Good News
I don't think I've mentioned it here... or even really mentioned it to anyone at all, but my older sister was diagnosed late last fall with breast cancer. She's 39 years old and has 5 kids ranging in age from 3 to 11.
The illness and the treatments both left her pretty much exhausted (well, and she's always been lazy, like the rest of my family-- myself included :D) and the holidays were pretty hard on her because of it (that's the only time I've seen her). Her oldest kids also took the news really hard, and they're also at an age where their reaction to the news that mom has cancer is more along the lines of "But how can mom do that to ME?!"
Anyway... the initial lab results after her mastectomy were not good. They didn't get a clear demarkation between the cancer cells and the healthy cells, and something like 12 of the 20 lymph nodes that they removed proved to have cancerous cells. Since then, she's been through chemo and they recently did her post-chemo tests to see what the status was. This is the email I just got from my mom:
"Kim's tests came back GREAT. The PET scan showed no active cancer cells and the MUGA test showed no damage to her heart from the chemo. She will still do the radiation starting next week for 4-6 weeks, and still has to go through reconstructive surgery afterward but this was WONDERFUL news!"
So, yay! :D
The illness and the treatments both left her pretty much exhausted (well, and she's always been lazy, like the rest of my family-- myself included :D) and the holidays were pretty hard on her because of it (that's the only time I've seen her). Her oldest kids also took the news really hard, and they're also at an age where their reaction to the news that mom has cancer is more along the lines of "But how can mom do that to ME?!"
Anyway... the initial lab results after her mastectomy were not good. They didn't get a clear demarkation between the cancer cells and the healthy cells, and something like 12 of the 20 lymph nodes that they removed proved to have cancerous cells. Since then, she's been through chemo and they recently did her post-chemo tests to see what the status was. This is the email I just got from my mom:
"Kim's tests came back GREAT. The PET scan showed no active cancer cells and the MUGA test showed no damage to her heart from the chemo. She will still do the radiation starting next week for 4-6 weeks, and still has to go through reconstructive surgery afterward but this was WONDERFUL news!"
So, yay! :D