Anne has been doing pretty well since her surgery. Her final path came back. There was a small amount of residual tumor in her breast tissue which we expected but the sentinel lymph node was indeed negative with no sign that there had ever been tumor in it. So allowing for the fact that cancer does tend to do what it wants to do, Anne should be cancer free now.
Unfortunately, the edges of her wounds on both sides were not healing well. Yesterday, her plastic surgeon, Dr. Campbell, took her back to surgery to cut out the dead tissue and made sure that there is viable tissue at those edges which there is. She also took a little volume out of her tissue expanders to ensure that the closure would not be too tight. This surgery took less than an hour and we were back home by 10:00 a.m. Since then, Anne has taken a walk outside and generally felt better than she has in quite some time. Her drain output is decreasing at a rapid rate and they should be ready to come out in a day or two.
Next, we have to see Dr. Vidal, her chemotherapist, on Friday and start her immunotherapy which will go on for the next 8 months. These drugs, not sure if she will get one or two, are called monoclonal antibodies and their generic names end in “mab”. They are designed to attack specific receptors on tumor or other cells. In Anne’s case they attack the HER2 receptor sites. She was getting this along with conventional chemotherapy prior to her surgery but now will only get the MABs. These are not supposed to have near the side effects by themselves that the other agents have and won’t take all day to give. She will receive these for about 8 more months.
Things are looking positive, and we are confident that the worst is behind us. Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, concerns and words of encouragement. And thanks to Anne for being awesome.
Anne’s Journey 