Radiation

I'm here at the Cancer center getting my herceptin treatment this afternoon so I have a few minutes to update everyone on my appointment last week with my radiation oncologist.
I saw Dr. Esche last Tuesday and everything went well.  He also wasn't very impressed that I couldn't lift my arm over my head at the appointment.   First thing he said to me was that he reviewed my pathology results from my surgery but insisted that radiation was still necessary.   He believes there could still be microscopic cancer cells floating around.   He told me because I am one of the few that have had a complete pathological response from chemo that according to statistics I have a very good prognosis now.  Very nice to hear from him.  We talked about the preparation appointment that I would need to do for my 5 weeks of radiation.  I need to be able to lie down and have my arms above my head for 20 minutes.  They will essentially map out where they are going to radiate everyday using a machine similar to a CT scanner.  He is going to radiate the lymph nodes in my chest wall and just below my shoulder, while trying to not radiate my heart and lungs.  I'll have a pretty bad burn by the end of the 5 weeks and might get tired but other than that I shouldn't experience any other side effects.  I'm scheduled to start radiation on April 12th.
I'm feeling very well these days and in good spirits thanks mostly to my pathology report.  I continue to work hard on my exercises to get my arm back to working order.  I'm making progress but it's slower than I expected.
One more thing I forgot to mention in my last entry is that my hair is starting to grow back finally.  It's going to be a long time before I don't have to wear that wig but it's started.  Yay!

Hope to talk to everyone soon!

Finally some good news....

Today was a good day.  I had my post operation appointment with my surgeon this afternoon.  My pathology actually came online while John and I were in the office.  The results were very positive.  There was no cancer found anywhere.  All my lymph nodes were clear as well as my breast.  The chemo took out all my tumors.  
In the words of my surgeon "You can't get a better pathology result than that." 
I'm trying not to get too excited about it because I still have a way to go before I'm finished all my treatments but my prognosis does look very good for the future.  We have a lot of hope now.

Overall physically I'm feeling ok now.  The past week has had it's ups and downs.  I had a drain that was removed on Day 5 after my surgery which was less than pleasant and there was some painful days after that but I'm defiinitely on the mend now.  Everything is healing well and I'm working my arm to get back my range of motion.  I don't think my surgeon was overly happy about how high I could lift my arm today so I'll have to work at that in the next few weeks before I see him again.
Tomorrow I see my radiation oncologist to plan out when my radiation will begin.  I'm hoping he will be encouraged with my results as well. 
Thank you to everyone for all of your positive thoughts and prayers, we could not have done this without you!

Milestone #2 done

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that my surgery went fine yesterday. There were no surprises. I had a mastectomy and had all my lymph nodes removed under my arm. I'm still in the hospital until tomorrow morning but I feel not too bad. I'm tired and have a bit of pain but we are managing it with some medication. I'm starting to feel a bit of numbness under my arm now, but I do have more movement in my arm than I thought I would. I'm pretty confident I'll have a speedy recovery, by keeping on top of my exercises so not to develop the lymphedema. I think the hardest part will be adjusting emotionally to the change in my body.

We should get some pathology results in a couple of weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that they got enough under my arm. My surgeon did come to see me this morning and said he had looked at my MRI from the end of January and it looked good. The tumors had shrunk down to the point where they are almost nothing. He said it's very rare that you would get it all with chemo with the size of tumors I started with but he thought my body had responded tremendously. My echocardiogram results were good as well. My ejection fraction was 64% which is roughly the same as before I started my Herceptin treatments. I really think my exercising is helping with it. I've read a few articles about studies that are being run in the States with good results with breast cancer survivors.
http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=3680&channel_id=12&relation_id=30077

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_Exercise_Can_Improve_Breast_Cancer_Survival.asp

So on a happier note we had a wonderful vacation in Jamaica! It was just what I think we all needed. My sister's wedding went off without a hitch and it was absolutely beautiful. Here are a couple of pictures.
My sister below with her new husband Mark.


My family


Take care everyone and thank you so much for all your positive thoughts and prayers. It obviously works!