Shermance's Cancer Fight: Successful Double

Thank you! The support, gifts, and outpouring of messages in all written- and electronic forms offering love, prayers, and encouragement has been amazing. Shermance did very well. We are at home now and she is sleeping off the dizziness caused by anethesesia and recovering from the major surgery yesterday. She was thankful to have her bag of good luck items given by so many people who care. Examples (not all-inclusive): healing crystals, a clutch cross, a Tae Kwon Do breast cancer pin, medal given by a Tae Kwon Do World Champ, a "Going-to-Boston" button for the national hygienst convention, a butterfly pin, and a breast cancer bracelet.

The 2-hour, tissue-sparing double masectomy included removal of the sub-dermis port used for injecting her chemo meds and as a SURPRISE bonus the removal of all her lymph nodes under her right arm. We hadn't discussed the lymph-node removal option with the doc prior to surgery. Her surgeon made the decison during the surgery to remove the lymph nodes in her right arm pit. The hope is it will prevent Shermance from undergoing radiation so she can begin reconstruction sooner. Wahoo! In fact, the surgeon explained to us that it will be a fight between him and the radiologist whether radiation is indeed necessary. Had the lymph nodes remained, we were told the chance of recurrence without radiation was above 20% but with radiation was less than 4%. Given those statistics we thought 6-weeks of radiation was a forgone conclusion. Now that the lymph nodes are gone, the chance of recurrence should be reduced even further, so we are hopful that the daily dose of radiation won't be needed. We won't know whether we can follow that plan until we get the biopsy results from the lymph nodes (and from the removed breast tissue) on Thursday or Friday.

The down side of the lymph node removal is potential lymphedema - a blockage of the lymph vessels that drain fluid from tissues throughout the body and allow immune cells to travel where they are needed especially in the right arm. Whether or not she has the bad side effects, she will need to be extremely vigalent and protective of that arm - no blood pressure in that arm, no cuts, no heavy lifting and no shots or IV. It's a lifetime of caution needed, but for the peace of mind to reduce recurrence it's worth it.

The common questions which we haven't been able to answer for everyone include, 'How did the procedure go?' and 'How is Shermance doing now?', so I'll try to answer them now. The procedure was perfectly successful, yet Shermance was under a lot of pain afterwards so she was given extra pain medicine. Once she was stabailized she was brought up to the 2nd-floor room for post-op care. Multiple oversights (too many to name, but examples include the oxygen tube in her nose that was not hooked-up, missing the post-op leg massager, and losing her pain medicine and forgetting for over an hour) caused us to question her care there, but once we escalated to the evening charge nurse we received excellent care. I was in constant need to adjust, support, move and help Shermance while she was bed ridden through the day and evening. I was glad to be there for her. She didn't really expect visitors, but she was glad to have visits from her parents and Julie, her friend who is covering at her work for the month while she is out. The flowers and get-well balloon brought smiles.

As for how she is doing now, the pain is reduced and she is encouraged to walk around - slowly an cautiously. She needs to be extremely careful with the drain ports on both sides that collect blood and other fluids from the operation sites. They will remain in her body until she has sustained reduction in fluid loss for at least 2 days. It may take up to 10 days before removal. Other than that, she is alert and has recovered full color in her face and she is smiling, bossy and joking around in her usual style.

Now we are at home and enjoying the smells of homemade chicken and dumplings that her mom is cooking for dinner. A special thanks to the neighbor ladies who took her out to a new restaurant Saturday night, to Shanon and Nancy who took her to Chuy's for Sunday lunch, to my brother Dan and his family for the super soft robe, to Oma for the cookies and cards, to Mimi for the heaps of food, and to Anjali, a dear friend from our previous 'hood, who brought over huge amounts of Rudy's BBQ, flowers and a sweet card. A care calendar has been started for dinners next week while I am away travelling for work, so we are thankful for all of those who have supported and will continue to support.