Finally, everything is set up for my blog. This is pretty cool. As you all know, I am NOT a computer person (like my son)! Anyway, I just wanted to give you an update as to what has been happening since we moved to Marietta. I saw an Oncologist on Nov. 30. His name is Dr. Andrews and I really liked him. He told me I would need a surgeon first, so he called Dr. Fine who could see me on the following Monday. I had told some of my friends that I would be seeing this guy on Monday, and I got a phone call from Teri Nelson who told me she was coming down. What I did not know was that she was planning on being here in time to go to my appt. with me! It was so great to have her here because, as you can probably imagine, your head is spinning getting so much information! She was able to go along, take notes, and help me remember things! I really like Dr. Fine. He is all business, but is supposed to be one of the finest surgeons on breast cancer in the Southeast. Now, I need to backup for a minute, because how I found him was thru Dr. Andrews, who was recommended to me by Dr. John Peach in Nashville. He and his wife, Dawn, our dear friends of ours and it helped so much to have him call Andrews office and get me in FAST! So, back to being at Dr. Fine's office. He told me he wanted me to have an Breast MRI before surgery if he could get me in. This would tell him if there was any occult cancer in the right breast, and possibly if there was any lymph node activity. The surgery was scheduled for Dec. 12 at 9:30 in the morning. I had to be at the hospital at 6:15 so they could inject a radioactive dye into the left breast which would track the lymph nodes and they would be able to remove them easier. SO, Dawn Peach decided she could come down for the surgery. Boy, that was a life saver! She came down here armed with casseroles, ingredients for soup, and ready to cook! We had a great dinner the night before surgery at The Buckhead Diner. It really helped to have her support here for Kent and I. The next day we went to the hospital and we even found things to laugh about while waiting for the surgery. When I woke up, Kent and Dawn came into my room, and they were smiling ear to ear. MY LYMPH NODES WERE CLEAR! THE MARGINS AROUND THE BREAST TISSUE WERE CLEAR! That was the BEST news. Later that day, I realized I had carried around a huge burden on my shoulders worrying about that, but God took care of me! I felt so damn good! It is hard to explain the feeling. So, since then, I had a balloon implanted in my left breast to get radiation. I go 2 times a day for 5 days. So far I have had 2 days of treatments. I will finish this Friday and get the balloon taken out. I will see Dr. Andrews on Jan. 22 to go over my plans for chemo. Yes, I have to have chemo because of the type of cancer I have, but my survival rate is very high. So, I think I will start chemo on Jan. 28, but I will let you all know because now I have my blog!! Hopefully, the rest of the updates will not be so long! I hope you all have a Happy Healthy New Year! Love, Deb