Recovered from Surgery

Hi friends and family. The last couple of weeks have been good, spending the time getting healthy again (snow is gone, but summer sure isn’t here yet!) Lots of walking, even a few short runs. Read a few good books already.

Started physio for my arm, painful but should get all of my motion back. Cath calls herself a "physio-terrorist". Says if I can't be tough enough on myself with the exercises, to go back to see her. She says its 3 vessels that are "caught" in the scar tissue, and need to be massaged and stretched until they are freed.

Update - I heard later this is called 'cording' - for more info see http://www.stepup-speakout.org/Cording_and_Axillary_Web_Syndrome.htm

We met with the radiation oncologist, who was very nice and informative, but gave me an overwhelming amount of information about a clinical study he asked me to participate in. I had to make a decision the next day in order to do the prep work and start it within a specific timeframe from the surgery. This would have put the radiation before the chemo, among other differences, but it was just too much info with too little time, so I passed on that. I will go ahead with chemo as planned, and meet with the radiation oncologist again when chemo is done. There will likely be other clinical trials open at that time. So I’ll save your radiation education until then :)

The port goes in next Friday (May 1st) and the first chemo is the following week (May 7th). I’m starting to collect cute head coverings in preparation for the hair loss :(

Here’s something interesting – Karen's mom (who just finished chemo!) tells me that for the second set of chemo, they put your hands and feet on ice packs during the IV to stop it from circulating to your fingers and toes, since it can cause your nails to fall off. Lovely...

Enjoy our spring weather!
Beth

Results from Surgery

Hi friends and family – thank you so much for all of your support. The cards, e-mails, phone calls, meals, baking, are all wonderful.

It’s been 2 ½ weeks since surgery. My right arm is still very sore, but I have some new pain medication so that may help. I met with the surgeon today, she is happy with the results which show all 12 lymph nodes that she removed are clear, and she got the clean margins around the tumor. For those that like details, it was a grade 3 (aggressive) cancer, triple negative, but it was caught early so my cancer is considered Stage 1c.

Next steps are to meet with my oncologist and determine a plan for chemo and radiation. Until that starts, I focus on healing. Hopefully this snow and ice will disappear so I can get out and walk more!

Take care and thanks for staying in touch!
Beth

Goodbye to the Chia Pet

They removed the drain today! Although Brad had nicknamed it my chia pet, I was very happy to see it go. I am not the most graceful person (really) and having a long tube hanging off me is a disaster waiting to happen. 'We' dropped it once while attempting to pin it to my pajama top (the stitches held it in place but it hurt!) and I caught it on the arm of a chair once or twice...

The nurse at the Breast Health Centre removed the drain and also the bandage from the incision. Pretty ugly looking to me, but she says it looks good. I only have one incision since the lump and lymph nodes were all taken from the same incision (horizontal, under my arm).

Feeling much better already without it always pulling.


http://breastcancer.about.com/od/reconstructivesurgery/p/surg_drains.htm

Day after surgery

Hi, I’m home now, thanks for all the good wishes, it helps more than you know. It was an unexpected overnight stay at the hospital (and my boys didn’t want to leave me there), but it was fine. They found me a bed in a room with 3 very sick ladies (one had emergency surgery for a perforated bowel, one had some kind of internal drain being put in for her liver, and the other is having a 4-day epidural to manage her pain following her surgery). Really puts things in perspective and made me feel quite well off (I was the only one able to get out of bed to brush my teeth this morning).

As for my surgery, in addition to the tumor, they took out 10-12 lymph nodes. That’s why I needed the drain, which stays with me for 5-7 days. I won’t have any further information on the stage of the cancer or if it has spread or not until my follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks.

I’m very sore and quite tired, but it’s only day 2 and I’m happy to be home. Thanks again for all your good wishes.

Beth

Surgery

Hello All,

Beth had her surgery today and all went well. Beth’s spirits are good.

As a precaution they put in a drain and as such they have admitted Beth to ensure it is working properly and show her how to look after it. We expect she will get out of the hospital tomorrow morning.

Carter, Zach and I will go visit her this evening. I will try and send another update later tonight.

Thanks,

Brad