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!
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!
Great post! Finally made myself a follower, I was following all along, using Cathy's notifications :) Take good care and please call us if you need anything! Mark
ReplyDelete