Surgery Results

I know many of you were praying for us yesterday and probably looking for an update to be posted. As you might imagine, surgery day was filled, not only with much activity, but also some down time waiting for various things to happen. Nevetheless, trying to think about updating my blog wasn't the first thing on my mind. However, the Lord was gracious in providing great doctors and nurses -- a skilled and experienced surgeon, anesthesiologist, radiologist and support staff that provided, not only excellent medical care, but also compassion in trying circumstances.

Our day started with a trip to the radiologist at 7:30 for a procedure to help the surgeon know exactly the location and size of the tumor (if you'd like to know the gorie details please ask, but I'll spare the rest of you). Then to the hospital at 9:00 for check-in, nuclear medicine at 11:30 and then surgery started at 1:30.

The nuclear medicine was interesting -- a doctor injected a small dose of radioactive medicine into the tumor site so that the surgeon could pick up (by a geiger counter) the lymph nodes to which the tumor drained -- between the wire placed by the radiologist and the nuclear medicine, Sarah swears she was picking up NPR on the operating table. :)

The surgeon found two "hot nodes" (meaning that the nuclear medicine drained to those nodes) that were removed for testing, which if found to be cancer free, then no other lymph nodes will need to be removed. The surgeon did say that none of the nodes he removed "looked suspicious", but cautioned that we need to wait for the pathology report (should be Wednesday) to be certain that they're cancer free. Surgery was over by 3:00 and Sarah was in recovery until 4:00 and then to her "room" and discharged at 6:15 -- still a bit groggy at that point, but able to get up long enough to get her home (in the middle of a snow storm).

We both slept much better last night than we did the previous night. We were awake at 5:30 this morning -- Sarah even got up and was washing dishes -- ok, so before you get too provoked and wondering what kind of husband I am, it was only her tea cup; I had done all of the other dishes last night. :)

So, next steps are CT Scan on Wednesday to give the radiological oncologist the information she needs to determine if Sarah is a candidate for the "mammosite balloon" radiation treatment. The purpose of the radiation treatment is to kill off any cancer cells that may have travelled outside of the surgical site. Even if there are clear margins around the tumor, there is still a chance that some cancer cells may have gotten outside of the margin. During the course of the surgery, the surgeon inserted a balloon into the cavity where the tumor was removed. Provided the radiologist finds that there are proper margins from skin and breast bone to allow this type of treatment, this balloon becomes the delivery vehicle for the radiation. The advantages of this treatment over the standard "full-breast" radiation treatment are that this is a 5 day course of treatment, rather than 6 weeks and this treatment is localized to the area surrounding the tumor site. If everything looks good for this treatment, then it will begin on Thursday and she'll be finished by the 15th of December. If not, then the standard radiation will start in January.

Also on Wednesday, we should get the pathologist report back regarding the lymph nodes -- if these are clear, then chemo is likely contra-indicated.

In our prayer time this morning, we acknowledged how the Lord has been showering us with His grace not only for the excellent medical care, but also for friends and family that have prayed for and with us, have provided transportation for our teenagers, have called at just the right moment to encourage Sarah (and me), have written emails of encouragement to both of us, and have brought food to the house (yummie soup, salad and cookies were waiting for us in the kitchen when we got home last night).

A couple of verses that have meant a lot to us during the last few weeks are Isaiah 43:18 and 19 "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the widerness and rivers in the desert." Those are God's promises that He is in the business of spiritual renewal and that He is active in, not only showing us the way, but also walking along side of us and providing the resources to get there. The Lord is GOOD.

Please continue to pray that further treatments will be minimized, that the cancer will have been eradicated and that we'll continue to be receptive to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives as He seeks to eradicate the "spiritual cancers" that have invaded all of us.