The Oncologist

Day 11-

Breast cancer isn't one disease - it's probably four or five different types, and without knowing what type a person has, you can't optimize treatment for them.- Leroy Hood

Oncologist: A physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. After a cancer diagnosis is made, it is the oncologist's role to explain the cancer diagnosis and the meaning of the disease stage to the patient; discuss various treatment options; recommend the best course of treatment; deliver optimal care; and improve quality of life both through curative therapy and palliative care with pain and symptom management.

My insurance company assigned me to an oncologist and I was very nervous about my first visit. His office was located next to a big city hospital. As my husband and I entered the waiting room I came face to face with cancer. 

"I am not like these people." I thought to myself. 

I looked down distracting myself with my phone.

The doctor was a soft spoken man who started at my diagnosis and went over all that had brought me to this point. Then he handed me a pamphlet of papers with the chemo protocol.

"I want the least amount of chemo possible." I said.

 My voice was shaky. My husband took my hand.

"Well actually, you really want the most chemo your body can tolerate. We want to destroy all cells of your cancer everywhere in your body."

He described a treatment plan of six rounds of three chemo drugs every three weeks. It would take about four months.

"But....will I be able to work? I teach piano lessons to thirty students."

"It would be best to be away from little children while your body is undergoing this treatment. The drugs lower your immune system."

I felt myself receding into a distant place. My jokes disappeared. I couldn't see myself in the this scenario.

Under Stress 

                    When under difficult stress 

                    My mind seeks a safe place to rest 

                   Instead of remembering more 

                   It invariably remembers less.

The next step was a surgical procedure to put a port into my chest which would allow the infusion of chemo to enter my bloodstream without stressing the veins in my arm.

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