Surgical Oncologist Appointment: Lump is Smaller

I met with my surgical oncologist today. We talked through the swelling that happened Monday night (see post here). I mentioned I’ve been doing hot compresses and the swelling has gone down though it is still swollen (vs. the tiny cancer lump I had Sunday night). The doctor did the ultra-sound. She had trouble telling where the cancer was, as there were two spots which looked like the clip they put in at the biopsy. The larger spot was still smaller than my original cancer (1cm and today measured .7cm) but she thought it may be fluid from the swelling.  The other spot was WAY smaller. To try to confirm if the larger spot was fluid, she aspirated the swelling with needle. We did confirm there was fluid buildup in there, but still couldn’t confirm exactly the size of the cancer.  After the fluid buildup was released, she then mentioned it felt smaller. From what I remember of the first ultrasound, the cancer lump was much less pronounced today; before it was easy to spot in the ultrasound vs. how hard it was to find today. Since we didn’t get a great read today, we’re going to do another ultrasound 5 weeks into Taxol. In summary, we’re seeing shrinkage.  She’s also going to test the fluid she extracted to confirm there’s no infection.

On a side note – while checking out the receptionists complimented my hair – I mentioned it was fake and took it off to show them and all the women there were amazed and astonished how great the wig looked.