Friday, February 17, 2012

Good

Y'all! It's Becky, Amy's sister. Amy is doing great! They took her in for her lumpectomy a bit earlier than we expected, and were done a bit faster.

The post-op word was that her sentinel lymph node was clear. The so-called "sentinel node" is the first lymph node that would be reached by cancer cells traveling from a tumor. It's the node that raises the alarm. Sentinel, get it? So if the sentinel node is clear, that means the cancer cells haven't spread to the lymphatic system or haven't taken hold there.

So that is very, very good.

The surgeon also felt confident that he had taken out the entire tumor mass, though the pathologist will have to confirm that the margins are good. That will take a couple of days. But my experience from talking to surgeons is that they are pretty good at sizing up a situation, and if they say they are confident, they have good reason to be.

I am so relieved, I just can't even tell you.

A little while ago, Jason called me and said that Amy was groggy and had decided to spend the night in the hospital, but she wanted to speak to me. Matt and I both put our ears up to my phone. I talked to her and she sounded great. She seemed like she had just woken up from a nap, just normal. She said she had morphine and was okay.

So this news caused me to relax in places that I didn't even know were tense. And then I had two glasses of wine.

If you missed the pre-op photo session, take a look at my post from this afternoon.

So, to sum up: early indications are that the situation turned out as well as we could hope, and that her cancer really was caught at an early stage, earlier than mine. She will certainly have radiation, which is standard for a lumpectomy, but we don't know what, if anything, else.

But this is good, y'all. Thank you for your prayers, kind words, thoughts, vibes, white light (you know who you are). Even if we have never met, I see you. You are real to me, and to Amy. We appreciate you being out there.

Sleep well sister! I think I might call it a night.

16 comments:

  1. Congrats, Amy! This is fantastic news. But now to the important things: what did the surgeon think of your boob?!?

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  2. Such good news. Thanks for the update. Love her so much. You drink your wine...im gonna go eat an entire box of little debbie's...xoxoxo

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  3. Good is good to hear. Here's hoping her good keeps getting better

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  4. Great news. Continuing to send good thoughts that the trend continues!

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  5. Praise the Lord!!!! I woke up early this morning thanking God for the great news.

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  6. I rushed to your blog even before coffee. Such great news was here. Hope everything keeps getting better.

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  7. Good, good, good, good, good INDEED.

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  8. St Paul competently advised the Romans to cling to what is good. This. Enjoy yr wkend, Becky. Heal yrself, Amy! xo

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  9. Becky, you are an amazing sister to Amy! Thanks for the update though being here in Sydney we knew much earlier of the outcome :) I'm sure y'all are ecstatic about it ( sorry couldn't help the y'all ) :) I popped over to your blog to check out the pictures of Amy and Jason too, thanks for that ! Yea people here complain about our hospital system but when compared to the US (from what I've heard) we have it pretty good ! We are rejoicing and thanking God for this great report.

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    1. Actually, I got to go in earlier than we thought for my surgery, so jase was able to text our families right after I was out, as it was still evening there. I even got to talk to them in my super-drugged state! ;)

      Thanks for all your prayers, my friend.

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    2. Hi Amy !
      Yea I heard you went in early and were able to talk to your family after the surgery. That was so good you were able to do that:)
      Let us know if you need any help over the next few days. Rest up and take it easy:)
      Xxx
      Rosemary

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  10. What a relief that things went so well. Thanks for sharing with us.
    Julie

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  11. so glad for good news! I had radiation to the chest in December and used "Blue Emu" cream on my skin to heal it. Works great if you can find it.

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