Today is Mar 30th and that means I officially have 6 days until I check into the Castle. Am I ready? NO! I've made a few frozen meals. Hubby is a pretty good cook, but I did stuff that I knew he might have a problem since I have no written recipe -- homemade mac & cheese, and my mom's meatloaf.

We meet with the gyn/onco yesterday. I had a bit of a panic attack when I was getting ready, but got over that. He was very personable and easy to talk to. He said he feels it's very cut/dried. The uterus, tubes, ovaries and cervix come out along with the cancer, and they shouldn't even need to harvest the lymph nodes for evaluation. In the event that they need to take the lymph nodes, the gyn/onco will be the one doing that bit of surgery.

Of course, one of my first questions was "How did the pretesting come out?". I had the CT Scan, Barium Enema and Mammogram. He said everything came out clear, then followed it with a caveat - A CT scan would rarely pick up any sign of spread - UGH! He then asked why I thought they did the CT Scan. I said since it was not to determine spread, I figure it was to "map out" my insides. I was told that is exactly why it's done. After talking with us, he did an internal, then we signed the surgical paperwork for the part he'd be responsible for. One interesting thing I found out is that "nodes" are not really these little pocket thingys I had imagined. They are a stringy structure surrounded by fatty tissue. To evaluate them, they soak them in a soap solution to break up the fat which leaves only the lymph nodes which can be evaluated.

When I asked about HRT or the bioidenticals, he said that he was not opposed to them, even with my current (from biopsy) diagnosis of grade 1 adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. He said that if I had overpowering hot flashes, insomnia or foggy brain where I was having a hard time functioning, or other symptoms, he'd recommend the bioidenticals over the synthetics. He did say that he didn't think that it was possible to get enough of those to make a huge difference, but sometimes you only need a little boost to get you thru a rough spot. He did say that I'd be on something for my bones and heart afterward, but he'd talk to me about that after the surgery. In his opinion, eating the amounts of soy, flax seed/oil, etc. that are used in the South Beach diet or other types would not be harmful.

BTW, I was able to talk my OB/GYN into letting me use the Fleet Kit #3 for the preop bowel prep. He originally prescribed the Go Lightly (with a variety of flavor packets), but since I did so well with the Fleet Kit #3 before the barium test, he said it would be fine.

Guess my chest x-ray and my bloods were fine. At least I haven't heard anything yet about my hemoglobin being too low (thank goodness). Now it's just wait until April 5th.

I had a CT Scan today. I did the nasty orange milkshake barium in the a.m. The scan was scheduled for 10:30am. We walked thru the doors at 10:20, flashed our insurance card, signed on the dotted line and were ushered to the waiting room. At 11:15, they come out to ask us why we're there. Turns out, the people doing the paperwork didn't let the techs know I was there.

I don't know if that 45 min. will make a difference in my test results or not. They gave me an 8oz berry-flavored barium chaser before setting up the IV for the dye injection. I'm not one to like berry-flavored drinks, but this was 1000x better than the orange. At least it was a bit sweet. The orange one tasted like bitter orange oil.

I'm hoping since I haven't heard anything, that it means this test went without a hitch. The tech started asking me about my case because she's having problems and hasn't gone to the dr. I told her to go. The biopsy was not that painful and it only took a minute.

DH took me out to lunch afterwards - to the hospital cafeteria. Don't laugh! They have GREAT food - mine was a stuffed portobello mushroom with a side of summer squash w/ chives.

Well, today is February 28th. I have "officially" been diagnosed with endometrial cancer, grade 1, for 4 days now. It seems an eternity already. and I've only just begun this journey. Hopefully, if the biopsy and my Dr. are to be believed and have it right, a hysterectomy should be "currative and you'll need no further treatment".

Now for a little about my history. I'm 42, have 2 kids (soon to be 13yo and 6yo) and have been married to my high school sweetheart for the past 20 years. Actually, we could say middle school sweetheart since we've known each other and have been singing together as early as 7th grade. Ohhh, and Max . DH and I both work at an "institution of higher education" in web development. I am a person. When I had my son at 37, my doctor wrote on the wall and on my chart "elderly, morbidly obese". Obese - yes, morbid or elderly - no.

I was a very early bloomer and started having regular periods at 11yo. Our daughter was concieved naturally after 8 yrs of trying off/on. Our son, was concieved after 4 yrs of "more scientific babydancing thru chemistry". He was our "kidscicle" and miracle baby. He was a result of a frozen embryo transfer of a single embryo whom our RE named "fred". We had less than a 5% chance of it working and it did! My uterus & cervix didn't behave during pregnancy and I had several bleeding scares.

Of course, now I'm wondering what all those hormones had to do with the predicament I find myself in now. BUT I wouldn't change anything for the world!

Two years ago, I started having uncontrolled periods. They were lasting 3-4 weeks with a 1wk to 10-day break and they were "gushers" to say the least. I went to the doctors and was given some iron (I almost required a transfusion) and they did a hysteroscopy. Apparently the inside of my uterus was all ripply (DH and I saw it ourselves in living color on TV). Next came the D&C. Everything checked out fine. I was told the D&C should help the problem. It worked fine for about 5 months.

Eighteen months ago, I started having those problems again and underwent a biopsy before going thru a uterine ablation. The biopsy again tested normal.

Seven months ago I had a funky period again and was on the phone to the dr. right away. He did a biopsy in August and put me on 30 days of 20 mg. progesterone. After I came back from vacation, he called me with the results "hyperplasia with a focal point of atypia". I was put on 20mg progesterone for 6 months and was told to schedule a rebiopsy at that time. I was scheduled (due to his vacation) for the biopsy on April 3rd, but had a yearly with him on Feb 22 and asked that he do the biopsy then. He did, and on Feb 24th I was told "hyperplasia is still there, but pathology saw some grade 1 cancer cells in the sample too". That was Friday afternoon, he wanted me in his office at 8:15 Monday morning. Thank goodness I asked.

So, that is how I begin this journey. Right now, I have calendar dates of :

March 1 - CT scan of pelvis (drink the nasty milkshake)
March 7 - Mammogram (or tortilla press)
March 14 - Barium (lower GI series - that milkshake goes where?)
March 29 - review all tests with a gyn/onc who will be assisting w/ surgery and evaluating the organs, chest x-ray and blood work.
April 5 - Radical abdominal hysterectomy. Two days after my rebiopsy was scheduled. (They're taking it all, whether they want it or not!) 6 weeks recovery from my boss - er ...I mean surgery.

Hubby and I went to the hospital today to pick up the nasty milkshake. I'm most apprehensive about the darned testing and the possibility they'll find something else somewhere that didn't know about. Every little twitch, twinge, gas bubble is adding to my feeling of terror. DH shared with me that he's scared of the surgery. He said they can't do anything wrong with the testing, but with the surgery... Gee, thanks hon, for reminding me.

Tomorrow - Orange Creamscicle Barium Sulfate for breakfast. Yummm!