There was still concern pertaining to a possible significant
blood clot in a vein that runs inside of the armpit and extends down the inside
of the bicep of the left arm. The vein
is so tight that when Sarah lifts her arm up you can see it protrude like a
rope through the skin….yeah apparently it’s very painful too! She says it doesn’t hurt to bad when at rest
but when they lift the arm to examine the area that is when it hurts like 10
out of 10! They like to examine it a lot
so I’m still waiting for her to punch of these doctors at some point….boom in
the face! HAHA So after last Friday’s appointment with Dr. Rhee
he decided that an ultrasound of the area is necessary just to rule out the
concern of a blood clot so he sent us to the ER for imaging and immediate
results….he suggested the Castle Rock hospital
since his building is right next to the hospital that it would faster….yeah um
let’s just say it wasn’t “faster” (finger quotations in the air)…..a 30 minute
post-op appointment turned into 5 hour stay in the ER!!! What a great experience let me tell you…Sarah
was getting pretty pissed off at about hour 4…lol! I thought it was quite comical at that point
since hospital and doctor appointments have become a regular occurrence in our
lives….grrrrr!
Well after long waiting and two separate ultrasounds it was
determined that there was no blood clot and that the vein was compressing and
that mostly likely the vein is just aggravated and pissed off from
surgery! So just wait….take an aspiring
a day and use warm compress on the area and it should eventually calm down….you
think we would be very calm individuals at this point since everything is a
waiting game in this cancer treatment process!
Sarah did not get any expansion in the expanders on Friday since
she is still debating on her current size…Dr. Rhee says she has some thinking
to do and needs to know soon! She says
there is discomfort after each expansion so I think she is battling between
more gain = more pain…literally!
So onto the chemo talk….we met with the oncologist today to
discuss the findings from the OncaType DX testing to determine the likelihood
of chemo. Let me tell you my stomach was
definitely very vocal leading up to the oncologist coming into the consultation
room…it probably didn’t help that she was running 55 minutes behind schedule. So nerves definitely got the better of me
today. So the test results came back NUMBER
24….so what does that mean!??! Good
question….here you go….so 1-18 score means that you are low risk of reoccurrence….19-31
intermediate risk of reoccurrence…31+ is high risk of reoccurrence (mind you
the score is 0-100). Her number being 24….again
in the middle as all things have been through this entire process (the infamous
grey-zone that we have called it)! So
will she benefit greatly from chemo??
Maybe….maybe not! Can you say
FRUSTRATION!?!?!
Everything taken into consideration we have done our best to
take these things light-hearted and with faith that God will lead us down the appropriate
path. Remember her motto “Hey Cancer….You
messed with the wrong bitch!” So what
does Sarah do to ensure that she kicking cancer’s ass……she take the hard road…the
one with more challenges and temporary physical setbacks…the one that will
cause her to lose her beautiful hair…the one that will potentially cause her
fatigue, nausea, and feeling crappy…she chooses the one that will suppress her
immune system and destroy all those cells that multiple quickly to ensure again
that cancer will not get the best of her!!!
When faced with the opportunity not to have chemo because it may or may not
help…..what does my wife do?!?!….she says screw that…no easy way out and give
her the best possible option that gives her long life and cures cancer!
So CHEMO IT IS!!!
Sarah is continues to amaze me every day….her spirit and
fight makes me cry…..tears of joy, happiness, and pride! I’m at a loss of words for how amazing she is……I
can’t even begin to tell all of you how well she has handled all of this over the
last month or so! So when you see her or
talk to her please make sure to let her know how great she is and how proud we
all are of her…..God bless her!
So what’s next….she still needs to heal more and be in good
physical condition to handle the chemo and handle it well! She needs to healed completely from the
surgery and have her immune system ready….the game plan is to start chemo late
May or the 1st week of June.
She will have a mild cocktail of chemo that will be 4 separate session 3
weeks apart ending sometime beginning August….then she will wait an additional 8-10
weeks to allow the body to recoup from chemo to start the second phase of the reconstructive
surgery. We are just taking one thing
at a time so right now it’s healing and getting the body ready for chemo…then
she will tackle the next phase of treatment!
So there you have it chemo is the next phase of treatment to
get her one step closer to “cancer-free”….hopefully we will be able to have
that celebration party and first cocktail that is way overdue sometime soon! Until then please continue to pray and send
words of encouragement! The meal
calendar will most likely open back up for the first part of May as I return to
work tomorrow and need to see how that adjustment works out. We will look at the chemo dates and most likely
5-6 days following chemo and open those days as well, I know that many people
are still interested in participating in “meal calendar” moving forward so I
will keep you informed once we open more days.
The food has been so wonderful and so helpful so thank you so very much
to each of you that have participated since my last post…..so thank you to
Crystal & Mario Jimenez, Kristin LaValley, Amy Hester, Mike & Emy Ross,
Stephanie Brady, Brooke & Nick Kelsey.
Until next time…..Sarah will continue to heal and keep
getting better!Thank you.....Mac!
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