Some of you complained about not being able to access the columns in The Sylva Herald, and since I’m probably finished with that effort now, I’m posting the final, edited versions (minus Quintin’s titles) below. Most of them are reduced versions of blog entries already posted, except the last one and one other one. Thanks again to Quintin for suggesting it and editing it. I wanted to add that in addition to the many kind people who donated generously to my…
I begin with a correction: the hysterectomy promised in the last installment was put off until the fall, after I finish chemo and radiation. So obviously I did decide to do chemo, after much waffling, but the doctors reassure me I will never know if it helped, so that’s something. This installment is about chemo, as well as a brief chronicle of the visit of my sister-in-law Peggy, who came to coach me through my various procedures. Moral support, it…
It’s been a while since I posted, and it’s been an interesting and educational few weeks. When last we left the saga of Mary’s boobs, the tumor had been removed, at least one lymph node was involved, and the pathology revealed some lymphovascular invasion (that is, most of the cancer in the involved node had moved out of the node itself into the surrounding tissue). Thus began my education into current breast cancer thinking, which it turns out is a…
It has been a while since I posted, and the past week and a half have been pretty unusual. Three of my sisters were able to fly down to be with me during surgery and the worst days of post-op, and apparently they made a great impression on the doctors and staff. When Dr. Ma, the plastic surgeon, stopped to visit me in the hospital the morning after surgery, she said we all looked exactly alike. It’s funny, because we…
Mary got through surgery well, both doctors were very pleased and thought she did brilliantly. They took out 2 lymph nodes, and should have the biopsy results next week. The tumor does not appear to have grown since the original biopsy. She’ll have to take it easy for a while, no lifting for 4-6 weeks. She spent her preop time making her 3 sisters laugh uproariously, and we just managed to escape being thrown out 🙂 She’ll be in the…
After six weeks of waiting, during which my mass has undoubtedly grown so large that it will no longer fit in one of those “tiny houses” that everyone wants to retire to, I am having surgery in six days, and soon many questions can be answered. How far has the cancer traveled in the lymph system? Do I have the kind of cancer that is slower-growing and doesn’t respond to chemo (Oncotype-dx under 16) or the kind that is fast-growing…