Doctors Sent by God

Many people came forward and shared their breast cancer story with me. It has been so helpful to know what to expect, doctors to see and so forth. One of those women was my husband's co-worker, Kathy. She reached out to me right away. One of her many texts, she told me the name of her oncologist. I had to read it many times because it was the same one my mother had, Dr. Grossman. This came as a shock because when my mother was in the hospital dying of cancer Dr. Grossman told us he was thinking of retiring.

So six years later, I thought for sure he would have retired, but now he was working for UT Hospital and he specialized in early stage breast cancer! This I knew was God leading me to him from my new friend Kathy.  I prayed about it and knew my mother would not want me to go to anyone else. The respect my mother had for doctor Grossman cannot be measured! My mother was an RN who was just brilliant. She read and kept up to date on the latest medical advances and so many other things. My mom would want to see him for every medical issue she had. I would tell her, "Mom, Dr. Grossman does not practice in that field." But it did not matter what it was, Dr. Grossman was the only one who would be able to solve her problem. This went on for eight years. She thought Dr. Grossman should do it all, because of course no one compared to him. So now I felt this was my mother's way of saying, I told you, only Dr. Grossman!

It felt like years from the time I found "the lump," until my appointment with the surgeon. Dr. Grossman's office got me in the next week I called. The two just happened to be the same day.
My husband and Aunt Della attended the surgical appointment with me. It gave me such peace knowing my aunt was with me who had been through this. She helped me think more logical and not act on my instinct, which was take these things off me! I do not want to die!

My first blessing, besides having my family with me, was seeing Dr. Lloyd's nurse whom I had gone to Haiti with on a mission trip many, many years ago. The next was getting all my results. The MRI only showed cancer in my one breast, which was very good, since at one time they thought I may have cancer in both breasts. My cancer was growing at 2%, which is very slow.  I was at Stage 1, was progesterone & estrogen positive (this responds best to treatments) and the cancer was very small! Dr. Lloyd, my surgeon, said I have two options, a lumpectomy or a double mastectomy. The double mastectomy would not change my life expectancy. The chance of reoccurrence is only 3% with a double mastectomy, 6% with a lumpectomy if I had radiation & took the hormone therapy drug, for five years, to keep hormones from attaching to cancer cells. So, the advice was not "take an aspirin & call me in the morning." The treatment plan was to slice out the cancer or just take both breasts with your muscles & then stick balloons in there & fill them up with gel... hey, I like balloons! This was all quite good news considering...

The next appointment was with Dr. Grossman, he remembered my Mother & my Aunt Nancy, who came with me. He wanted to check to see if I was a carrier for the breast cancer gene. If I was, then I would have the double mastectomy & if not the lumpectomy. I was really happy to hear this, because I did not want to make such a decision. He took it out of my hands & left it up to my genes. I realize I still could make whatever choice I wanted to, because it is my body. So, I left it up to God to give me peace and to trust the doctors God had put in my path.
 

So I had my blood taken for the genetic test, but wait, I have to have "Counseling," on it first before my insurance will pay for it! Dr. Lloyd told me this, but somehow I did not understand! Now I had to wait a week for my counseling. This would be so easy compared to everything else!