An Update on Anne’s Journey, Finally

Greetings, All:

I haven’t posted in quite some time so here is an update. Anne recovered well from her double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. Her final path showed a small amount of residual tumor in the breast tissue, which we expected but as previously posted her lymph nodes were negative.`

She was then started on a chemotherapy regimen that included Kadcyla an immunotherapy drug that targets her2 receptors and Anastrozole, a drug that prevents her from producing any estrogen.

She was also started on Prolia, a drug that helps prevent osteoporosis. One of the side effects is osteonecrosis of the jaw. Because of her previous jaw surgery and radiation, we asked her radiation oncologist and dentist if she was at increased risk for this complication and they said no. More on this later.

The immunotherapy drug which she has been getting every three weeks does not have the severe side effects of conventional chemotherapy but there are some flu like symptoms. We thought that she would be done with this treatment by the first of the year. However, we missed one cycle because of an episode of the shingles coupled with some bad nose bleeds Anne was having. Also, as it turned out the treatment was actually scheduled to continue through February. I know, shocking that we would have a communication problem with West clinic.

At any rate, her last immunotherapy treatment will be Monday, March 16. That will be quite a relief for both of us.

In the meantime, Anne had the surgery to complete her reconstruction last October. This entailed exchanging her tissue expanders for actual implants. This surgery hurt more and took more out of her than we had anticipated and she was unable to accompany me to the ASA annual meeting. However she is quite pleased with the final result.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

You may recall that before Anne was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had an oral cancer which required a partial jaw resection, neck dissection and radiation. This left her left jaw very weak. In May of 2018, the same week she had the mammogram which was read incorrectly, she had a spontaneous fracture of that jaw which required 6 weeks of having her mouth wired shut. There was concern at the time that any surgery, like screws and a plate, would not heal because of the previous radiation. It healed up nicely and she had been doing well until recently when her jaw began hurting again. You guessed it, she has a fracture in a different spot. This time it is thought that this is due to osteonecrosis and that without somehow increasing the blood supply to that area she won’t be able to heal. This, most likely, will require her to have some tissue and bone from another part of her body grafted onto her jaw. Since there is no one in Memphis with much experience in this, her ENT and Oral surgeon both agreed that she should go someplace that does. That is why I am blogging this from Houston, Texas where we are getting a consult from the folks at MD Anderson. Our first visit is later today and we are excited and scared to see how this next chapter in our life unfolds.

Though I know she is scared, Anne has continued to handle these set backs with much more grace and courage than I ever could.

Hopefully, I will blog in a more timely fashion going forward, in order to keep those interested informed.