Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I think we dodged a bullet

We just got verbal results back from the surgeon about the pathology of the tissue they removed from Karen.
As the initial results indicated there was no cancerous tissue in the lymph nodes or in the left breast.
However the tumor in the right breast was measured at 3 cm. The initial MRI and ultrasound showed 0.7 cm.
We do not know yet if this is due to uncertainty in the measuring or if the tumor really grew that much in a month.
It is pretty scary if it grew that fast and we are glad that we moved on it early. The scary thing is that Karen was actually about 2 months late on getting the MRI. If she had been on time they would likely not have detected the tumor and it would have had a whole year to grow.
I guess procrastinating does some times pay off :-)
Officially the cancer got classified as stage T2A due to the tumor size.

On the good news side Karen is off the heavy duty pain killers which seems to have eliminated the nausea and she also seems to have a bit more energy.
She got her first sponge bath and her hair washed today. Yes, it did end with water all over the bathroom and me more wet than her as she still has to keep all the incisions dry. But I think she really appreciate the simple things now and I enjoyed being able to doing something good for her.

We actually managed to go to Walmart yesterday as Natalie wanted to spend some of her savings and Christmas money. Karen was in the electric cart and did OK. She was exhausted afterwards though.

Anyway doctor visit is on the 29th we hope that 2 of the 4 drains can come out by then as they ate not really doing anything. They are starting to be really itchy and Karen can't wait to get rid of them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kære Karen, Karsten og Natalie. Har nu læst hele Jeres Historie. Det har og er en hård omgang for Jer alle. Beder til, at alt må blive godt igen. Held og Lykke. Dejligt at se/høre, at I selv ser positivt og det er en god ting.De bedste ønsker herfra Danmark. Og tak for Julegaver. Kærlig hilsen Mor.

Kirstin & Troy said...

Hullo!
Keep up the good work all of you! :) :) Maybe we can come visit soon!!!!!!!!!