A Clearer Day

I am not sure that I can completely explain the whole “abnormal tissue” issue any better today, but I did have a good conversation with my Radiologist this morning.  I called to tell her I was a bit confused with the whole situation and her response (bless her heart) was, “That does not surprise me in the least.  All the changes and information we laid on you yesterday – you should be confused”.  We talked the whole thing through and I now understand what procedure I will actually be going through.  I will have a joint appointment with my Radiologist (Dr. Preston) and the Surgeon (Dr. Riley-Paul).  Dr. Preston will do the mammogram and pinpoint the location of the “abnormal tissue”.  She will place a wire into the location and insert a hook.  I will then be taken to Dr. Riley-Paul who will remove the hook and the surrounding tissue.  They will check the tissue to make sure they have the actual “abnormal tissue”.  They will x-ray the tissue Dr. Riley-Paul removes to confirm it contains the original “abnormal tissue” from the mammogram.  Dr. Preston assured me they will not close the incision until they are completely satisfied they have removed the area that needed removing – that darn “abnormal tissue” stuff.  

The reason Dr. Preston can pinpoint the area with the mammogram for the wire is because she does not have to be 100% accurate.  If she were doing a biopsy, she would have to be precise in the area as with a biopsy a very small amount of tissue is taken.  I now am feeling at least more clear on the issues and ready to proceed.

Now the wait will be for an appointment time that can accommodate both doctors.  I told them I am willing to do this whenever they want.  Dr. Preston told me it would not actually be a problem to wait until I come back from Ireland, as both the doctors have very busy schedules and getting something before I leave may not fall into place. I still have to show up for additional mammograms tomorrow – go figure and I am not questioning the process.

On a different note – I went to our accountant today to submit the paperwork for our taxes.  Max is in store for a nice refund (ah, yeah that will go into the JOINT checking account) and I will probably have to pay around $150 - $200.  Max is happy that I actually made the appointment and completed it in February – usually I don’t get around to it until the first of April – my bad.

That is it for today – and we had PIE, because dammit, we needed it!

Later . . .