Mom woke up today feeling great- she hasn't taken a thing for pain all day, not even Tylenol! We canned a few tomatoes this morning (they are overtaking the garden!) and kind of just bummed around the house. We were going to make our first post-surgery public appearance to Target, but mom wanted to take a 'little' nap first- over an hour later I decided to go for a run and I guess mom slept for over 2 hours! She still hasn't mastered 'laying low' and I think it has caught up with her a bit!
The only bad thing today was that Andi and Tay had to leave :( Tay starts his junior year at UW-Madison on Wednesday and Andrea moves into a new apartment in the Wicker Park area of Chicago tomorrow. We were all very blessed and glad to have them here these last few days, I know I'm really going to miss having them to lean on. Andrea will be back soon for a couple weddings and hopefully we'll be able to make it to Madison for a Badger football game or two this fall.
Thanks again for the flowers that just keep coming (McClures, Jensens, Chuck & boys, Heather & Frank)- our house looks and smells like a flower shop, it's so uplifting! All the cards too have brought many smiles to our faces day after day.
That's about it for now- one quick prayer request though...my friend Steph was diagnosed with breast cancer a week or so before mom and she has to have a second surgery tomorrow and an infusion port placed for chemo- please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, she really needs strength and peace during this difficult time. Thanks again everyone, we love you! Until next time...
Lins
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Message From Marilyn
Well, here goes my first blog entry! It has been a whirlwind these past few weeks. I think I have surprised a lot of people including myself with this news. I am still having a hard time saying "I have breast cancer." I want to say "I had," not have.
The prayers, love, and support I have received from all of you has been mind boggling. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and group of friends. I can't even begin to name everyone who has called, sent cards and flowers, and brought over treats. I could feel all of your love and prayers the day of my surgery. I was very at peace. Even my blood pressure was the lowest it has been all week! I guess I was giggling and laughing too when they wheeled me off to the OR! I must have known everything was going to be okay.
So now I will praise God for helping me to be strong through this. And also for my wonderful family, relatives and friends. I have so much to be thankful for. You are all the best!
Love ya all,
Marilyn
PS- My next doctors appointment is scheduled for Thursday morning. This will be the first time we meet with my oncologist. We should find out the final pathology results of my lumpectomy and node removal. They study them microscopically to make sure there are no "straggling" cancer cells floating in the nodes and that there are no cancer cells near the margins (edges) of the lumpectomy. We should also find out what my treatment plan looks like from here. We will keep you all posted!
The prayers, love, and support I have received from all of you has been mind boggling. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and group of friends. I can't even begin to name everyone who has called, sent cards and flowers, and brought over treats. I could feel all of your love and prayers the day of my surgery. I was very at peace. Even my blood pressure was the lowest it has been all week! I guess I was giggling and laughing too when they wheeled me off to the OR! I must have known everything was going to be okay.
So now I will praise God for helping me to be strong through this. And also for my wonderful family, relatives and friends. I have so much to be thankful for. You are all the best!
Love ya all,
Marilyn
PS- My next doctors appointment is scheduled for Thursday morning. This will be the first time we meet with my oncologist. We should find out the final pathology results of my lumpectomy and node removal. They study them microscopically to make sure there are no "straggling" cancer cells floating in the nodes and that there are no cancer cells near the margins (edges) of the lumpectomy. We should also find out what my treatment plan looks like from here. We will keep you all posted!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Happy Days
Mom is almost back to her usual self already. She is babying her right arm a little bit as it hurts to lift it, but thats about it. She is already weaning herself by taking her percocet pain meds every 6 hours vs every 4. The most difficult part of today has been trying to keep her low key! She is up and about not exactly taking it easy. Are you surprised?! Of course not! She always has something to get done! Mom still has her bandage on from surgery so we are not exactly sure what the incisions look like. She has 2, 1 longitudinally in her outer armpit where the nodes were removed and 1 laterally across the top outside of her boob where the lumpectomy was done. Thanks again for every ones phone calls today to check in. Shes been on the phone about 3 hours already! Thanks to the NBICU for the beautiful flower basket that was sent. We also received amazing flowers from Jess, Christy, Emily, Gigi, Jamie, Kelsey, Katy and the McClures. Our house smells so good! And thanks to Aunt Donna as well, who had the prayer shawls sent for Mom and Dad from Immanuel Lutheran Church, they are beautiful. Thanks for checking in everyone and we will keep updating you.
