Brian

I know some may wonder why I don't say much about Brian in my posts so I thought I would say a few words. He doesn't like public recognition and I won't be posting this on FB, but for those who are checking my blog or get emails from me, I want to say that Brian has been a big blessing through the entire diagnosis and treatment.  He is what I needed- someone calm, rational, helpful (even when he came home with $250 worth of groceries one day), and he never freaks out about anything. He cooks,  does laundry, and washes dishes.

We are not mushy, so enough said. Just wanted to get that on record!

My PEOPLE OF THE YEAR of 2013

It has been awhile since I gave an update, and as you know, it usually means things are good when you don't hear from me!  I truly am doing well. I have been on Tamoxifen for 2 months now and have no major side effects. However, I will have a 3 month check in with the oncologist at the end of January. They will do blood draw and then let me know if there is anything going on "behind the scenes" in my body. Hopefully all will be well! I am really trying to get my exercise and sleep so that I feel my best almost every day. I have been eating well until I started my holiday baking a couple of weeks ago!

People Magazine always does a People of the Year in December or January, so I wanted to give my own version. First of all, to everyone who prayed for me and sent me cards and texts and e-mails- that meant the world to me the past 6 months. My mom definitely makes the list as she is the first person I called after my husband to talk to when I was first diagnosed in June. When mom started praying for me I felt God's peace and protection from there on and she was such a huge encouragement. My sisters were also very encouraging, coming to visit after the first surgery and piled up meals in my freezer. Little did I know then how much I would need them later, after several more surgeries, plus the major surgery!

My work friends were also great in bringing meals, reading materials, and taking care of me!

I must also mention my good friend Emily who drove me to several doctors appointments and stayed with me the day of my "emergency" surgery until I went into the operating room. Next on my list are my neighbors who provided meals and walked with me and checked on me (Michelle, Janet, Carol, Melissa and Don). My friend Amy also, who sent me many texts with scriptures to keep me going!

I hope I didn't forget anyone who was a major part of my life, but God sees and knows every gesture made towards me, and He will never forget your acts of kindness!

Finally, I want to post pictures of my breast surgeon, reconstruction surgeon, and oncologist, as they were all so very helpful, loving, and encouraging. They are so intelligent, humble, and knowledgeable, and exactly what every patient needs in a "team" of doctors. Here are their pictures:

Dr. Bolla-oncologist

Dr. Hughes- plastic surgeon

Dr. Erika Rager

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Love Sharren

You Had to Know I Have a Thankful Speech This Year!!

I will keep it short and sweet~ I think it goes without saying (much) that I am very thankful for the way God took care of me this year, especially since my diagnosis of stage II breast cancer in mid-June. I have kept a good attitude, but there are times when it was OH SO HARD to not worry about future doctor appointments, treatments, and thinking about possibly leaving this earth far earlier than I had ever imagined.

Some of my short prayers included:
"God, if my work here is done, take me. If not, please get me through this."
"God, please have mercy on me~ don't let me have to do chemo (I know so many other of your children go through it, but please have mercy on me)."
"God, I don't want to take medicine, but since you spared me from radiation and chemo, it's the least I can do. Just give my body what is good from it and get rid of the rest!"
"God, thank you so much for taking care of me!"

In addition, this experience has helped me feel more deeply the pain others are going through with their medical issues. It doesn't have to be cancer, just anything.

I am so thankful for all the prayers, cards, texts, e-mails, Bible verses, and calls of people just reaching out to me in my time of need. It is so hard to express the gratitude I have. If God lays on your heart to reach out to someone, don't ignore it. It will mean the world to them.  There was a period of time between my diagnosis in June and my masectomy on Oct. 2, where I received at least one text, card, e-mail or phone call EVERY DAY~ like God had it all planned out to give me a bit of encouragement each day to get me through. It was truly amazing. Some days I woke up saying, "I wonder who I will hear from today?"~ it was GREAT!

God is Building My Empathy Resume

Well, not many people can say they have had 4 surgeries in 6 months. Sounds like enough to start a new club!  This past week was pretty stressful. First I had a reaction to a new antibiotic, and that was not a fun experience, then I finally got started on my tamoxifen medicine after letting it sit on my bathroom counter for a week. Then, mid week I noticed my surgery scars were not looking so good. I had an appointment with my plastic surgeon scheduled on Friday.

