What a ride!

The roller coaster therapy from last week worked for both of us! After gritting our teeth and shutting our eyes, just like a roller coaster ride, we opened them up to find out the worst was over. Hearing Julie's voice saying Katie's lymph nodes were cancer free was a wave of relief. The ride was over, but the anticipation was gut wrenching.

I guess part of my therapy is being able to write and read on the Internet what Katie is going through and keeping "Katie's support group" informed. It's really hard to sit on the sidelines knowing there isn't much you can do. Tough for a control freak not to be able flip a switch and make everything better! You just keep a positive attitude, trust you have the best doctors, and let God take over. It's hard not to think about Carol Waldrop, our friend, who was diagnosed with lung cancer the same week as Katie and accept the fact Carol passed away last week. It doesn't seem fair.

So here is a quick recap if you want to read on. Blogs, just like Facebook and all that other social media stuff can get boring quickly. We woke up today, Wednesday, at 5am and headed to the University of California Irvine Center to check in at 6:15am (no pets allowed so Miss Kitty didn't make the road trip). It's a pretty amazing facility and rated one of the best hospitals in the US. It even has valet parking and they serve Dr. Pepper! A special thanks goes out to Lynette and Mike Hayde. He has been a friend and business associate for over 25+ years who pointed us to UCI, the great doctors and Julie Boyle who has helped coordinate everything. Lynette has gone through a similar challenge and within 30 minutes of reaching out to Mike I heard back from him. Within hours a plan was already being formulated!

Much to our surprise we were greeted by Barb Basalone, Katie's sister. After checking in and waiting her turn, Katie was greeted by all the doctors and "marked" up. Around 8:30 she was given a sedative and wheeled in for surgery. I occupied my time figuring out how to get wireless access, putting on my headphones, tuning into Pandora, and basically ignoring everything around me to pass the time. At about 10:15 I got the call from Julie Boyle telling me everything went well and the lymph nodes were cancer free! Then around 11am Dr. Butler, the oncologist, came out and gave me the rest of the details.He operated for about two hours with a team of at least seven and removed all her breast tissue and four lymph nodes. They tested the nodes while still in surgery and they were negative or free of cancer. They are doing additional testing on the surrounding tissue and will have the pathology report sometime next week.

The lymph nodes are the biggest indicators if the cancer has spread, so he didn’t expect any different results once we get the pathology report back. Unfortunately, he won’t know what additional treatment will be necessary until after he gets that report back. He indicated that based on her earlier tests she will probably have to undergo some type of hormonal therapy, but that wasn’t conclusive. If so, it might be as simple as just a pill. There is still an outside chance she might have to have chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Just keep your fingers crossed.

If the cancer should ever re-appear he said it would be close to the skin and easy to spot. I took that as a positive. Right now she is getting “repaired” by Dr. Koboyashi. Katie probably won’t be out of surgery until 2-4 o’clock this afternoon. The reconstruction could take as long as 6 hours. Dr. Butler was able to save all of the breast but we won’t know for sure until after Dr. Koboyashi finishes. I know when she wakes up she will be glad to be cancer free! - Mike