Was There any Cancer Left? Pathology Results

My supportive husband working through my treatment

The big question after all of the treatment and surgeries that I have been through is... was there any cancer left?  Were my lymph nodes positive for breast cancer?  How about my inner and intra mammary nodes? You know those big white spots that never changed in size throughout treatment.

Well I got some answers and still have some question marks.

My wonderful surgeon Dr. Duggal came in while I was still in the ICU and shared with me my results.  Basically speaking she told me that my invasive cancer was 100% gone. I did have one small noninvasive cancer that showed up in one of my milk ducts.  The intramammary node that was within my breast tissue was also negative, although it had not changed in size.  That meant that it was just a prominent node meaning larger but not cancerous. I also had a questionable abnormal internal mammary lymph node that was not removed and cannot be biopsied because it is behind my chest wall. All in all my surgeon was very very pleased with these results.  Basically I had a 99% response to the chemotherapy and of course by the grace of God. They were able to remove the one noninvasive duct that had a small amount of cancer in it.  That means I should not have any remaining cancer traveling throughout my body. My lymph nodes in my right arm came back negative as well! They did remove 4 axillary nodes to biopsy them, but they all came back negative praise God!!

The big question mark is that one internal mammary lymph node.  It has not changed in size, similar to the other node that was within my breast but turned out to be a prominent node. My radiation oncologist told me a few weeks back that he was not convinced that I would need radiation.  He wasn't convinced that that node was cancerous since everything else responded so well to the treatment that it wouldn't make any sense for these other nodes to not change in size at all.  So he is thinking it isn't cancerous.  To be sure though he was going to present my case to the board of oncologists that meet monthly.  My prayer is that they will have great wisdom regarding my case and will be 100% sure of what is best for me.  I am willing to accept either course and will trust that God will guide us to the right decision. 

Tomorrow March 1, 2017, I will be heading back to the Wexford Health and Wellness Pavilion to receive my 3rd of 11 treatments of Herceptin. I have to have my blood work drawn up before each treatment.  The last two times I have had elevated liver enzymes which should not be a side effect of Herceptin.  They will be keeping a very close eye on that. I have been trying really hard this last month to refrain from anything that would effect my liver. I am prayerful that my numbers are back to normal.  Herceptin is infused the same way as chemotherapy and was part of my chemo cocktail.  It is much easier on its own but does have some side effects.  I have noticed a few being sore joints and bone pain. I feel a little older these days :) . Tomorrow I will meet with my oncologist and will hopefully get the results of that conference with the board regarding my need for radiation.  

Herceptin round 1

Herceptin round 2

Will you join me in praying for my results.  I would like my blood work to return to normal levels and my liver enzymes to be down from three weeks ago.

My Liver Detox Smoothie!

Also join me in praying for the results of my need for radiation.  Pray that whatever answer they give me would be the right answer, would be His answer for me!

Although I am done with the intense chemotherapy, I am far from done with this fight.  The fight now is to keep the cancer away.  Please continue to keep me and my family in your prayers.  I am about a month out from my lifting restrictions to be lifted.  My body is still healing from my surgery.  I still have funny feelings in my arms and hands and am going through many changes in my body.  Please don't stop praying for me!  I need them!

Thank you for all of your love and support!  I will update after I get my results!

Love,
Amanda

I could use your help if you are looking for a way to be involved by my mealtrain.  We have some dates that are open if you are available. 
Click Here to sign up : https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/md91g6

Part 2 : Post Surgery and Leading up to Christmas

Continuing from the last post about my surgery, I will fill you in on some further details about my week in the hospital post surgery.

