Sarah is continuing to heal nicely from the surgery.  On Monday, she had the last of the four drains removed (YAY!), and got permission from the doctor to begin driving again (double YAY!). 

Today (Wednesday) Sarah saw the radiologist and made tenative plans to begin radiation, sometime in March.  She will need a CAT scan first, which is scheduled for the middle of March, and at that time they’ll make a definite date for beginning radiation.  Once she begins, she’ll be getting radiation treatments 5 days a week for 6-8 weeks.

The radiologist will also be referring Sarah for a physical therapy appointment, mostly so she can get a brace for her arm(s) for when swelling occurs. (The swelling is a side-effect of her lymph nodes being removed, and physical therapy and a brace/cover will help keep swelling from happening).

Thank you for your continued prayers!  More updates soon!

Sarah is doing remarkably well this week.  On Tuesday, she had three of the four drains removed and 80 (yes, you read that right - EIGHTY) staples removed.  The removal of the drains was a huge relief and gave her a little more freedom of movement.  She still has the fourth drain, but will hopefully have that removed this next Tuesday.

The pathology report showed that 2 of the 3 lymph nodes that they took from the left side, and 2 of the 11 lymph nodes from the right side had cancer in them.  Also there was some cancer left in the third layer of tissue in the chest area, but the doctor chose not to go that deep surgically, knowing that radiation will kill what was left.

Sarah had her Herceptin infusion yesterday, using the new port (they had to put in a new one during the surgery).  The new port was acting finicky at first, but once they got it working, the infusion went well.

Today, she if off to school for a Valentine party in the kids’ classrooms.  Praise God that she is feeling so good and doing so well!

Sarah saw her oncologist today for a check-up and to get the pathology report from surgery.  They only took 3 lymph nodes from the left side and 11 lymph nodes from the right.  Sarah was happy about this news, because she is left-handed and only taking 3 from that side means they were much less intrusive to her left side and the muscles.

The pathology report was good - there were spots of cancer in the nodes and tissue they removed, but the doctor’s feel very positive that they removed all the cancer that was left.

Sarah will be seeing the surgeon tomorrow, hopefully to remove a few drains (she has four total).  They make her uncomfortable, so she is anxious to have them removed, although she has been told it will be painful.  Please pray for the appointment tomorrow (Tuesday), and for her pain management and continued healing!

Sarah was able to come home on Wed afternoon, just over 24 hours from the end of her surgery on Tuesday.

She spent most of yesterday (Thursday) resting and sleeping (thanks to pain meds)!  She is doing really well, although definitely tired and her strength is low.  She’ll be seeing the doctor next week to remove a couple of the drains, if all goes well.

Thank you for your prayers!

Sarah’s surgery is over, and the surgeon was very pleased, in every way, with how things went.

They didn’t have to remove quite as many lymph nodes as originally anticipated, and the doctor was unable to see any cancer in any of the tissue or nodes he removed.  He did find some crystalized spots where cancer USED to be, but as far as he could SEE there was no cancer.  They will, of course, send it off for pathology testing, but the news is as good as it can be.

As of 4:30 p.m., she was being moved into a room and was groggy and still waking up.  The doctor said she’ll be pretty out of it for the rest of the day, and maybe some tomorrow.  I’ll update more once I hear more!

Thank you for your prayers!!

- Char