HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Prayer request

bejuce · 08-17-2009, 04:38 PM

Thank you everyone for your prayers, positive thoughts, and support!!! It gave me much comfort going in and out of surgery knowing that I had so many people rooting for me.

Surgery went great and I'm at home recovering. I had a bilateral mastectomy with axillary node dissection on the right, cancerous side. My surgeon told me that he saw two firm lymph nodes (0.5 cm) but no mass in the breast. He felt a dense area that was deep in the breast tissue but far enough from the chest wall that he didn't have to go into the muscle. There was a lot of fluid backed up in the breast and the skin on the lower side was 3 times larger than the skin on my right, non-cancerous breast (as a result of the battle going on inside). He said it's unclear at this point how much (if any) tumor is left (I did chemo first) and I'll find out with the pathology report. Hopefully it'll be good news, but if not, I hope that it's all out from my body now.

In any case, I'm getting stronger every day and tomorrow I go in for my 2nd dose of Herceptin. I hope to take my drains out soon (I have 4 drains, 2 on each side - the Jackson-Pratt kind). So now I just need to rest and pray that my pathology report will turn out well.

Thanks again for all your support!

Marcia

08-17-2009, 04:38 PM	#32
bejuce Senior Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 510	Re: Prayer request - Going into surgery in a few hours Thank you everyone for your prayers, positive thoughts, and support!!! It gave me much comfort going in and out of surgery knowing that I had so many people rooting for me. Surgery went great and I'm at home recovering. I had a bilateral mastectomy with axillary node dissection on the right, cancerous side. My surgeon told me that he saw two firm lymph nodes (0.5 cm) but no mass in the breast. He felt a dense area that was deep in the breast tissue but far enough from the chest wall that he didn't have to go into the muscle. There was a lot of fluid backed up in the breast and the skin on the lower side was 3 times larger than the skin on my right, non-cancerous breast (as a result of the battle going on inside). He said it's unclear at this point how much (if any) tumor is left (I did chemo first) and I'll find out with the pathology report. Hopefully it'll be good news, but if not, I hope that it's all out from my body now. In any case, I'm getting stronger every day and tomorrow I go in for my 2nd dose of Herceptin. I hope to take my drains out soon (I have 4 drains, 2 on each side - the Jackson-Pratt kind). So now I just need to rest and pray that my pathology report will turn out well. Thanks again for all your support! Marcia __________________ ER+ (30%)/PR-/HER-2+, stage 3 Diagnosed on 02/18/09 at 38 with a huge 12x10 cm tumor, after a 6 month delay. Told I was too young and had no risk factors. Found swollen node during breastfeeding. March-August 09: neo-adjuvant chemo, part of a trial at Stanford (4 DD A/C, 4 Taxotere with daily Tykerb), loading dose of Herceptin 08/12/09 - bye bye boobies (bilateral mastectomy) 08/24/09 - path report shows 100 % success in breast tissue (no cancer there, yay!), 98 % success in lymphatic invasion, and even though 11/13 nodes were still positive, > 95 % of the tumor in them was killed. Hoping for the best! September-October 09: rads with daily Xeloda 02/25/10 - Cholecystectomy 05/27/10 - Bone scan clear 06/14/10 - CT scan clear, ovarian cyst found 07/27/10 - Done with Herceptin! 02/15/11 - MVA-BN HER-2 vaccine trial 03/15/11 - First CA 15-3: 12.7 and normal, yay! 10/01/11 - Bone scan and CT scan clear, fatty liver found now on Tamoxifen and Aspirin