Love lots,
The Peterson Fam
Love lots,
The Peterson Fam
Friday, August 28, 2009
Yeah, surgery is behind us
Hi everyone.
Well we are all asleep on the couch except for Mom! I'm not surprised she is the only one that still has the energy to stay up and cheer on the Twins! It was a long, but good day. As I wrote before, we received some extremely good news today. The pathology results from her sentinel nodes found no cancer. In addition, the surgeon only had to remove 2 nodes total where sometimes they have to remove 4 to 5. He said that Mom's sentinel nodes were "very easy" to find and he was confident that he only needed to remove the 2 because they were the only ones near the tumor. Again, all really great news. And Mom did wonderful throughout the entire day. The wire localization wasn't that bad she said, probably thanks to some extra numbing medicine! And there were no complications with the surgery including no nausea afterwards, which she was a little worried about. She was up walking around and eating and drinking within an hour after surgery. She was ready to leave, but had to "patiently" wait for the nurse to discharge her. Lets just say she was so ready to go we helped her get dressed, took her off the monitor and she started to remove her own IV- that's what you get I guess when the patient and her 2 daughters are all nurses! Overall, things went very smoothly and we couldn't be happier. We were even blessed to be graced with familiar faces when our nurse Kelly from our biopsy last week was along for mom's wire localization and another girl we grew up with was her nuclear med tech- God took care of us and comforted us throughout every step of today. Thank you to all of our doctors, nurses and techs that did a wonderful job. And most importantly, thanks to all of you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. You gave Mom the confidence she needed to face this day with strength and courage and all of our prayers were answered thanks be to God. Thanks Grandma Marie for your homemade chicken noodle soup too, yum! Good night and we love you all SO much!
The Peterson's
P.S. The little girl Lindsey has been taking care of all summer was well enough to come home from the hospital today too, another answered prayer! It really has been a great day!
Well we are all asleep on the couch except for Mom! I'm not surprised she is the only one that still has the energy to stay up and cheer on the Twins! It was a long, but good day. As I wrote before, we received some extremely good news today. The pathology results from her sentinel nodes found no cancer. In addition, the surgeon only had to remove 2 nodes total where sometimes they have to remove 4 to 5. He said that Mom's sentinel nodes were "very easy" to find and he was confident that he only needed to remove the 2 because they were the only ones near the tumor. Again, all really great news. And Mom did wonderful throughout the entire day. The wire localization wasn't that bad she said, probably thanks to some extra numbing medicine! And there were no complications with the surgery including no nausea afterwards, which she was a little worried about. She was up walking around and eating and drinking within an hour after surgery. She was ready to leave, but had to "patiently" wait for the nurse to discharge her. Lets just say she was so ready to go we helped her get dressed, took her off the monitor and she started to remove her own IV- that's what you get I guess when the patient and her 2 daughters are all nurses! Overall, things went very smoothly and we couldn't be happier. We were even blessed to be graced with familiar faces when our nurse Kelly from our biopsy last week was along for mom's wire localization and another girl we grew up with was her nuclear med tech- God took care of us and comforted us throughout every step of today. Thank you to all of our doctors, nurses and techs that did a wonderful job. And most importantly, thanks to all of you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. You gave Mom the confidence she needed to face this day with strength and courage and all of our prayers were answered thanks be to God. Thanks Grandma Marie for your homemade chicken noodle soup too, yum! Good night and we love you all SO much!
The Peterson's
P.S. The little girl Lindsey has been taking care of all summer was well enough to come home from the hospital today too, another answered prayer! It really has been a great day!
FABULOUS NEWS!!!
THE SENTINEL NODES ARE CLEAR, I REPEAT THE NODES ARE CLEAR!!! Hi it's Andrea here and we are sitting in the waiting room as I write! We just got paged to the info desk where they had a message from the OR. They wanted to let us know that the pathology results on Mom's nodes are back and they are clean of cancer cells! This is SO important and our prayers have been answered! THANK YOU GOD!
It's been a busy morning filled with lots of waiting! Mom has been a little tired, but upbeat all day. Before surgery, she had to have a wire placed in her breast to mark the borders of the tumor. Not such a pleasant procedure, but she was a trooper and didn't complain of pain at all. Then they had to insert another needle and inject a blue radioactive dye, which the lymph system absorbs so the sentinel nodes will be highlighted and then the surgeon knows which ones to remove. Again, Mom did great!
