Tests complete

Emily finished all of her tests today and we won't get any results until Thursday. She meets with her main doctor then to go over everything they have done so far. That way she can have a complete picture of what is going on throughout her body. The scan they did today was the worst of all for discomfort. First they injected her with a radioactive isotope, then she had to wait for it to disseminate through her body, then they did the scans. Apparently they were much like a mammogram (squishing and mashing everything) but they lasted WAY longer.

She is in good spirits but is quite tired at the end of each day. Hopefully this week will fly by so we can update everyone with the complete diagnosis. Stay tuned....

Waiting....

It turns out that Emily won't receive any test results until Thursday, Nov 1st in the late afternoon. And so we wait......

Back to Work and More Tests

Emily was back to work today, slaving away at her laptop as she tried to catch up on everything she missed yesterday. She and I talked in more detail about the tests she had yesterday and the ones coming up in the next few days. They took a blood sample to do a genetic test to see if she carries the marker for breast and ovarian cancer. This test takes up to 3 weeks to get results. Em has decided that she is moving forward with any surgical options with or without those results. Tomorrow afternoon she has a Breast MRI, which is done on to check for any other tumors that the mammograms and ultrasounds could have missed. This entails lying totally still on her stomach with her arms above her head for around 40 minutes. It takes 48 hours to get the results. On Monday she goes in for a PET-CT which is a whole body scan. They inject her with some sort of sugar that will react with any cancer cells in her body. The CT part of the test looks for any other abnormalities that are occurring, plus gives more detailed information on her current tumor. The PET portion looks at the abnormalities on a cellular level so the doctors can better understand what they are dealing with. We think she gets those results right away so we should have more info early next week.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and emails. We love to hear from you and appreciate all of your kind words and encouragement. :) We are all touched by your support!

Day 2

Em spent around 3 hours with the Breast Surgeon today. They ran a bunch more tests and now we are in a holding pattern until the tests come back. Primarily they are checking to see if the cancer has spread to any other part of her body so she will have an MRI on Thursday to determine that. The surgeon said that it appeared that the lump has been forming for at least a year and that she was fortunate that it was located near the top of her breast where she could feel it. Had it been in any deeper, it might not have been caught this soon or even at all. Right now it looks like she will need some surgery (either lumpectomy or mastectomy) and possibly radiation.

Breast Cancer

It may be Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but our little family was caught completely UNAWARE by Emily's diagnosis. We want to keep everyone updated on the details in the easiest way possible, thus this blog. That way, you all can stay "abreast" of the newest information. Here are the details we have so far. She found the lump a while back and thought it was probably a water cyst and waited a while to see if it would go away. Since it didn't, she talked to her doctor last week and had a mammogram and an ultrasound. These tests showed a large irregular mass. They did a biopsy on Friday, Oct. 19th. She got her results on Monday afternoon, which showed it to be an "infiltrating adenocarcinoma." Basically that means a cancer of the glands that has moved into the surrounding tissue. She sees the breast surgeon later today for more detailed info on treatment.



We will be posting whenever something new happens. Also, please feel free to leave comments and questions on the blog and one of us will try to answer to the best of our knowledge. I have dubbed myself the official spokeswoman of Team Emily so feel free to call or email me anytime. Em can also be reached by email at emilyp2012@gmail.com. More later....