My Caring Bridge Site

Hi Everyone!
First off, I have to say just how thankful and overwhelmed I am by all the comments, thoughts, prayers and well-wishes.  I read each and every comment, and when I am feeling down I come back and read them again.  You all give me so much support, I can’t tell you what it means to me and just how blessed I feel to have you all along on this crazy cancer ride.  


I wanted to let you know about a Caring Bridge site I created.  It is where I will be giving daily, detailed updates on my health, so if that is something you want to follow, here is the link.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amybowman
I will still be posting here at New Nostalgia, and even hope to get back to some “normal, non-cancer type” posts in between chemo treatments, but for the nitty gritty details, Caring Bridge is the site to go.


I wanted to update all of you on what we know and what the plan is, so I just copied my journal entry I wrote at Caring Bridge tonight.  
Here it is:


Hello Friends and Family,
I thought this Caring Bridge site would be the easiest way to keep you all informed with the details of each day.  I will still be blogging at New Nostalgia, but this is where you need to come if you want daily detailed updates.

Today was a big day and I am super tired.  I am sorry it is so late with an update, but my girls were priority tonight as we explained to them what they will be experiencing in the next few days/weeks.  

We met with our Oncologist to hear all the results of tests and form a plan.

The MRI that was taken yesterday showed that the tumor is bigger than we thought.  It measured 6 cm on the MRI, which bummed me out a bit.  There are also some “suspicious” areas on my other breast, which was a bit of a surprise.  They have not confirmed that this is cancer, but it is a concern.  They do not think it is metastatic from original tumor, in other words, if it is cancer it formed independently from original tumor.

Because of the size of the lump, my Oncologist said I am Stage 3.
Statistically, that number scares me, but she reassured us that it is considered stage 3 not because it has spread elsewhere, but because of the size of the tumor.  

Due to the large size of the tumor, they are going to shrink it with chemotherapy, before attempting to cut it out, which will prevent multiple surgeries and also tell us if the chemo type they choose actually will work on the type of cancer I have.

So the plan is:

Tomorrow-surgery for port placement.  A port is placed in my chest so the chemo can go straight into a main artery and they won’t have to poke me so much, and it will save my veins.  It is a simple outpatient surgery, at 12:30pm.

Monday-my first chemotherapy appt at 10:00am.  It is about a 4 hour process.  Sounds quite boring.  She said to expect to come home pretty worn out, and expect a pretty rough week physically.  
I will receive a chemo treatment every 3 weeks, 4 times.  So about 4 months worth.
 
After my chemo treatments, I will be having a double mastectomy and during the same surgery will have implants placed. I expect this to be end of January, early February.  Todd’s birthday is the 5th…Happy Birthday, Baby.  Ha.

Hmmm, other details….
MRI showed a swollen lymph node, but it did not “light up” which means it may not have cancer in it:)

Bone Scan showed some “activity” of ribs.  It does not show a lesion.  It may be from injury (recently fell at skating rink and a heavy child fell right on my ribs) they are calling it negative for cancer but will recheck that area in the future.

MRI also showed some fluid around my heart.  Because of this, they did an echo-cardiogram today.  I have been having shortness of breath on the left side when I lay down, and a “heavy” feeling at the end of my exhale, so they want to make sure all is ok before chemo on Monday.  I did not get the result from that yet.  A bit nervous about it, I really struggle with unknowns…

That is it for now.  I am so thankful to know there are so many out there who care and are pullin’ and praying for me.  

I read every one of your facebook comments and blog comments, sometimes several times a day.  You all give me so much strength and it means the world to me.

Not sure how sleepy I will be after port surgery, but I will have Todd or someone else let you know how the port placement went and results of echo tomorrow. 

G’night!