Ok so she is still in surgery where they are doing the lumpectomy, but she should be in recovery soon. Keep the prayers coming because they are working well so far! Thanks again to everyone. We will update again later. Love you all!
Andi, Lins, Tay and Dad
It's been a busy morning filled with lots of waiting! Mom has been a little tired, but upbeat all day. Before surgery, she had to have a wire placed in her breast to mark the borders of the tumor. Not such a pleasant procedure, but she was a trooper and didn't complain of pain at all. Then they had to insert another needle and inject a blue radioactive dye, which the lymph system absorbs so the sentinel nodes will be highlighted and then the surgeon knows which ones to remove. Again, Mom did great!
Ok so she is still in surgery where they are doing the lumpectomy, but she should be in recovery soon. Keep the prayers coming because they are working well so far! Thanks again to everyone. We will update again later. Love you all!
Andi, Lins, Tay and Dad
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Get 'Err Done!
So the next step in this process will soon be upon us. Surgery, here we come! We are all a bit nervous, but ready to have tomorrow over and done with. Mom said she feels really good about tomorrow and is ready to "get err done" so she can tackle whatever comes next! Her spirits continue to be high and she is still her goofy and optimistic old self!
Wednesday we had mom's pre-surgery checkup with Dr. Anderson our primary care doctor (whom we love so much, she is amazing!). She did a quick head-to-toe assessment, EKG and blood test to check her cell counts to make sure she was 'A OKAY' for surgery. Everything checked out great and we got the go-ahead. The other plus about meeting with Shelley was that she had the MRI results... and it was good news as everything else looks to be clean! As far as they can see on the MRI (however this is only preliminary and not definite), the nodes look normal and there were no other 'questionable areas' noted in either breast; which means we are in agreement to stick with the scheduled lumpectomy. All great news thank God! We are still praying for confirmation of no lymph node involvement and will find out after surgery tomorrow if those prayers are answered. Please keep praying!
Andrea and Taylor made it home last night- we are all glad to have them here! We've had a productive day today getting more projects done around the house and had a nice dinner together complete with a pink boob cake for mom!
The support from all of you continues to amaze us. From the cards and flowers, to homemade soup and sweets, to all the phone calls, and happy hour get togethers, we are overwhelmed by your love and support! And mom got a special surprise today when she walked into the hockey locker room before practive to find all of the other 'chicks with sticks' wearing pink in honor of her! How cool!
Another quick thing I wanted to share about is in regards to the diversity of our support group. Co-workers and friends come from many different faith backgrounds and everyone has bonded together with prayers to their God for mom and our family. One women even shared that she was burning tobacco in the lake for mom. We are feeling incredibly blessed!
Well we better get to bed, it's going to be an early and loooooong day tomorrow. We have to be at North Memorial Hospital at 8:15am for a couple of procedures and then surgery is scheduled for 12:00pm. Please let us all be together in thought as we send up some prayers at that time! Please pray that everything goes smoothly, that there is no cancer in the nodes and that mom will experience minimal pain.
We will do our best to call people, but please don't be worried if you don't hear from us until later in the afternoon- you can always count on hospitals being behind schedule! And of course we will do our best to update the blog too.
Love you all and have a great night!
Lins, and the rest of the gang
Wednesday we had mom's pre-surgery checkup with Dr. Anderson our primary care doctor (whom we love so much, she is amazing!). She did a quick head-to-toe assessment, EKG and blood test to check her cell counts to make sure she was 'A OKAY' for surgery. Everything checked out great and we got the go-ahead. The other plus about meeting with Shelley was that she had the MRI results... and it was good news as everything else looks to be clean! As far as they can see on the MRI (however this is only preliminary and not definite), the nodes look normal and there were no other 'questionable areas' noted in either breast; which means we are in agreement to stick with the scheduled lumpectomy. All great news thank God! We are still praying for confirmation of no lymph node involvement and will find out after surgery tomorrow if those prayers are answered. Please keep praying!
Andrea and Taylor made it home last night- we are all glad to have them here! We've had a productive day today getting more projects done around the house and had a nice dinner together complete with a pink boob cake for mom!
