News and more pathology results

I had a wonderful visit with my daughter, Becky, yesterday evening. It was so good to just sit and talk and look at her sweet face! When Kent came home we decided to go to dinner at Milagros - highly recommended for those who love good Mexican food. It felt so good to actually go someplace normal and have a meal. My other daughter, Sarah, was working last night, so she was able to take a couple of short breaks and sit with us! I was very tired when we got home and pretty much went right to bed.

For the first time since surgery, I woke up in the middle of the night in pain. It had only been 3 hours since the last pill so I couldn't take anymore. I sat up in bed and did crossword puzzles and found the pain lessening and me nodding off. Apparently, laying down increases the pain. Who knew! So, I slept the rest of the night at a slant. It works.

Dr. Tittensor called with most of the pathology results from surgery. No surprises - ! The breast lump was actually almost 5 cm - bigger than they thought - but not big enough to change the stage of cancer that I was/am at - Stage 2B. She removed 11 lymph nodes and only 3 were cancerous. They were the same 3 that they already knew had cancer in them! I think I've mentioned the Her2neu factor that they check for. Positive would mean faster growing and would require extra treatments, negative means just "regular" chemo. They still don't have the final results back from that.

There is also a genetic test that can be done on the cancer to see if this runs in the family. It is called a Bracha test. However, it costs $3,000 to have it done and insurance doesn't pay for it unless the patient falls into one of the following catagories;


Has cancer and is under the age of 50
Has cancer and is over the age of 50 with close relatives who have also had cancer.

Since I don't fall into either - I'm not going to have them do the test. My daughters are at a little higher risk of getting breast cancer themselves. I'm now a "history of cancer in their family". But, girls are you listening?, IF THEY HAVE REGULAR MAMMOGRAMS AND DO MONTHLY SELF EXAMS ONCE THEY TURN 40 - that will help them immensely! Actually, ALL YOU WOMEN READING THIS should be doing the same!!!!!!! :)



My sweet "laundry lady" and her lovely assistant returned my clean laundry this afternoon. This is way too much spoiling - but I so appreciate it! The Howards are doing a little shopping for me, we've got a meal coming in tonight and I've had wonderful visits and phone calls that lift my spirits and make me feel loved!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I continue to be grateful for the love Heavenly Father is sending me, for the prayers in our behalf, for my sweet and constant husband - I can't imagine trying to do this without any of them!
Talk to you soon.