Well, today was a big day, and I'm kind of exhausted from it. I'm going to start my update with 2 Chronicles 20, verses 15-17, because it's been a huge comfort and guide to me.
Do not be afraid or dismayed because of this great multitude,
For the battle is not mine, but the Lord's.
Position myself,
Stand still, and
See the salvation of the Lord, who is with me!
First, I saw one of my surgeons for a follow-up, and they're happy with how things are healing. I got a big warning that as I start to feel better, I need to really continue to take it easy. The more I move, the more drainage I have in the drains, the longer it takes to get them out, and then everything is slowed down. Yes ma'am, I will take it easy.
Then, I met with my oncologist, Dr. Patel, to discuss pathology from surgery and to set up a game plan. This was a mentally exhausting appointment, but I really love her. Remind me sometime to tell you how I found my treatment team... It's a pretty neat story.
Anyway. This post is probably going to be long and overwhelming, because that's kind of how the appointment was.
First up, we discussed the pathology in depth - there's anatomy & biology that come into play here. Some of this I already talked about, but here it is again. You'll probably need to go google some things, or if that scares you (because google scares me), feel free to ask - I truly don't mind, and I didn't know what all this junk meant before going through this either.
Anatomy:
The majority of the c is DCIS, but there were 3 small masses, plus the one lymph node, of invasive c. These measured 3mm, 1.5mm, and 1mm. Look at a ruler - that's really small. Under the old staging method, this would have put me at Stage 2A, because of size and lymph node involvement.
Biology:
The pathologists give the c a grade to measure aggressiveness: 1, 2, or 3. What they removed from me was grade 2, or intermediate.
Next, they look at how fast it's dividing, which is the ki67 rating, and that can be from 5-100%. They found this to be 80%, which means it was reproducing pretty fast - faster than they would have expected for a Grade 2 situation, but keep reading, because it's not really that big of a deal.
I want to pause all the detailed sciencey stuff and talk for a second. You see how I said "the c" and "what they removed" and "they found"... I want to be clear on something. This isn't "my cancer" or "my tumor" or "my" anything. I am not claiming it, because I am not keeping it. Yeah, it was there, I'm not denying facts, but I just wanted to let you know that it's not "mine." If I slip, I need you to call me out and remind me that this is a journey I'm on, and a battle I'm fighting, but it's not "my" cancer!
Up next is the most important thing for Biology: the markers. Estrogen (ER), Progestin (PR), and HER2. All three of these are positive for me, which is excellent news. While it means that we are fighting a more aggressive c, it also means we've got more tools to fight with. ER+ and PR+ means that the c feeds on those two hormones, so we block them, and it starves. Kind of like Superman and kryptonite. HER2 is a protein that tells the cell to divide. Being HER2+ means that the cells have a lot of little receptors on them for this protein, so it's getting the message to divide-divide-divide-divide. So, we hit it with two blockers, and it stops dividing. Starve it, stop it from growing, and we win!
They now look not only at the anatomy, but also the biology - and the tools we have to fight - to determine the stage. Because of all of this, I'm at Stage 1A. Dr. Patel says that this type of c, with all these features, has a cure rate of 90-95%. THAT is something I will claim!
So..... what does all of that mean? Here's the game plan:
1. Recover from surgery.
2. Start chemo, sometime around the beginning of June. This will be every 3 weeks, for 6 rounds... so, 4.5 months.
3. Recover from chemo for 2-3 weeks.
4. Radiation, for 4-6 weeks. (Remember that pesky lymph node? Yeah, even one positive lymph node means radiation.)
5. Recover from radiation for 6 months or so. It's important for the skin to really heal well.
6. Reconstruction. This is a two-surgery process, about 4 months apart, and we will plan for it after we're all done kicking the c to the curb.
Altogether, we're talking about 16 months or so, if I did the math right.
Whew, that's a lot, I know. So.... what do you want to know?
Here's how you can pray for me:
1 - We haven't told Jay yet. Pray for guidance for us to know what to say, and peace for him, because he's such a sweet sensitive guy.
2 - Strength & peace as we continue this journey. It's a marathon, not a sprint, but God is a good good father and he sustains us!
No comments:
Post a Comment