I realize that Kenny or I haven’t sent out an update in a while, so this will catch you up to what’s going on with my cancer treatments. 

A few weeks ago I started radiation.  As always, when I start a new phase in my treatment I get nervous and feel sick to my stomach. Will I be feeling ok?  Will I able to go out? How sick will I be this time? Will I finally be able to go out to a store and see what is going on in the world?

Before I had to go through this, I honestly had no idea what radiation therapy was and what it entailed.  Radiation damages cancer cells and makes it hard for them to reproduce. It also affects normal cells, but the thinking is that normal cells are able to repair themselves in a way that the cancer cells cannot, so the body gets rid of the damaged cancer cells.

The day before I started radiation I had to get a CT scan to get everything all mapped out and ready for the next day. It was very nerve wracking for me. They made a mold of my upper body so that every ...

Last time Kim sent an update she said we were in the process of making a huge choice... The choice was between having another surgery to remove more lymph nodes followed by radiation, or skipping the extra surgery altogether and just starting radiation.

This was a difficult decision but we feel really good about our selection. She will not do an additional lymph node surgery at this time and will just begin radiation immediately.

Lots of factors were considered when making the choice, and may doctors were consulted in the process. In fact, at the Hoag tumor board, 20 doctors showed up to view all the details of Kim’s case. They were presented the whole timeline of her journey, and the overall consensus was that she should not do further surgery. (This even included the Medical Director of breast surgery at Hoag, so it was kind of hard to pick the surgery route when the head of surgery advised against it.)

So with that choice behind us, it is time to focus on the next step which is r...

Thank you for the outpouring of love, prayers, emails, cards, and texts this past week!  Even though I haven’t been able to respond to a lot of them, I do read them. They have literally kept me going when I want to give up and throw in the towel.

This cancer journey has been like a marathon to me (even though I have never run a marathon in my life).  It has its ups and downs and curveballs that I sure didn’t expect. It has definitely been a hard and painful week trying to figure out what to do next when we really don’t know what to do. 

The big decision we have to make is whether I should have more surgery (immediately) to remove more lymph nodes and then have radiation after that, or if I should skip additional surgery and just move to radiation now.  We have been trying to process all the pros and cons of these options and there is still not a clear “better” choice.  

We met with my surgeon again yesterday to talk more in detail about what my life would look like if I have more su...

Cancer…we all want the outcome to be packaged in a pretty bow and have a happy ending.  The truth is for some people it does end up that way, but for others of us…not so much… or at least not yet!

Ever since I was diagnosed, I have more or less had a positive attitude.  Sure, there have been lots of tough times, especially through chemo, but for the most part I thought if I followed what the doctors said, everything would work out fine.  Until now, most of my updates on this blog had a very positive and uplifting slant, but I figured I should share the raw truth about how things are going lately. 

Warning, this post will get very real… the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I was a nervous wreck all morning the day of the surgery.  Kenny and I got to Newport Beach early and we ended up walking down the pier to kill some time. We just needed a breath of fresh air before we encountered our next part of the storm.  This was so fun and I just wish the rest of the day had gone so well.

Once w...

Hi. The doctors came into the hospital room and met with us this morning to say that in their opinion the surgery went very well.  The breast surgeon still doesn’t know how many lymph nodes were taken out, but estimates that it was around 9 or 10.  She said because they did find cancer still present in the lymph node, most likely Kim will need radiation after she heals from this surgery.  :(

The good news is they cleared Kim to go home today.  She was discharged this afternoon and we are back at the house.  Even though she is in a lot of pain, if she keeps up on the pain meds, they said it’ll be more comfortable for her at her own house.

I’ve gotta say that Kim was amazing for this whole surgery process.  Always full of smiles and always positive.  Even the nurses pointed out that she had such a positive demeanor.

Next week, she has appointments with all 3 doctors on her Dream Team (surgical oncologist, plastic surgeon, and medical oncologist) to check her progress and make plans fo...

Hi all,

Not much more to update you on, but the surgery finished well and both surgeons said they feel really good about how it went!

Kimberly got checked into her room at about 7:30pm and has been mostly sleeping since then, with some occasional bursts of conversation.

She was in a lot of pain, but this last round of meds seemed to have done the trick. 

There is some talk around here about her being discharged tomorrow, but I guess we’ll find out for sure then.

As for me, I’m going to curl up on this hospital pull-out sofa and get some sleep.

More later,

Kenny

Hi - quick update:

We checked into the hospital around 10am this morning, and they whisked Kimberly off to do some of the pre-op procedures.

I didn’t see her again until just before the surgery, but she was in great spirits and did not exhibit any of the signs I’d expect from someone just about to go under the knife.

Kimberly is in surgery still, but the breast surgeon just came out and gave me an update.  She said everything is going well.  They took out the lymph node which they knew had cancer in it, and had it tested during the surgery.  It tested positive for cancer, so she took out a hunk more.  (She won’t know exactly how many lymph nodes that was until they dissect it later)

She said everything is going great, and Kimberly was giggling and all smiles until she went under.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and I’ll update more as I find out…

Kenny

Hey there — Quick update to say that tomorrow is Kim's surgery.

The actual main surgery begins at 2pm but we have to show up at 10am for several procedures they will do to prep for the surgery.  One of them involves injecting some dye which will help the surgeon trace the lymph nodes as she determines how many of them to remove.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.  They told us to plan on the main surgery lasting 6 hours.

Physically, Kimberly has been feeling better and better, although emotionally, it's been challenging as she's dreading surgery.  It's been heartbreaking for her and I knowing that after tomorrow, her body and life will never be the same.

We appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers!

Kenny

In Kim’s update a couple weeks ago, she mentioned that she was going to get another MRI to check the spots on her adrenal glands.  Many of you have asked how that went so I figured I’d shoot out this quick update.

We got the results of the MRI this week and the doctor said that although the adrenal glands are thicker and larger than they should be, they are completely benign and nothing to be concerned about!  He’ll keep an eye on them going forward to make sure they don’t turn into anything, but of course we’re glad it is nothing else to deal with right now.

Now we turn our attention to the surgery which is a week from tomorrow.  Kim was less than thrilled to find out that she needs yet another breast MRI tomorrow morning.  So, back into the tube she goes… this time so the surgeon can get an up-to-date view on what she has to work with next week.  She wants to see if the tumor has changed at all since the last images were taken, and will use the pictures to formulate her exact plan ...

It’s been five weeks since my last chemo treatment.  I was so glad to say good-bye to one chapter in this process!  It really was horrible, and I’m so glad it’s over.  The only thing I miss about the entire process is seeing my sweet nurse Jill (who happened to be battling breast cancer, and undergoing chemo, while caring for me).

Still to this day I’m dealing with some side effects from chemo.  My biggest one is edema. I can’t stand for long periods of time without my legs and ankle getting swollen. Since it’s been so hot I'm swelling a lot quicker and a lot more which is no fun.

My oncologist wants me to have an MRI to revisit what the scan showed from April.  Back in April there were a couple of spots on my adrenal glands that looked suspicious but not cancerous at the time.  He wants to look at those again and make sure that it didn’t grow into cancer over the past several months. Tomorrow morning I will go in for yet another MRI.

The lyric that keeps coming up in my head is by ...