Dr. Fearon

Today, I had an appointment with my primary doctor. She was the one who called me 14 months ago to let me know that the tumor was "highly suspicious and could possibly be intracystic papillary carcinoma". She strongly advised me not to go on the mission trip to the Philippines recommending that I have the surgery right away. She and I had several discussions from that phone call but I had not seen her since then, since I have gotten my care at the cancer center. Today, she wanted to give me a thorough check up. And that's what she did. Poked, asked questions, checked several things and then sent me to the lab for blood tests... and they took alot of vials, although the phlebotomist said when all is said and done, it's no more than 3 tbsp of blood. What was amazing to me was that she remembered about the mission trip. The first thing she asked me was "so, how was the mission trip?" I couldn't believe she remembered that after 14 months. It was really nice to see her again. She asked how the last year has been for me and how I'm feeling now. She wants me to have a bone scan sometime this summer to check my bone density. She is also checking my iron level, hemoglobin and white count. I reminded her that she was the one who started to check my white levels 3 years ago, since it was going up but not at an alarming rate. What she said surprised me... she said she was keeping an eye on it to make sure that I did not develop leukemia. I did not know that... at that time, she just told me that she just wanted to make sure that my blood levels stayed within the normal parameters. So, when it was discovered that I had breast cancer, I guess it didn't come too much as a surprise to her. I am so glad and so fortunate that I have a great medical team. All the people who have worked with me have shown not only professionalism but they also try to treat the human spirit; they show an interest in me as a person, not just me the patient.

so, the blood monitoring continues... hopefully not too often.... we'll have to wait and see what the results are...