Weather Related Delays

Emily is healing nicely from her surgery.  Thankfully, she did not have as difficult a time recovering as her doctor predicted.  Her pathology reports have been delayed by the weather so we don't have anything new to report at this time.  Merry Christmas to all!

Cutting Edge Research

Emily is out of surgery. The doctor was a bit surprised by what she found during the procedure. The affected lymph nodes had all matted together and were much deeper into the tissue than they were expecting. However, the tissue around the nodes looked pristine and she was able to preserve all of the nerves in the area so Emily should regain full use of her right arm. She does have a 40% chance of developing lymphadema, which causes swelling and pain in the arm, and the recovery from this surgery might be rough because they had to go so deep to remove the tissue.

Speaking of tissue, apparently they did not have enough of a tissue sample to send to the drug resistance lab after the biopsy so her surgeon made sure to prepare a proper sample this time around. The technology around these tests is brand new and cutting edge. It wasn't even available last year when Em started this whole process. The doctors on the Tumor Board are split down the middle on whether Em should have chemo, radiation or both, but they are going to do the drug sensitivity testing anyway, just in case. The doctor in Boston is an Oncologist who specializes in hard to treat cancers and we have not yet heard her opinion. Fortunately, now that Em has had surgery, nothing else can be done for at least four weeks while she recovers.

We wish you a speedy recovery Em!

The Sixth Time is the Charm

Emily is going in for surgery on Thursday morning to remove her affected lymph nodes.  This will be her sixth surgery in just over a year and hopefully this one will do the trick.  No decisions have been made regarding chemo or radiation, but she is ready to get the cancerous nodes out of her body.

Information Overload

It has been a busy week for Emily with multiple doctor visits and lots of hard decisions to make.  She has been to a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist, her surgeon, her plastic surgeon, a naturopath and back to the body imaging clinic for more tests.  At this time, she has not made any decisions about the next step in her care.  She is waiting for two things before she can move forward.  Her surgeon has sent all of her medical records, test results and scans to a Triple Negative cancer specialist in Boston to get a second opinion on treatment, which we hope will happen next week.  We are also waiting for the test results from the drug resistance sample that was sent in last week.  At that point, she should have everything she needs to make the most informed choice.  She says that it is hard to do because every doctor that she sees makes a good case for their personal specialty. Em, we hope you achieve medical clarity with ease this week!