Bright Spots Here and There

Little Kayla Joy was born this week, on Tuesday.

She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long. She's beautiful. Daniel couldn't be prouder of his new daughter; he grins from ear to ear and loves holding her. Mandy is recovering and they both are home learning the ropes of being new parents. It was the really bright spot of my week.

On Thursday I had my return visit to the surgeon who peformed my lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy. He had the pathology reports at hand and was able to tell me the results. It was primarily good news, (bright spot) but with some bad news thrown in. They got all the invasive cancer and there were no other remnants in the tissue surrounding the area. So that means I'm at Stage 1 (five stages: stage 0 through 4) - bright spot. The bad news was that they did find DCIS, Ductal carcinoma cancer in the surrounding tissue. DCIS cancer is generally not life threatening and has a 99% cure rate; another bright spot.

However, given that there is this other cancer in the tissue and the hormone receptors in the cancer cells tested out positive, it looks like I may have to have long-term hormonal treatment which can be a variety of different drug treatments that I have to do for anywhere from 1 year to 5 years. We'll also have to keep a very close watch for years to come. Apparently they think my recurrence risk is high. Not bright.

So as I began to research these follow-on treatments, I got pretty discouraged. There are a lot of side effects to be aware of. I started checking into these on Friday and spent part of the morning crying in James' arms. Then I went and cheered myself up by visiting Mandy and holding my new little granddaughter for a few hours. That really helped.

I'll find out more about what is likely to happen on Tuesday morning when I have the appointment with an Oncologist (cancer specialist). I'm hoping for a bright spot.