at 8 am.

Intriguingly, she has not yet concluded that the cancer is inflammatory breast cancer (IBC; what I had before), either new or recurrent.  Clearly we need to wait for the breast biopsy results to make any conclusions, but I had already been assuming that it is IBC.  That is because the current lump feels EXACTLY like the beginning of my previous bout with IBC.  I am very interested in the notion that it could be something different, perhaps even a "normal" cancer that is not as bad as IBC.

I am trying not to get my hopes up for a different cancer, but it is hard because it feels so good to end the day with hope.  Also, I don't even know what I'm hoping for.  Mastectomy before chemo instead of after?  Different chemo that turns my hair curly instead of straight?  Once daily radiation for 5 weeks instead of twice daily for 3?  I lack information to make clear hopes, but I know that I don't want IBC, and I don't know of the worse things that I should be hoping against.  

In summary, the cancer is not in my bones.  It's not in my brains.  And I will use my healthy-brain mind powers to quarantine the cancer until Western medicine has caught up to me.