Thursday night around 1:15 I woke up feeling warm all over and couldn't really go back to sleep until around 4. Friday morning I noticed the blister that was on my skin was seeping so I put a gauze on it, stalked the school nurse for awhile, and prayed I could make it until my 11:45 appointment without anything really bad happening. I had a feeling I shouldn't go alone, so I texted my friend Emily and asked her if she could go with me. She picked me up and when we got to the Dr. office, I had to wait about 2 hours because he was behind and it was SO hot in the room I thought I was going to faint.

Finally Dr. Hughes came in and took a look at me. He was really quiet, then he said, "Well, what we've got here is a (insert some medical term I didn't understand), i.e. an exposed tissue expander." Pause. "The best thing to do is take it out and let you heal." Pause. "We are going to send you to surgery." Me: "Do I need to schedule that?" Doc: "No, Shae will schedule it and we will do it today." Me: "Oh."  Dr. Hughes said it happens to some people and I didn't do anything wrong. The surgeon in October did a good job scraping all the cancer out, and that is what is important. My skin didn't have enough support to be able to withstand a blister or anything like that going wrong.

From there they sent me over to the hospital to get ready for a 4:30 surgery. It took about an hour and I was able to come home around 7. Brian came over from work and Emily stayed with me until they took me to surgery.

To be honest, it feels pretty good not to have that expander in there. I will take a few months and think about what I want to do. If  they have to take skin from somewhere else to do it again, I will definitely choose the prosthetic route. I will try one for a few months and see how I like it anyway.

I will keep you updated! Thank you for keeping up with me and caring and praying and being there for me.

A Good Report- Finally!

Hello! It has been awhile since I posted. I am happy to say that my oncotype report came back very positive. Out of a score of 100, I got a 10. That means I am low risk for the cancer returning and they also tested the tissue to see how it would react to chemotherapy and it came back that my cancer would not benefit from chemotherapy.  I am so thankful for continued research in the area of breast cancer! I know for sure that God has been merciful to me.

In the area of reconstruction, I have a tissue expander in, and soon I will be going every few weeks for them to expand it with saline, then in several months I will have a two hour surgery to replace it with an implant. There are several different ways to do reconstruction, but I chose what I think will be the simplest and easiest for me.

Points of prayer: That my final drain will come out this week. It has been four weeks! The plastic surgeon likes for the drain to be giving out 30ml or less of fluid for 3 days in a row, but I have been consistently at 45 ml for a few weeks. I think maybe my body is just different :)  He said there is a time limit as to how long they keep it in, no matter what. There are no signs of infection (as of today), so hopefully Friday when I go back he will take it out and my body will just absorb any extra fluid.

One other thing on my mind is starting the tamoxafin medication. I am going to be starting it this week and I know that it is useful and helpful to pretty much every woman who gets cancer pre-menopausal. I just have always had a fear of taking medicine (everyone has some sort of fear, right?). I am confident that I will be OK, and just have to get past my humanness. God has brought me this far, I don't think He is just going to leave me alone now! I feel I am in good medical hands and believe that they will help me make the best decisions for my health.

I will continue to blog to give updates on reconstruction, further surgery or whatever may be on my mind. I have read that journaling is good therapy!

Waiting Patiently

I received some good news yesterday. My insurance is going to pay 100% of the oncotype testing and the results should be at the oncologist's by November 1. I will feel much better about a treatment plan having this information, rather than the Dr. guessing about whether or not the cancer might come back and whether or not I should have chemotherapy. If you don't know what I am talking about, look at my previous post.

So, I don't have a lot of information other than that at the moment. I still have one drain in and hope to have it removed next Tuesday. I have been reading some books and am on fall break through next week. I will be able to go back to work Oct. 28.

Thank you for keeping up with me! I am encouraged by all the love and prayers from each of you!

So What is an Oncotype?

Hopefully you are learning a little more about breast cancer as I am by keeping up with me! Who knows you may learn something you can share with someone you know who is newly diagnosed and has no clue what is going on. Yesterday I went to follow up appointments with my surgeon and the plastic surgeon. Afterwards I had a headache from the anticipation of meeting with them, hearing the pathology report and getting one of the drains removed (OUCH! but great that I only had it for a week). Still have one drain to go- hoping to get that one out next Tuesday.