So, the expected recovery time after a double mastectomy with immediate DIEP Flap reconstruction is anywhere from 3-7 days.  I was in the hospital following this surgery for 6 days.  During those six days I spent 5 of them in the ICU.  Two of those days are expected but the remaining 3 days came with some complications.  For the first 48 hours the nurses were monitoring my heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, blood flow in my reconstructed breasts, and monitoring my drains.  I had 4 drains. One for each breast and one for each side of my lower abdomen. On day 2 my right drain started to drain a lot of extra blood. I was running a low grade fever, and my heart rate was "tacky" other known as elevated.  It then came to my doctors attention that I was probably forming a hematoma on my right side which was causing the excessive bleeding.  They put a tummy binder tightly around my waist to try and limit the bleeding. My temperature was a mystery.  My heart rate is what really got the ICU concerned.  I spent a lot of time just trying to stay calm and focused to bring the rate down. Every time a doctor would come in though, of course it would spike. That was really quite frustrating and a bit scary for me.  I could feel my heart beating and was just praying to God that it would not turn into a life threatening situation.  The doctors put me through all sorts of tests to rule out what it could be.  Thankfully the week before I had just had an echocardiogram.  I kept telling them that I had just had one so they could use that as their baseline.  The doctors then felt that the bleeding from the Hematoma  was causing my heart to overcompensate for the constant loss.

 They then started to infuse me with two sometimes three blood transfusions a day until my heart would stabilize. During this time although I was honestly a little concerned, I continued to keep my focus.  That focus was to make an impact on others.  I am a relational person and spent much of my time conversing with any person who entered my life in that hospital.  Sharing stories of life with my nurses and doctors and physical therapists and visitors were such a blessing!

My dad brought in cookies to bless the nurses with! 

 It was impressed upon my heart to reach out to my church and ask for prayer on my behalf.  A few wonderful people came and prayed for me and over me.  It's not just about the prayer that encouraged me, but the encounters with the people that they would take time out of their day to walk in freezing temperatures to show a tangible act of God's love over me was amazing! You know who you are and I thank you!

During this period of time in the ICU I also had to learn how to "walk" again. The first day I could only walk a few steps down the hallway and back.  Day two I did a complete lap.  I really didn't want to do it and was afraid I might pass out, but I was determined to prove that I was strong and capable. So I did.

On day 5 they transferred me to a regular room, where I shared a room with a lovely sweet elderly lady.  I really wasn't excited about sharing a room.  I could barely walk to the bathroom so I needed a potty close by and that was a little uncomfortable for me with not much privacy. Need a visual???




  I overcame those feelings and offered myself up to the fact that I was meant to meet this woman and that my life would impact hers and she would mine.  I will never forget her.

She was discharged the day after me.
We hugged and cried when I left.
She is a beautiful soul!

 There are many smaller stories to share within this larger story but I may bore you, so I will spare you alllllll of the details, but the gist of it is that this was definitely a challenge of a lifetime but wrapped up with so, so many blessings.

Thank you Capital One for sending flowers to my dad on my behalf, after he had told you what I was going through.  

Thank you Aunt Mary for sending me this wonderful Christmas arrangement. Made me feel very loved!

After 5 days in the ICU, I needed a little fun time!

I was discharged on the 6th day and for the first time in a week was able to hold my babies!  Ahh was that wonderful! Mommy was home and it was time for me to reassure my little ones that mommy was ok and that all of their emotions and fears and attempts to be strong and have courage could now melt away in my arms.

I spent the next week recovering, sleeping in a recliner, going to the bathroom in a portable potty in my living room and being cared for afterwards by my "in sickness and in health" amazing husband, being bathed by my mom and sweet sister in law, having nurses visit to aide in my recovery, and get ready for Christmas!

My first shower! Thanks mom and Pooh!

 I had a very emotional surprise visit by some amazing, amazing people who showed up to my doorstep one evening and started to Christmas carol for my family.  There were over 50 people there including WTAE news. As I sat there looking out onto the crowd, I wept.  I wept with gratitude.  My eyes gazed into the faces of each and every person and there I had a flashback with each face as I saw the moments throughout the course of this journey that, that person had been there for me through. I saw meals being dropped off, I saw visits while in chemotherapy, I saw the card that I read that came in the mail, I saw childcare, I saw little gifts that were given, I saw my new laundry room that was gifted to me on my second floor, I saw rides that you give to my children to school,  I saw people, my army, you who have been there for me!  Oh it was overwhelming and so perfect all at the same time.

