2017 was a crazy year for many reasons, but being diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer and everything that came along for the journey was something I wasn't prepared for in the least. I was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma in my right breast and the plan was a lumpectomy and radiation, it all seemed pretty straight forward. I had the lumpectomy, but it unfortunately failed, the tumor was larger than imaged and the margins were not clean. Next step was the recommendation to have a unilateral mastectomy and reconstruction. Dr Sprunt was my breast surgeon who I really liked, and she referred me to Dr Elizabeth Potter. I googled her, went to her website, read the wonderful reviews and scheduled my appointment. She walked in the room with an air of confidence and a big warm smile. She answered my questions, looked me over and said, yes you are a candidate for DIEP Flap, and I left feeling confident I was in good hands. Dr Potter was there for my mastectomy, placed the tissue expander and stitched me back up. It would be a while before the DIEP Flap would happen, but....after these two surgeries things just went downhill and the really hard journey began. The cancer was gone, I didn't even have to do radiation or chemo, but I wasn't healing, in fact I was just getting worse. The incision turned black and Dr Potter had to do a debridement, her eyes looking at the incision so inquisitively, she even said it's so odd for this to happen. Within a couple of days of the debridement surgery I was at home on a Saturday night feeling literally like death was looming and my spouse called Dr Potter's answering service and Dr Potter called us right back. I remember crying and telling her I felt horrible, the site where the drain tube was located was red, swollen and irritated, my eyes were puffy and my face was red. We sent her pictures and she immediately had my spouse pull the drain tube out, took me off the clindamycin and put me on a steroid pack. I did feel so much better, but by the end of the week I was back in the hospital on an IV antibiotic drip because Rachel did not like the coloring around the expander and she and Dr Potter did not take any chances. It was while I was in the hospital that the results of some blood work came back and my liver enzymes were through the roof, I mean extremely elevated. I knew something was wrong, because my urine was very dark and my body was getting very itchy and I had no idea why. Dr Potter walked in my room and said what's up with your liver? She thought it might be gall stones and off she went getting doctors in to evaluate me and so forth. I did end up with a really good GI, Dr Sperling who did tons of liver tests and it was determined it was a reaction to medication, so clindamycin and metformin were on my "do not take" list. Damage was done though, I became jaundice, I had yellow fluid escaping from the incision and the incision started to split open. Dr Potter wanted to remove the expander, but was told not to do surgery until my liver enzymes went back to normal, which they did, and I had the 4th surgery to remove the expander. Within 3 days I was in the ER with very elevated liver enzymes again, and my next appointment with Dr Potter was basically her telling me I was not a candidate for the surgery, and I understood, I was a very high-risk patient and there were no definitive answers as to why. I kept searching though and finally got answers, it was determined I have a rare reaction to sevoflurane, the gas used in anesthesia. After four surgeries all using the gas, I'm lucky to still have a functioning liver. Dr Potter and I talked about moving forward now that we knew the cause and anesthesia had other viable options using liquid and I wanted the surgery. I checked into St Davids Surgical center in Round Rock and I had my DIEP Flap. I'm doing great today, feeling stronger every day and the reconstruction Dr Potter did is awesome! I call my new boobie Bella because she came from my belly and she is beautiful. And as an added perk, I have a flat tummy, something I haven't had since my 20's!
I've talked about the many challenges, but what I want to iterate is this, I always trusted in Dr Potter, her abilities are amazing, her confidence is through the roof and she carries you, she is just strong in that way and it goes such a long way for a person in my situation. You always hear that having a great team of doctors is so important, well I did have a great team, particularly Dr Potter! And, I cannot say enough about her entire staff, Lauren, Rachel, Sarah, Sally, Geysha, Jessica were always super professional, knowledgeable, available, responsive and caring. I went to many practices in 2017, over 90 appointments to various doctors and I could see the differences between how practices were managed the quality of their staff and so forth and in my opinion Dr Potter and her team are the best, they set the bar pretty darn high! read more