Surgery Followup

Friday, we were back at the hospital again for a followup with the surgeon. Sheila's recovery from her surgery a week prior to this appointment has been relatively uneventful for which we are both very thankful.

I definitely want to point out that Sheila's surgeon has done an outstanding job on this partial mastectomy as well as the biopsy and in effectively managing a slightly different and perhaps slightly creative protocol to avoid Sheila's history of problems stemming from anesthesia. In previous surgeries, Sheila has had significant problems with anesthesia and this new surgeon and anesthesiologist really came through in finding a solution to Sheila's rather unique problems. 

Additionally, Sheila's incisions are healing nicely and she is getting more and more comfortable each day.

In our appointment on Friday, the surgeon cleared Sheila to begin doing more physically demanding things again as she feels up to it. Naturally, this is good news. 

One of the walls at the hospital.

Since we learned that Sheila's breast cancer had metastasized to her lymphatic system, Sheila's entire schedule has been put on hold as we wait on additional test results. Her tumor and lymph nodes have been sent to a lab for a new test on the tumor cells. This new test will determine and classify the risk factors of Sheila's particular tumor cells in the form of percentages and will provide the Oncologist with more accurate data. This data will then be used to create a more precise and, hopefully, effective treatment plan. 

Naturally, we are hoping for a classification in the "low risk" category which will likely put us back into a less difficult treatment plan similar to what was proposed right at the very beginning of this flurry of cancer stuff. If not, we'll be in for a much longer and much more grueling treatment plan. Discussing this stuff is really stuff for another day when we have more information in a week or two so I won't write any more about that for now. 

In the meantime, the surgeon did a great job... the anesthesiologist did a great job... and Sheila is healing very nicely and we have a short reprieve to allow us some time to breath and rest!