An amazing dinner provided by Bistro To Go coincidentally the same evening!

We made the news that night!

By Christmas Eve I was becoming more mobile and able to at least shower myself.  We hosted Christmas Eve at our home as tradition.  My amazing family helped make this possible. Gifts were wrapped, kids were in their new Christmas pj's and Christmas day was around the corner.  I did turn a corner on Christmas day, and will save that for my next update!

Dessert Table on Christmas Eve all given by neighbors and loved ones!

Praying for Santa to come!

Christmas Eve at the Agwuocha's 

Love to all of you and thank you for sharing in my journey. Until next time!

Part 1: My Surgery

It has been a few months since I have posted an update. So much has happened, I'm not quite sure where even to begin.  I will break things down into parts with this post focusing on my surgery day.

On December 12th, I embarked on the beginning of the next season in this journey.  I underwent a 13hr surgery where I had a bilateral mastectomy with immediate DIEP flap reconstruction.  I also had a right sentinel lymph node biopsy to check for lymph node involvement. 

I chose this surgery because they use your own body fat from your abdomen to create new breast. This means that I will have nothing foreign in my body that does not need to be replaced every 10 years, which is the case with implants.  You would be surprised how many people have complications with implants!  I didn't realize this until I started to do my own research on my options.  The only downside is that my recovery is a bit more extensive with DIEP flap reconstruction. Recovery is expected to be about 12 weeks long with a 5lb weight lifting restriction for those entire 12 weeks. There are also a few touch up surgeries to be expected within the first year to complete the whole process. 

The long awaited day had arrived and my husband and I drove to the hospital at 5 in the morning.  My nerves were surprisingly calm. The nurse called me back.  I was prepped for surgery.  The doctors came in to speak with me and drew out their plan on my body. I have never had surgery before so all of this was very unknown territory. My mom, brother, and husband came back to see me off.  We all prayed together, doctors included, and off I went.

13 hours and 2 blood transfusions later (the chemo had my hemoglobin down which led to excessive blood loss), I awoke to the familiar faces of my family.  All I could think about was my sweet sweet Amara who had her Christmas concert that same evening.  I was so surprised to see my ROCKSTAR husband there when I woke up, because he also had to take Amara to her concert.  

This little girl had been counting down the days for her concert and also had correlated the days to when my surgery was going to take place.  The look on her face was so brave and courageous.  And look at my man, would you ever know by looking at him that his wife was in surgery at that moment and had to step away to be super dad for a few hours? And then whisk.... same day...few hours later... he is there back at the hospital to be the first face I saw when I opened my eyes.  I love him so!

Here is a clip of me right out of surgery...I had been awake for a few minutes so these are not my first words but none the less they show my condition... I was very puffy! 

My first night in the ICU, where they keep you for a few days to monitor everything, was one of checking my vitals every 15 minutes and keeping me comfortable.  One thing that they had to do was to put a little Doppler in an opening in my newly created breasts. In order for my newly created breast to survive, my plastic surgeon used my blood vessels from my abdomen and repositioned them up in my breast.  This  would allow blood flow to keep the tissue alive.  This can be a risky thing and complications can arise.  Thankfully mine cooperated.  Every time they put the Doppler in the slits there was a pulse...yay! Without being too graphic here is the general idea..

This gives you the general idea !                                         





This was the beginning of a long road of recovery.  Just sharing my story with you brings up so much emotion that I don't realize that I am carrying around.  On the day in and day out I feel really good, but when I look back at all of this I feel somewhat emotional.  God has given me the strength to walk through every challenge. Looking back at it all now, I feel all of the feelings.  But going through it I was unfazed. One friend once said to me, Soldier on, Soldier on!  Those words are exactly what I did and continue to do.  I will leave you with this for now and will follow up with more in another post regarding the road to recovery.

Blessing to you today!  We have much to be grateful for!

~Amanda