Pathology Report Update

I got a phone call from my surgeon late this afternoon. He had good news and not so good news.

The good news is that the auxillary nodes under my arm came back with no malignancy at all - totally clean. Our decision to not remove the nodes "just because" was definitely the right one.

The not-so-good news is that there is still residual cancer tissue where the tumor was. The best way I can describe what my surgeon said is that even though the tumor shrank from the chemo, the tissue itself didnt. The remaining tissue is still in that outer area where the tumor originally was - outside the good tissue zone Dr F thought he had right on the nose.

The other not-so-good news along with this report is that I am being scheduled for a 2nd surgery on Friday afternoon. Dr F is hoping to go into the same surgical site and to be able to clean out the area still with "lumpectomy" in mind, and nothing more critical. We are planning for me to stay overnight as I am the last/late surgery and the anesthesia part isnt one that we can change (which is the part that gets me admitted) along with knowing I will probably need extended time with IV pain meds again. We arent sure yet whether Preston will stay with me at the hospital or whether he will come home to be with the kids and then come back to me on Saturday. We will just wing it, again, once I am out of surgery.

The extra blessing with knowing about surgery is that our dear friend JT will be working again that day and I will be solely hers after surgery and until I am settled. Knowing she will be there for me and for Preston will be more wonderful than words can say. It is a great tender mercy to know that she will be there to care for me and Preston.

I think that Dr F was as blind-sided by the report as we are to receive the news. Things really went so well last week, this has just taken us all by surprise.

After the call, I have spent the last several hours sobbing and making important phone calls to make arrangements for kids and school and weekend events that will now not be happening.

It has been really hard to just take the news at face value vs second guessing the decisions we made last week for surgery #1. It has been hard to make the phone calls and to undo all of the long weekend plans we had in place for our kiddos and cousins who were supposed to be with us.

I am very grateful to all of those who have been so supportive and understanding. For those who continue to step up to the plate for us when things continue to not go as planned. For those who love us so much to make changes to their own plans to help us focus on my care and for helping our kiddos through another surgery weekend. We would be lost without all of you.

At this point, we really dont have anything more to tell. Will just be hunkering in here at home and resting and prepping for Friday. I am sure that Preston will, again, do an awesome job of posting to his FB page and to the blog here as Friday comes and goes.

Stay Tuned....