Malpractice

 

Well… it’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks. I think the plastic surgeon should have probably just let me exercise, but since I can’t, I’ve prepped, primed, and  painted the entire bedroom and trim. (He said I could!😆) I’ve moved furniture, taken down curtains, and done lots of online shopping.  I got new bedroom furniture, which I’ve never actually had- I’ve used the chest of drawers from my childhood for my entire life (and I think my dad used it before me!). I got 3 pieces, and it’s probably too much for the space but I don’t care. Our bedroom is just smaller now. It’s fine… 

I did see my breast surgeon, and the remaining lymph node that was visible on ultrasound was perfectly normal. She had no concerns whatsoever, and she did a thorough exam with no concerns, as well. She said that there is absolutely nothing to indicate that I have any remaining cancer, and the Signatera results are the ONLY reason she would even consider a possibility that I’m not cancer-free.

Well, guess what?!

Yesterday, I got 3 emails with Signatera results. This was pretty weird, since I haven’t taken a test since December… I couldn’t open the emails, so I assumed it was a glitch or something. It was annoying, because I hate them, but otherwise I didn’t think much of it.

Yesterday afternoon, my favorite nurse from my former oncologist’s office called. It was obviously a surprise, since I don’t go there anymore. She asked if I’d heard anything from Natera. I told her I’d gotten the emails that wouldn’t open, but otherwise I had not. Well, SHE did! She received a series of faxes, and they were “revised” results. After all that has happened since last September, my tests are now all negative.

WHAT?!

They told me I was going to have metastatic breast cancer in 8-10 months. They said that “a positive is a positive”, and that it didn’t matter that my numbers were so small. They said they “occasionally have false negatives but not false positives”. Now, all of these months later, they’ve decided my tests weren’t positive, after all.

I’d like to remind everyone that just a couple of weeks ago they were trying to get me to enter a clinical trial as a positive without letting me retest. Now, I’m not positive. Imagine if I’d gone through with all of the travel, expense, testing, side effects…

I wish I could say that I’m relieved and happy to get this news. I mean, it’s certainly better than everything else they’ve told me! But it doesn’t feel that great. I think Brant and I and even Nurse Jennifer all just felt blindsided to get that call, and to have had all of this stress and worry piled on after a year of grueling cancer treatment and then… they were just wrong? How? Why?? Dr. Joyce’s office didn’t get any additional info, really, and neither did I.

I was finally able to open the emails. They just contain new results, without any comments, whatsoever. They did not call, text or email any clarifications. 

I do believe that the tests really are negative, mostly because I believed that I was “cured” before I took the tests, and so did my docs. But the whole thing is outrageous. I booked an appointment with their genetics counselor online to “discuss Signatera results”. We’ll see what happens. I would record it, but that’s “against company policy”.

So, yeah, it’s been a whirlwind. We’re still trying to make sense of it all. But, I guess I’m back to NED (no evidence of disease). I hope that this actually feels like the good news that it is sometime soon.