The support from all of you continues to amaze us. From the cards and flowers, to homemade soup and sweets, to all the phone calls, and happy hour get togethers, we are overwhelmed by your love and support! And mom got a special surprise today when she walked into the hockey locker room before practive to find all of the other 'chicks with sticks' wearing pink in honor of her! How cool!
Another quick thing I wanted to share about is in regards to the diversity of our support group. Co-workers and friends come from many different faith backgrounds and everyone has bonded together with prayers to their God for mom and our family. One women even shared that she was burning tobacco in the lake for mom. We are feeling incredibly blessed!
Well we better get to bed, it's going to be an early and loooooong day tomorrow. We have to be at North Memorial Hospital at 8:15am for a couple of procedures and then surgery is scheduled for 12:00pm. Please let us all be together in thought as we send up some prayers at that time! Please pray that everything goes smoothly, that there is no cancer in the nodes and that mom will experience minimal pain.
We will do our best to call people, but please don't be worried if you don't hear from us until later in the afternoon- you can always count on hospitals being behind schedule! And of course we will do our best to update the blog too.
Love you all and have a great night!
Lins, and the rest of the gang
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Here we GO!
So where to begin… I guess I’ll just get going and see where we end up!
If you’re reading this then you already know our news- Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer Tuesday August 18th, 2009. The initial ‘abnormality’ was found on her annual routine mammogram. Since there is always a possibility of a false positive with diagnostic technology, she headed back to the clinic for a follow up mammogram. Once again there was a questionable area found- this was described as a small cluster of calcifications in her right breast. We learned that these calcifications can be benign, but the recommended next step was to have a biopsy done. So mom and I headed to a new place, the Hope Chest Breast Center of North Memorial last Monday. It wasn’t a pleasant procedure, but mom did great and our nurse Kelly was amazing. With mom’s zero breast cancer risk factors and statistics showing 80% of these biopsies to be negative, we were nervous, but very doubtful we had anything to worry about.
Tuesday we went about our business, only mom and I were aware of the pending results because we didn’t want to worry anyone for no reason, especially dad! We had plenty to keep us busy as we recently extended and refinished the hardwood floors in the house and therefore decided to take on many more projects including painting the living room!
The news unfortunately didn’t come at the best time- mom was running errands by herself when our nurse Kelly called her. She was told an appointment was scheduled for the following morning with a surgeon to discuss what now. Mom then shared the results with me and informed dad too. Tuesday had its share of tears, hugs and ‘I just can’t believe this!’ And may or may not have included an adult beverage too!
Wednesday morning the three of us headed back to North Memorial to meet with Dr. Mestitz, a general surgeon. We couldn’t have asked for more from him, he was so great! Very professional, intelligent, patient and helpful, he got us on track to start to wrap our heads around what we were faced with. A slight bump came when he shared his plans to head out of town to take his kids back to college, so the soonest he personally could operate was Friday 8/28. We liked the repore we had with Dr. Mestitz, so we got on his surgery schedule for 8/28.
The rest of Wednesday was tough- we broke the news to Andrea and Taylor, and other family and friends. The news of mom’s invasive ductal carcinoma was a shock and I’m sure hard to take for my siblings as they are not in Minnesota- I felt helpless enough, but could still give mom a hug at least! The both of them thankfully will be able to head home Wednesday before the surgery; we are looking forward to all being together.
Thursday brought another appointment, this time to the outpatient imaging center for a pre-op MRI. It’s debatable whether or not an MRI is necessary, since it has the potential to ‘look worse than it is’ as the doctor put it. Sometimes areas show up on an MRI that looks questionable, but they could just be blood vessels for instance. None the less, it was one more hoop to jump through to add more detail to mom’s case for Dr. Mestitz. We won’t have any results until later this week some time.
Mom has been so strong through this difficult week- one of the first things she said was “I can’t have cancer, I don’t have time for this!” You know her, always running in a million directions! She didn’t skip her hockey practice- 1.5hrs on the ice and she said now her hurting legs will keep her mind off her hurting boob! She has remained her positive self and hasn’t been afraid to laugh, sing and joke around- an inspiration to us already. And she’s thankful she looks good in pink too!
