Cody Updates by Mom

Well, we had our second appointment with the plastic surgeon about the drains today and also heard from Dr. Fox.

The visit to the doctor went much better this time.  A full day of meds and eating made it easier and also they didn’t do as much.  I was able to get one more drain removed today.  Yay!  That means there is only one left.  They think I will be able to get that one out on Tuesday.  After the drains are out and the holes are healed I should be able to shower!  Double YAY!!!  There is a little more work with taking care of the holes where the drains were for the next few days and watching to make sure they do not get infected.

What an amazing difference a “breast cancer, mastectomy, reconstruction” bra can make!  I was able to get a specialized bra to hold the drains and also help with some of the pain I have been experiencing.  This has made a significant improvement in my daily pain level today!  It is still there but the pressure seems to be helping keep some of the sharp pain at bay a bit.  Definitely a plus.

We did get a few answers from the pathology test of the tumor.  The final size of the tumor was 5.1 cm.  This is significantly bigger than originally thought but not as big as the MRI showed.  The good news is that all of the tissue surrounding the tumor did not have any cancer cells in it.  This is extremely good because if there was any cancer cells on the outlying tissue there was a chance that they would have had to operate again and remove additional tissue to ensure they got it all.  Dr. Fox says no more surgery for me other than the plastics stuff.  Yay!

The size of the tumor, the fact that the edges were negative and that the lymph nodes were negative the pathology report has put me at an advanced stage 2 breast cancer.

In the right breast they did not find any cancer cells.  They did however find LCIS. Dr. Fox said she would explain more what this is when we have our post-op appointment with her next Wednesday.  The short version is that this is a significant marker that I would have cancer on both sides in my life so it was good that we removed both at this time.  We would have had to be doing this all over again in the future.  Definitely something I would like to not repeat!

What does this all mean?  Basically that chemo is still a very real possible next step in my treatment.  I have an appointment with my new doc (Dr. McCormack) the oncologist next Friday.  We will discuss the pathology of the tumor and what their treatment plan is.  Dr. Fox said that they may send the tumor out for additional testing or may plan out the chemo treatment based on the size of the tumor.  The fact that the size of the tumor is almost to a stage 3 it is likely that chemo is going to happen no matter what.  Radiation is still a slight possibility but not as high as chemo.

So, here is where we are at.  We pretty much knew that chemo was an extremely high possibility with the type of cancer, size of the tumor and my age.  There were two scenarios that would cause us to go down the chemo path.

Scenario 1 – The cancer was in the lymph nodes and quite possibly spread to other areas of my body.  (not what we wanted to happen and were extremely relieved that it didn’t)

Scenario 2 – The tumor and other factors were such that they want to be aggressive with my treatment to ensure that my survivability is at the highest and recurrence is at the lowest for my situation.  (the best of the two options)

Next week is a busy week as we have appointments with three different doctors on three different days.  I do want to say that both Jim and I have been very impressed with Dr. Fox.  She is not only very good at her job she is also caring in how she interacts with us and gives us the straight facts.  She is patient with our questions and makes sure we have all of the facts to make decisions that are right for us.

The picture below is my morning note from Cody.  Gotta love that kid! He even left me with a robot. 🙂

Now is the time to keep walking down the healing road, maybe its a yellow brick road to the wizard.  Maybe he’s got some extra courage in there.  🙂  Thank you again for the cards and notes that I have received.  It does truly help to know you are there!

Caring Bridge Comments

Love and prayers..from mom|Apr 11, 2014 9:08am
Hi love,
Thanks for the update and am so glad that the bra helped a bit with the pain. Still sending prayers for total recovery. You are an awesome lady and I am proud to be your mom. I’m headed for the dentist today to finally get some work done. will write more later. I love you!