Fried!

After 4 1/2 weeks of daily radiation, Emily is officially a crispy critter. The areas around her collar bone and under her arm are such a deep, angry red that it seems almost purple.  She is also blistering and peeling at the same time.  Since she is so dramatically burned, her doctor has given her this week off from treatment and they are hoping to finish the last 7 sessions starting next week.

We have no information as to the next course of treatment once radiation is complete.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this is it and she can get back to business as usual!

Radiation Update

To my surprise, Emily says that radiation is no big deal.  She has completed 9 out of 33 visits and has no ill effects so far.  Her doctor says that she won't notice anything for the first 3 weeks so I will update the site when and if anything changes!

Tattoos and Test Results

It has been another busy month in Emily’s cancer battle.  After she had the newly affected lymph nodes removed in December, she had to wait extra time for all of the pathology to be completed because of the Arctic Blast.  When the results finally came back we found out that it was the same type of cancer cells as before, but with some mutations.  The tissue samples for the drug resistance testing couldn’t be released until the pathology was done so that testing was seriously delayed and we still have no results.  As far as the specialist in Boston is concerned, it turns out that she does not do phone consultations so if Em wants her opinion, she will have to travel across the country for an appointment.  She is still deciding whether or not to take that trip. 

Emily has decided to pursue radiation as her next course of treatment.  She will go in for a dose every day (M-F) for six weeks, starting this Wednesday.  In order to do radiation, the doctors put a little tattoo mark on the skin in the area to be treated.  Em had to get 4 tattoo dots last week and she was surprised by the how much those little dots hurt.  She said that every part of her body wanted to jump right off of the table to get far away from the needle!  Her teenage desire to get a tattoo is now officially squelched.

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!