Healing Steps

I never thought I'd be grateful Kate found a lump indicating her cancer had returned, but here I am, grateful, because it was only because they were doing all the scans to determine how best to treat the lump that they found the larger spiky blob. 

I never thought I'd be grateful to know Kate might have to undergo another trial of fire via chemo, but here I am, grateful, because the possibility chemo might happen means this bout of cancer can be treated, and either vanquished or banished underground for another length of time. (The alternative would mean it was diffused through her system, and growth could only be slowed down, not halted for any length of time.)

Once the final surgery reports came in we received the wonderful news they'd been able to get clear margins after all. **!!whew!!** Game-changing news. 

With the removal of the last drainage tube last Friday, her energy has come bouncing back. It will still be quite some time before the roughly cookie-shaped hole in her chest will be healed; she is missing two 2-3" chunks of rib, along with the corresponding muscles in the intercostal region of her chest (the part of your body between the ribs and lungs - these muscles help you breathe freely). But. Her pain, while still never gone, is now manageable without the help of heavy duty painkillers and she is doing all she can to facilitate the healing process.

She won't know exactly what followup treatments will be recommended until the oncotype testing of the excised tumor is complete, which will be another week or two. She does know she has radiation and hormone therapy in the offing. The medical teams are still saying 'treatable' - no small blessing.

Treatable or not, this is scary stuff to contemplate, too scary. So for now, when we talk, we focus on the best steps to take to begin to heal her current set of bodily traumas. 

One step at a time.

Today, we are here.