My surgeon gave me some good news. All the cancer is out and there were no new occurances in other areas of the tissue.  Amidst all my hospital changes, we found out that I am due for my annual mammogram on my other breast, so I have that scheduled for next Thursday. That sort of resurrects my fears but I know that God is watching over me and nothing happens to me that doesn't first go through His hands.

One piece of information we still need before determining whether or not I should have chemo treatments is something called an Oncotype report. This is a specific genetic test used for women who have early cancer stage, negative lymph nodes, and is estrogen positive- which fits my case precisely.  What this test measures is my risk of reoccurance. They will take my original lump that they removed at stage 2 and test 21 genes. It will measure the chances of my cancer coming back and how likely I would be to benefit from chemotherapy. If I am at low risk then chemotherapy should not be part of my treatment plan. I am hoping and praying this is something that can be covered by my insurance. The medical oncologist is going to call and check on where the request is. They put in the request on September 6, but they have not heard anything and I have not heard from my insurance company.

So, I am doing really well and sleeping well. Only taking Advil now. Getting out for 3 short walks per day.  When I find out more about the oncotype testing I will let you know.

I'm Home!

Surgery went well and I am home. So my Doctor's orders are interesting. I have to take a 5 minute walk every hour, do arm lifts every 15 minutes, do a breathing exercise once per hour, empty my drains every 5-6 hours, take pain meds every 4 hours, and my antibiotic every 12 hours. That my friends, is a full time job all in itself! My follow up appointments are Tuesday with the surgeon and plastic surgeon, and Thursday with the medical oncologist, so I will find out the plan for my follow up treatments at that time.

My mom is here to help for a few days and I am just going to try to get through my daily tasks and pray for quick healing and ease of sore muscles. I have an anesthesia block that will last for one or two more days but it is mainly for the incisions and not so much for my muscles.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support. I truly could not be so positive without the love, prayers, thoughts, meals, cards and good wishes from everyone. I hope that I can be there for others in their time of need in the same way others are doing it for me right now.

A Card is Worth a Thousand Thoughts

This is a little reminder that my surgery is this coming Wednesday, October 2 at 8:30 a.m. Specific prayer for those who like details: Dr. Rager is the surgeon, Dr. Hughes is the plastic surgeon, and the hospital is St. Francis in Greenwood, IN. Pray that the fire alarm doesn't go off during my surgery (ha, ha). It is expected to be about a 5 hour surgery.

Many have asked  how I am feeling, and I must say that I am doing well. I am sleeping fine and trying to get a lot of exercise as that will be limited for a few weeks. I am not looking forward to sitting still for a couple of weeks, but I will plan to get a lot of reading and TV watching in! The last time I was on "bed rest" was right before Stacey was born. I had toxemia and had to spend the last 5 weeks of pregnancy on the couch. That is all all a blur to me now, as I hope that this experience will some day be too.

I wish I could send a thank you card to everyone who sent me a get well card, but I know that is silly. People don't send cards to get cards!  I have appreciated all of the cards, texts, e-mails, prayers, and people I see asking me how I am doing. It doesn't bother me at all- it let's me know people care. 

I will try to post something soon after surgery day to let everyone know how it went. I will be in the hospital overnight, so will probably be able to post on Thursday when I get home since the anesthesia will still be in my system! :) They are going to put a little anesthesia block in my back to slowly pump into me and gradually wear off so I should be able to manage! (Or I might just show Brian how to post something on Facebook!)

For those wondering, I think my October meals are taken care of. My neighbor set up an online meal sign up for 3 days per week in October, so if we have to add anymore due to needing chemo treatments, I will post the website here on my blog for anyone who wants to sign up.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this and for showing me your love and friendship in so many ways! While I am just sitting around I will post some books I have been reading and some things God is teaching me through this.

