Good News!

After a week of testing we finally met with the oncologist today. Mom's oncologist will be Dr. Le-Lindqwister. She seemed like a great doctor. We got some great news early on in the visit. According to the PET scan the cancer had not spread anywhere else in her body. The breast and a single lymph node were the only areas that tested positive. This came as a great relief to everyone after we had heard earlier in the week that the one lymph node had been malignant.

The next step in the treatment will be chemotherapy. Treatment will start Monday with her first round. She will be on a schedule to receive chemo every two weeks. It will be a total of six treatments. The first four stages will last about 90 minutes, and last two will be about 4 1/2 hours each. They have a very comfortable facility and patients are encouraged to watch a movie, read a book, or even take a nap during the treatments.

Words can not express what a relief we felt today. There is still a long road ahead, but it's a lot easier to handle when you know exactly what you're up against, and the plan to beat it. This was very good news to start what will certainly be a very good weekend.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and continued support.

Late Appointment = Late Update

Mom had a pretty long day of appointments today, but answers helped ease some wandering minds.

The day started off with the aspiration of a lymph node under Mom's arm. This occurred because it became an area of concern on the MRI. The doctor let her know that while it was possible that the node lit up because it is cancerous, the possibility also exists that it lit up because it was inflamed due to all of the invasive procedures the week before. Results should come in the next couple of days. The procedure was noted as "much less painful."

At 4:00PM she had an appointment with Dr. Lynne Jalovec. Dr. Jalovec was tied up with a surgery that went much longer than expected. Her staff told us to come back around 5:15 and that the doctor would meet with us shortly thereafter. 5:15 turned into a little before 7:00PM, but we all understand that things happen, and it was awfully nice of her to meet with us that late in the evening. We met with her from a little before 7:00PM until a little past 9:00PM. We never once felt rushed, and she took plenty of time to answer all of our questions.

She described the cancer as "locally advanced breast cancer." She explained that it was "invasive ductile carcinoma." As a breast specialist she says that she only sees a cancer like this 2-3 times a month. This is no way related to the severity or survivability, merely a statement as to it's relative rarity. She rated it as a stage 2B or stage 3A cancer. Her guess was that it probably had been growing, unable to be detected, for about 5 years. The stage of classification is dependent upon whether the lymph node has been affected. At this stage Dr. Jalovec is assuming that it has been affected.

The part that most surprised all of us, mostly based on everything we had heard from other survivors and other doctors about the standard course of action, was that the doctor did not want to proceed with surgery first. Instead she would like to proceed as though the cancer has potentially spread to other areas of the body. As she said, "It's not the cancer in the breast that will kill you at this point, it's the potential that if we don't attack it proactively with chemotherapy it will end up in other parts of your body." The chemo will serve two purposes. The first purpose will be to treat the cancer, proactively, as though it may have potentially spread to other places in the body. The second purpose is it to shrink the tumor. A smaller tumor makes the surgery easier, and decreases the amount of affected breast tissue that needs to be removed.

Next week quite a few standard tests will occur including an EKG, PET Scan, and blood work. It will be a very busy week for Mom. If all goes as planned with scheduling, chemotherapy will begin as early as the end of next week. After about sixteen weeks of chemotherapy (2 drugs, every two weeks for 4 weeks, then 1 drug every two weeks for 4 weeks), Dr. Jalovec will proceed with surgery (modified radical mastectomy), followed by radiation. The potential also exists for some hormone therapy, a sort of anti-estrogen, at some point in the process, to reduce the potential of the cancer spreading to the other breast. At this point the potential is a slim 7%, but if she is a candidate for the hormone therapy the chances drop to 3%.

Lots of info to digest today, but knowing more has really helped us wrap our minds around this, and we feel like we have a plan of attack. Once again thank you to everyone for all of your support.

Update: Wednesday, October 17th, 4:00 PM

Mom has a couple of procedures scheduled for tomorrow that I thought I would let everyone know about. At 10:00 AM they will be taking a small sample of a lymph node that they suspect might be malignant. This an outpatient procedure and we all hope (especially Mom!) that it will not be nearly as painful as the initial biopsies last Wednesday.

She will then meet with Dr. Jalovec in the afternoon for a pre-surgery consultation. We are hoping that she has an opening soon to schedule the surgery. This consultation should shed a lot more light on the extent of the procedure that she would like to perform.

Again, hopefully we will have more answers tomorrow afternoon. Thank you again for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Day 1: Diagnosis

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer on Thursday, October 11th, 2007. My sister Jill and I were in the consultation room when the doctor came in and gave us the news. While we were prepared for the worst, it did not lessen our shock when the doctor used the "C" word. It was like someone had knocked the wind out of our chests.

Jill was probably the most upset. My mother (whom I am probably the most alike) and I just kind of sat there in silence. We do not usually wear our hearts on our sleeves, preferring instead to calmly approach things and let them sink in. I will never forget the car ride home that day. You can never prepare for something like this. We tried to think of everyone that we needed to call, and Mom thought of everything that needed to be done around the house before the surgery. Luckily, since my "retirement" from the wine & spirits industry, we have been getting a lot of projects done around the house.

They say you never really know how many friends you have until something bad happens to you. In my Mother's case this is not necessarily true. She has always been very blessed with many caring neighbors, friends from work, her running crew, and her family. However, one could never anticipate the outpouring of support, encouragement, and and well-wishes that we have received in the past week. It is truly overwhelming. Perhaps the best spoken advice came from two of my Mother's friends who are both survivors. They have both been through this and have been a tremendous resource for compassion and support. It is very reassuring to speak to someone who has fought this and beat it! Thank you all for you continued support.

In the coming days and weeks we will update this blog as much as possible to keep everyone informed about my Mother's fight. We have very few details at this point as some tests are still ongoing. She had an MRI on Monday to get a better idea where the cancer was, and most importantly where it was not. The good news it that they believe that it has not spread to her other breast. They have identified the area of concern, and will forward on the results of the MRI to the surgeon. At this point she is just waiting to meet with the surgeon for a pre-surgery consultation. After the consultation it could be just a matter of days to a week or so until the surgery. There was a lymph node that was an area of concern that will be tested tomorrow. Again, it is our goal to update everyone as more details become available.

Please feel free to reach out to her or myself via e-mail with any questions or well-wishes. Our addresses are : wanarunow@yahoo.com & grant@macro-hard.com .
Jill's address is: skibunny162000@yahoo.com . Again thank you for all of the support, it has truly been overwhelming.

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