Visit with Plastic Surgeon

Laura had her first appointment today (May 18, 2009) with the plastic surgeon who will be doing the reconstruction surgery. His name is Dr. Jayant Agarwal. He asked Laura a lot of questions concerning her type of cancer and the upcoming treatments. He also said there would be two basic options as to how to proceed with the reconstruction. The two options involve from where the new breast material will come. There are risks and advantages to each. The main factor is recovery time. It is much longer with the process of harvesting material from the body. Both options use an expander to create room for the new material. This decision will have to be made sometime after the surgery on Friday. Laura also talked to Vicki Rosser, the nurse working with Laura, who gave her a tentative schedule of the chemo plan. It will consist of four doses of “the red stuff” given two weeks apart then another four doses of another drug (of some other color) also given two weeks apart for a total of 16 weeks. I will try to be more specific on the types of drugs later. The chemo will be accompanied by lots of anti-nausea medications. Laura has also been advised that her hair will be gone after about two weeks of chemo. She is hoping it comes back blonde and with curls.