31OCT14 - Biopsy to get tissue ensued and it was sent to a lab for analysis
03NOV14 - Allyson is driving in the car and gets a call from the radiologist that she has breast cancer. This is also Avery's Birthday, Allyson came home immediately so we could call the doctor for a full explanation. This night was ridiculous as we tried to ensure we did Avery's Birthday right and not ruin it with unexplained crying.
05NOV14 - Met with the surgical oncologist to get a full run down of what they think we are dealing with...Below is an email I sent my family on 07NOV14 with more details from that visit:
Hey everyone,
I know I’ve talked to a couple of you about this, but this
will be the first time most of you have heard what’s been going on down in
Charlotte..
No easy way to lead into this, but here it goes: Allyson
found a lump in one of her breasts a few weeks back and needed a referral from
her OB to go see a radiologist for a mammogram and ultrasound on it.
During those scans last week, the mass was dense enough that they ruled out the
easy and benign stuff, and quickly scheduled a biopsy on the lump. On Monday of
this week they called to report that the mass was indeed cancer. They
called her in the car as she was driving instead of calling us into an office,
which we were expecting them to do. Not cool at all! That shocking news was
followed by an appointment on Wednesday morning with a surgical oncologist, who
went into great detail about her type of cancer. There are multiple drivers of
cancer growth in different human beings. Some are hormone drivers (like
estrogen), and some are genetic drivers (breast cancer gene), and some are
driven by proteins. Allyson’s type of cancer has a protein driver called HER-2,
and the presence of this protein in her mass means that this type of cancer
will grow very fast if left unchecked.
Evidently they classify breast cancer (at the start) by the
size of the mass in the breast, and she appears to measuring in at late stage
1. This is good! She caught it early! The MRI she had this morning appears to
show a couple other possible concerns, but the doctors believe those areas are
of the benign type and that the mass they are focused on now is the only
cancerous one. She will have biopsies next week from the other areas of concern
that will rule them in/out as something else to focus on. The MRI does not show
any evidence of growth in her lymph nodes, which is of extreme importance
because if it reaches those nodes the cancer can quickly spread elsewhere.
The appointment on Wednesday was overwhelming, because we
were force fed a huge amount of information in a very short period of time, and
when you take into account the emotions of sitting there listening to
chemotherapy options and surgical options it was difficult to take everything
in. It has taken two of us at each appointment to ensure that we aren't missing
anything, and we still come away with questions that the other one can’t
answer. So…while it is obvious that she has cancer, we went out and got a
second opinion today to ensure that we 1) had a good doctor, 2) were being
given all the right information, and 3) to answer more questions that we had
after the first meeting with the first oncologist. We actually liked the
oncologist today much better, and will be switching over to him immediately.
His bed-side manner is much better, and we just felt better in the gut walking
out of the appointment today than we did on Wednesday. This guy is very well
known, and recommended to us from multiple directions when we started asking
around our circles of neighbor/work/gym friends. It turns out he is very good
friends with the medical oncologist that we will see next Wednesday, and he had
nothing but good things to say about that doctor. We feel like we are in good
hands!
Next week, Allyson will get a full genetic workup to ensure
she does/does not carry the breast cancer gene. We will also meet with her
oncologist to go over the treatment options she has after all the
test/genetic/scan results are fully examined. This is not set in stone yet, but
it is very likely that we are headed for immediate chemotherapy for at least 4
months, followed by surgery to remove both breasts. She could go with a
lumpectomy to remove the growth now, followed by radiation for 6 weeks.
However, the risk of radiation at 38 years old increases the risk of other
cancers later in life. If she goes the chemotherapy and mastectomy route, she
will not have to go through radiation, and she can proceed with immediate
plastic surgery to get that rack that I, I mean she, always wanted ;).
The reason for immediate chemotherapy, and not immediate
surgery, is due to that protein growth driver called HER-2. The chemo will stop
the growth, and even reduce the size of that current growth. It will also stop
any other growths throughout her body that we don’t know about (including in
the lymph nodes). If she goes the immediate surgery route to remove the growth
we are looking at about a 4-8 week delay due to surgery schedules and other
pre-surgery issues that need to be addressed. This gives the current mass more
time to grow and spread. By going with chemo now we not only stop any new
growth, but we buy ourselves time to jump through all of the other hoops if we
decide on the mastectomy route. Like I said, the options can be overwhelming.
The chemo will make her lose her hair. But everybody
responds differently to different types of chemo, and none of the doctors seem
to think that the type of chemo she needs will make her drop a bunch of weight
that she doesn't have to give or lose all of her energy. Right now the plan is
for her to work as much as possible through the process unless she really has a
difficult time with the chemo. Obviously we are going to try and find a wig
maker for her current hair, and Allyson will get to play with a bunch of
different hair-dos should she so desire. The hair loss thing is big for her
though, and seems to bring the most tears whenever discussed.
Today we also found out about a possible experimental
treatment that will give her the drug to stop the HER-2 receptor, but not
require the chemo. We’ll find out more about that next week, and while we are
excited about the possibility, we aren’t getting our hopes up. Too much has
just happened in a short period of time where every test came back the opposite
of what we expected or were hoping for…
On top of all this, we can’t even tell Allyson’s mom and
dad. Ed came home from the hospital last night with hospice care. This means
that he is without medicine from this point forward. He has developed a disease
called Amyloidosis, which is a protein secreted by the bone marrow that does
major damage to his internal organs. This is the reason why they've been having
to drain fluid from his abdomen on an increasing frequency over the last couple
months. He can’t keep any food down, and his urine levels are at extreme lows.
At this point we are looking at a matter of days, not weeks or months.
Allyson’s mom is not dealing well, and we won’t let Ed go to the grave knowing
that Allyson is sick. Allyson’s brother and sisters all know about the cancer,
and we are hoping that Ed can hang on long enough so that Allyson can get up
there to see him on Wednesday night after her important appointments are
completed that day. I’m not sure when we’ll tell Linda that Allyson is sick,
but it isn't going to be very soon.
Getting the news about Ed last night is more than one person
should have to handle, considering everything else that she is going through.
Last night was really, really hard…but we are just trying to focus on one day
at a time right now, and Allyson is still finding ways to draw laughs from her
oncologist at the appointment today. At the end of the appointment today
we were given a percentage that made my day. He said he was 90% sure that
Allyson is going to beat this thing, and that is the best news we've gotten in
a few weeks.
Eventually I’m going to pick back up on the GratefulGahan’s
blog that I started years ago and have since let go. Too many phone calls, and
too many emails have already happened, and it is taking a lot of time to get
through when that happens. We both still have work to do and 2 kids to raise
and we can’t keep up at this pace. By doing the blog we’ll be able to put all
the info in one place for friends/family to keep updated with..hopefully that
will help us manage the flow of good thoughts and people checking up. I
can’t start that back up until Linda is clued in on what has been happening
though. So stand by on that.
I love you guys, and will let you know as soon as we are
able about our ability to travel over the holidays, or take guests, or whatever
the case may be. I’ll send out another note late next week to let you know what
we’ve decided on treatment wise and any other information that has come about.
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