Surgery a Success - Ready to finalize the battle planning

We won this round – and are ready to finish with the rest of the battle planning.

We had surgery on Tuesday of this week at St. Mark’s.  I absolutely adore my new orthopedic oncology surgeon – Jodie Miles.  She is young, smart and so personable.  I count myself very lucky to have found such great doctors in her and Jason Stinett (my oncologist).  They both answer questions on the weekend and go out of their way to be there for you when you need assistance.  The surgery on my femur went well.  They made three smallish incisions the outside of my left leg.  They put the rod into the femur through my hip and then strengthened the whole thing with screws in my knee and hip. 

I find the worst part of the surgery to be that time when you are still awake but away from your family.  You are on the gurney in the cold surgery room waiting for everything to come together and for the anesthesia to kick in.  This time – I did shed a few tears for the anxiety of it all.  Like I mentioned – Jodie Miles is so incredibly kind/empathetic…she isn’t afraid of the human side of her practice.   She was very comforting and sweet to me during this vulnerable time period.

The 3.5 hour surgery went well and I joined my family/loved ones in my hospital room.  Alan – stayed with me the entire day (except when he couldn’t ie – in the surgery room) and then spent the night as well.  My pain was very tough that first night – at around 0400…I was ‘coming out of my skin’ with it.  Luckily we were able to get ahead of the pain again…but it was amazing the amount of pain killers it was taking.  Later that same day, my father Rex was on his ‘tend Nannette’ shift.   My blood pressure started to drop as we now had too many narcotics in my system.  I loved that he was there to say something to the nurses to avoid any problems. 

After that eventful first day/night…the physical therapy started and I got to practice with the walker.  It will be great to have mine for support over the coming weeks.  I have big plans in place for decorating it into a thing of beauty….let me know if you want to help or have ideas on how to ‘supe up’ my ‘ride’.  I learned to walk, sit, use the restroom, navigate stairs and get in and out of various sized cars.  The pain is much more tolerable now that the surgery has taken place….it is more intermittent and just ‘different’ than the chronic pain from before. 

I've had a few people ask - so what does all this mean.  To be honest we are still finding out all the details BUT here is what we know so far. 

The bone biopsy is still being processed – but we found out enough to know that we are fighting a carcinoma and not a sarcoma.   That means the cancer in my leg is secondary bone cancer or metastatic breast cancer. This puts my breast cancer at stage 4 because it has reappeared in a new place and has impacted another ‘organ’.  In a nutshell – I will never be fully cured but there is hope of controlling the disease for as long as possible.  As soon as all the testing is back – this will be what our game plan involves – controlling the disease and preserving my quality of life while having it be as long as possible. 

We did also learn from the PET Scan results that the right lung, middle lobe has a very small amount of the cancer showing there.  The doctor called it miniscule and compared it to the size of a pencil eraser.  They also found one lymph node which also has signs of the metastasized cancer.  For now – I know that my left leg will be undergoing some radiation in an effort to reduce the tumors in my leg as well as strengthen the bone and help with pain management.  We anticipate more answers to come as we meet with both Dr. Miles and Dr.  Stinett next week (Tuesday) to discuss the rest of the findings from the tests and  go over the various treatment options available to us.  

To close – thank you so very much for your love and support this week.  I felt it…Alan felt it and my extended family felt it while they read your comments on Facebook.   While – I was unable to write back on every comment….it was a great source of comfort to me as we navigated the scarier aspects of the past several days.  I felt loved and support in ways I could never have imagined.  Personal notes, photos, funny quips and so many amazingly wonder items – such as various parts of the JetBlue family dressing up in pink in honor of surgery day.  I am just so touched, honored and humbled by the outpouring of love for me.…as well as for my family and friends.  I feel like with all of you in our corner – we can face and achieve absolutely anything. 

XOXO