Negative Margins

Finally the verbal results are in, and my margins are negative!!!!!  Chemo will start on April 5th as planned.  Happy Friday everyone!!!

Team Yale is #1

Right now Team Yale is #1 for total donations in the Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure in Ocean City on 4/22.  Special thanks to all the team members who will be showing their support and everyone who has donated to the team!!!

GO TEAM YALE!!!!!  Woo Hoo!!!

Chemo Is Scheduled

Although we are still waiting on the results on my margins, (Don't ask!  It's very frustrating!) I have scheduled my first chemo treatment.  It's official.  This is really happening!!!!!  Of course, this will depend on the results, which will be in sometime in the foreseeable future.  But, as long as they are negative, we can finally move forward. 

April 5th will be my first day of chemo (pending neg results)!!!!  The chemo bunny will be visiting for Easter this year.

I so wanted to get this all scheduled, and now that it's next week.  Reality is sinking in.   

I will have some preliminary tests done in the next several days as we prepare for chemo.  I will finally be able to start a chemo count down. 

Nope, Still Not In

If you are checking in to see if we have heard the results from my last surgery, the answer is nope.  Have a great weekend!  Hopefully, Monday will bring some good news.

Mommy/Cancer Patient

Since we have temporarily pulled Baby C out of daycare to spend some much needed quality time with me, my days are quite busy.  I am enjoying spending time with her since I am not sure how I will be during chemo and what I will be able to do.  Recovering from surgery has been a little challenging with all the ups and downs, but I am healing well.  Taking care of a small child full time is hard work.  Kudos to all the stay at home moms out there, especially the ones with multiple children.  Sometimes when C is especially fussy (that tooth better come in soon) I think:  "If only I was at work right now.  Ms. Mary would be dealing with this fussy pants."  But, then I stop myself and say that my time at home right now is the best thing for myself, and I am so grateful for this extra time with C.  I think of all the other fun things I would be missing out on.  I would have missed the apple baby food she spit at me yesterday, or the snuggle time right before a much needed nap.

It's hard to be a NEW mom and be a cancer patient.  I am torn between reading my baby development books and the stack of Parenting and American Baby magazines that are piling up, or my Eating Hint,  Eating Well Through Cancer, and Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips.  I will say I have given up completely on the idea of making homemade baby food.  I figure as long as it's organic she will be just fine :o).  I would read up on all the cancer stuff and leave the development and patenting reading to Steve, but he is already my cancer researcher and insurance claim fighter on top of everything else he does.  I will just have to figure out how to do it all!!!!!   

Thank You, Alexis

Today I received a fun care package from Alexis.  It has some great info:  Eating Well Though Cancer cookbook; Eating Hints Before, During, and After Cancer Treatment; a couple of other books; comfy slipper socks; candy; and more fun goodies.  Thanks, Alexis!!!

Still Waiting

I am still waiting to hear the results from my surgery last week.  Hopefully, I will hear something either this evening or early tomorrow morning.  We need some more happy news.  HER2 was good news.  Now we need to hear clear, clear, clear margins!!!!!!!

Second Opinions Are Important

Friday evening, I received a call from my oncologist at Hopkins letting me know the HER2 test came back negative.  The testing of HER2 is complicated, but basically there is an additional test that can be done, called a fish test, that will confirm a negative/positive result.  Basically, the core biopsy result was negative after the fish test was done.  However, the biopsy of the tumor came back positive.  The pathologist did not do a fish test on the tumor.  Hopkins took both samples and did their own testing.  They agreed with the core biopsy results, which was done from three small samples of tissue, but when they did the fish test on the tumor itself, the result was negative.  This is really good news. 

This saves me from approx 18 treatments of Herceptin.

Future Baby Yales

I will say that becoming a parent has been such a rewarding experience.  Steve and I waited a while before we both decided it was time to expand our family.  We have been together 11 years, with the last 2.5 being married.  Soon after Baby C was born, we started talking about a second child.  We figured we would wait at least until Baby C was 1 before we would try for another.  Unfortunately, breast cancer has thrown us for a loop, and future babies are undetermined at this time.

The treatment I will undergo gives me a 50% chance of infertility.  On top of that, by the time I am finished taking the hormone blocker Tamoxifen, we will be 5 more years out after chemo/radiation.  We discussed egg harvesting, but that holds additional risks for me.  I would need to get hormone injections to get my eggs ready for harvest.  Because I just recently stopped breast feeding, I have not had a period yet, so the doctor was not sure how long it would take to get the eggs ready.  Having hormone injections poses a recurrence risk for breast cancer since I have an aggressive hormone driven type of cancer.

We decided to proceed with treatment, and if there are meant to be babies in our future, it will happen.  We had talked about adoption even before we had Baby C, so that is always a possibility.  I will try very hard to keep myself (and especially Steve) from spoiling our little sugar muffin.  If she ends up being an only child, we are doomed, and she will get whatever she wants :O) 

   

Steve's Blogs

Steve finally sat down and posted on his page.  Check it out next time you visit.

I also moved Diagnosis and Treatment to my pages for easier reference.  I updated it today.

Re-Excision Surgery

Today I had my re-excision surgery to remove additional tissue surrounding the tumor that was removed on 2/23.  The pathology report showed that the cancer went from the tumor all the way to the edge of the tissue, so they could not confirm they got all the cancerous cells.  Theoretically, any treatment I would have should take care of any remaining cancer cells.  Both of the oncologists I saw left the decision for re-excision up to me.  They like to keep patients out of the OR whenever possible.  I decided for peace of mind to go ahead with the surgery and take additional tissue.  They like to have 1cm of clear margin between the cancer and the edge of the tissue.  There is still a chance they did not get all the cancer, so the option for an additional re-excision (3rd surgery) would still remain.  Right now I am leaning towards proceeding with treatment even if we do not have clear margins.  I will be having the BRAC testing soon, and depending on the results of this, I may take more drastic measures after chemo/radiation to reduce my chances of recurrence.

Pink Photo Shoot

A couple weeks ago we decided to have a very pink photo shoot in support of breast cancer with our wonderful photographer Megan Rigdon.  I wanted to capture our happy family before I start treatment.  Megan did a wonderful job, and it was a beautiful day for February.  I wanted to share some of the pictures.  Enjoy.

Decisions, Decisions

We have gotten two different opinions.  Both agree we are dealing with stage 2B, but each had a different treatment plan for me.  We are weighing the pros and cons trying to determine what's the best option for me.

Get Well Cards - A Must Read

I have received some wonderful cards from friends and loved ones over the last few weeks.  Today I received 21 get well cards from the 5th grade students at Cardinal Shehan School in Baltimore.  They were so fun to read and were very colorful and cheerful.  Below is what a student named Cody wrote in his homemade card that had a big red heart on the front.

Make sure you pray everyday so the Lord can give you angels on your side.  Believe with all your mind, soul, and body.  Believe in God.  Pray, pray, pray, and He will answer, give angels, and listen to your help and cry.  Think of your family.  They need you.  Don't give up.  Fight it for you, your husband, daughter, and family.  Remember to believe in Him for eternity. 

Are you wiser than a 5th grader????? 

Each one was very special.  We loved reading them tonight.  A big thank you to Mrs. McDonald and the 5th grade class at Cardinal Shehan School.