Rainbow Rice Meatball

I spend most of my free time enjoy cooking, crafting and a little bit of gardening.  There are several occasions from my children’s school that I sent food for their class event.  Often I try to work on food that I can involve them to help preparing, like washing, cutting or arranging. 

Here is a meatball dish coated with gluten rice made for my son’s class party.  I dyed gluten rice with food coloring chosen by my children.  My daughter picked pink, my son picked blue, I added the yellow and left some without color for the traditional look.

I prepared the meatball and shaped them into round shape.  Drop them into a bowl of colored rice for my children to roll them and coated with rice.  Steam them until fully cooked.  Fairly easy and my children had so much fun rolling the meatball.  We also made some with leftover multi-color meatball but they were eaten before I even had a chance to take a picture.

Breast Cancer Update

The following has happened since the last post:

5/9 Amy went to Washington Radiologist in Fairfax for a second MRI. 

5/12 Amy went in for a PET Scan to detect the extent of the cancer.

5/13 The results of the MRI and PET Scan became available.

The original mass of cancer is confirmed. The new mass was also confirmed. The left breast showed benign growth. 

Decision:

Amy has decided to proceed with a mastectomy. Dr. Marcus recommended Dr. Yoon and Dr. Cathy Huang as plastic surgeons. Dr. Huang is out of network but has certification for micro surgery. She will visit the plastic surgeons for reconstruction consultation.

This will be a major surgery. But it seems like the right thing to do given the extent of the cancer growth.

The good news is that the PET Scan result showed the cancer is limited to original areas identified. It has manifested itself on the chest wall or the axilliary. Although only pathology will be the final indicator.

 

Breast Cancer

After mom’s breast cancer diagnosis 6 years ago, the last thing we expect is another diagnosis of breast cancer. This time is my wife’s turn. She has been diagnosed with Invasive Moderately Differentiated Ductile Carcinoma with associated foci of Ductile Carcinoma In Situ. The invasive tumor is about 1 cm in maximum width.

Initial diagnosis is stage 1 cancer.

Timeline:

February: Routine visit to Obstetrician. Recommeded baseline mammography (for woman 35 years or older) My wife was 36.

3/31: Mammogram taken and doctor recommended follow up Mammogram

4/7: follow up Mammogram taken. Biopsy recommended after suspicious growth detected in right breast. Left side unremarkable.

4/21: Biopsy taken

4/23: Biopsy result showed cancerous growth.

4/25: MRI taken out of ideal period.

5/1: Trip to Johns Hopkins Avon Breast Cancer Center. MRI report showed larger area of DCIS.

We met Dr. Lange, Kyle, and Deborah.

The doctor recommend suggested Lumpectomy is possible. But if a large area is taken out, it will leave little volume. 

Follow up MRI recommended to do Lumpectomy to gain accurate picture of the cancer.

Recommendation is to have MRI 7-12 days after a period started.

5/1: Period started. 

5/5: We met Dr. Marcus. She gave very clear explanation of our situation. After seeing the MRI, she recommended another MRI screening. She also recommended PET Scan.

Dr. Marcus basically gave the same information we had at Johns Hopkins. But she was clearly leaning towards mastectomy. 

5/9: scheduled repeat MRI. need doctor’s referral for insurance.

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Hello, Universe! We have landed on the Web! In this Blog, I am hoping to capture our daily new discoveries of this wonderful universe.

 Live and Discover.