Surgery Date and Other Tidbits

After meeting with oncologists I decided to go ahead and have a single masectomy, and it is scheduled for October 2 at 8:00 a.m. It is about a 5 hour surgery because they are going to do reconstruction at the same time, which means they put something called a tissue expander in there, and I will have to go for monthly appointments and eventually have the tissue expander replaced with an implant (probably next spring or summer).
I know some of you are wondering, how did you get all the way to surgery #3 before making this decision? It is not an easy road, digesting information, talking to others with similar experiences, and ultimately deciding between a couple of options. My surgeon was very nice indicating that many people have breast conserving surgery and radiation and take tamoxifen and that is the extent of their treatment. One thing I learned in meeting with oncologists (separate from my surgeon) is that the size of the tumor and stage of cancer often drives the treatment recommendations.  I also learned that this can vary depending on what doctor or oncologist you get your opinion from.  Right from the start I knew if I had a good surgeon, I would get good recommendations for follow up treatments. I have a great surgeon and she works with different oncologists who have different treatment recommendations. Some people who might share the same surgeon might choose different oncologists depending on their insurance or friend recommendations.

Radiologists and oncologists have guidelines they follow, but some of them also treat each person as an individual and not as a category. The one thing I liked about the medical oncologist I talked to is that he said to me, "I will not make a recommendation about chemotherapy until I see the pathology report, and  talk to some colleagues who have been doing this longer than me. I will share your case with them and we will talk about the best treatment."  I want to know that utmost thought and research was put into my case, so I can truly say, "I trust your recommendation." Christian or not, God has given many people wonderful brains and abilities for "such a time as this." I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to live in a time period where we have advanced medical care. My prayer is that God will give wisdom to the surgeons and oncologists so that whatever treatment is recommended, I know it is from Him, traveling through them, and I will have peace that if I have to have chemo, that it has first been through God's hands.

Enough thought processing for today. Thank you for reading. If you would like to pray specifically, here are the names of my "team": Dr. Erika Rager, Surgeon; Dr. Hughes, plastic surgeon; Dr. Bolla, medical oncologist.  I will leave you with a link to my stage II diagnosis and what options there are for treatment if you are interested in learning more. Treatment for Stage II Breast Cancer (fyi, my tumor was 3.1 cm- considered large- and I have no cancer in my lymph nodes).

What is Going On?

I never really thought I would start a blog to keep people updated on any health issues going on with me, but I have had so many loving, caring people ask me how I am doing and what happened and how can they help, that I have decided to go ahead and write a blog. This will prevent me putting a lot of stuff on FB that some people just may not be interested in or ready to see when they open up FB!  A blog allows people to "check in" when it is convenient for them.

So much has happened since June 12th that I am trying to figure out how to be succinct. I guess I will just start from the beginning. I started my yearly mammograms when I was 41, in March of 2012. In October 2012 I had a biopsy on some calcifications on my right breast. All was clear. In March of 2013 I felt a lump near the surface of my right breast. After it did not go away, I made an appointment to have it checked on June 12, 2013.  The doctor ordered an ultrasound biopsy, and the result came back positive for breast cancer.

At that point I did not know what stage it was at. All I knew is it needed to be removed via a surgery. I quickly gathered my thoughts and contacted someone I knew who had a masectomy in January. She recommended a surgeon at St. Francis Hospital in Greenwood, Dr. Erika Rager, and I made an appointment for a consultation right away.  She was wonderful and we scheduled a surgery for July 22, 2013- a lumpectomy. When the pathology report came back, it did not show clear margins. She had removed a Stage 2 lump identified as papillary carcinoma, the rarest type of breast cancer that accounts for 1% of all breast cancers.  Surrounding the lump was DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) stage 0, which is pre-cancerous cells that could turn into cancer, but most oncologists agree that this is a type of cancer in the breast that must be monitored or removed. Since it was surrounding my stage 2 cancer, it needed to come out.

A second surgery was scheduled for August 26. Again, the pathology report came back and the margins were not clear. As my surgeon said, there is a lot in there! It is stuff you can't see with the naked eye. Only a pathology investigation can reveal this. My surgeon set me up with appointments to consult with a radiologist oncologist and a medical oncologist, both of whom I met with this past Friday, September 6. We discussed my choices: radiation therapy with chemo therapy, or masectomy with possible chemotherapy. When I weighed my chances of reoccurance, I decided that it might be best to plan a single masectomy. I am currently trying to schedule a surgery for the week of October 9- right before Fall Break, so I will have 2 weeks to recover at home. Once the mass goes to pathology, a decision will be made about chemotherapy.

Future updates will probably not be so lengthy, but I wanted to be sure that everyone sort of knew how I got to where I am right now.