In between the many appointments, phone calls (thanks so much for the outpouring of support, we have the best family and friends!), working on getting the house back together and trying to pool as much information and research on this foreign diagnosis, the week has flown by. We are emotionally drained and sleep deprived, but hanging in there. I’m thankful for our medical backgrounds to help us better understand what the doctors are telling us, but sometimes it can be tough to ignore the other personal experiences our jobs have given us, and not think negative thoughts of what cancer can bring. But I do believe it has helped teach me some helpful coping mechanisms I can hopefully pass on to my family.
This week is full of organizing and getting ready for surgery- including one more pre-op MD appointment Wednesday and of course getting this blog up and running! We want to be able to post updates to this site so that everyone can get news in a timely manner- phone calls some times are tough to get done fast because we all love to chat so much!
We are anxious to get this next step over with and begin our fight to beat breast cancer. We also are looking forward to finding out more about the stage of the cancer- we’ve been praying for ‘No Nodes!’ and hope to find out Friday during surgery that the cancer hasn’t spread to her lymph nodes. If it has, then we will go from there, but for now NO NODES PLEASE! Once we get all the pathology results from Friday’s surgery, we will be able to begin to determine the treatment course and will meet with Dr. Londer the oncologist Thursday 9/3.
Thanks again to everyone for all the love and support and offers of help in infinite ways! We will definitely let you know if we need help with a meal or to whom ever offered to clean toilettes, we will keep you posted! Thanks also to our family and friends who have unfortunately been down this same path before us, their wisdom and help is invaluable. And thanks to another friend for graciously stepping up to assist with future lump checks- haha!
We are and will continue to be in high spirits and not let this cancer be a burden. We find strength and motivation in each other and most importantly in God our Father, who in the face of trials brings us love and encouragement. We have not choosen to be in this situation, and it has forced us to examine ourselves and our role on this so-called human journey. I have been forced to take a step back and leave my habits of planning and organizing and realize how little I know about the future and the things in store for me. The strategies we have for our lives can be shattered in an instant and the fact is we really aren’t in control of our destinies, but in deed in control of how we choose to react to them. Things do happen for a reason. People and relationships really are the most important things we have and life would be pretty darn shallow without them. I read on a website that cancer reminds us to “hug a little tighter, love a little longer and always thank God for the gifts He has given us!” Hopefully we all can remember to do that!
To close this inaugural blog I’ll leave you by saying “Life isn’t necessarily fair, but it’s still good!” We will keep you updated as best we can Friday as we are all brought together in the common bond of prayer for mom’s surgery to go well. Thanks again for EVERYTHING!
Love Lindsey (and Mom, Dad, Andrea & Tay!)
If you’re reading this then you already know our news- Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer Tuesday August 18th, 2009. The initial ‘abnormality’ was found on her annual routine mammogram. Since there is always a possibility of a false positive with diagnostic technology, she headed back to the clinic for a follow up mammogram. Once again there was a questionable area found- this was described as a small cluster of calcifications in her right breast. We learned that these calcifications can be benign, but the recommended next step was to have a biopsy done. So mom and I headed to a new place, the Hope Chest Breast Center of North Memorial last Monday. It wasn’t a pleasant procedure, but mom did great and our nurse Kelly was amazing. With mom’s zero breast cancer risk factors and statistics showing 80% of these biopsies to be negative, we were nervous, but very doubtful we had anything to worry about.
Tuesday we went about our business, only mom and I were aware of the pending results because we didn’t want to worry anyone for no reason, especially dad! We had plenty to keep us busy as we recently extended and refinished the hardwood floors in the house and therefore decided to take on many more projects including painting the living room!
The news unfortunately didn’t come at the best time- mom was running errands by herself when our nurse Kelly called her. She was told an appointment was scheduled for the following morning with a surgeon to discuss what now. Mom then shared the results with me and informed dad too. Tuesday had its share of tears, hugs and ‘I just can’t believe this!’ And may or may not have included an adult beverage too!
Wednesday morning the three of us headed back to North Memorial to meet with Dr. Mestitz, a general surgeon. We couldn’t have asked for more from him, he was so great! Very professional, intelligent, patient and helpful, he got us on track to start to wrap our heads around what we were faced with. A slight bump came when he shared his plans to head out of town to take his kids back to college, so the soonest he personally could operate was Friday 8/28. We liked the repore we had with Dr. Mestitz, so we got on his surgery schedule for 8/28.
The rest of Wednesday was tough- we broke the news to Andrea and Taylor, and other family and friends. The news of mom’s invasive ductal carcinoma was a shock and I’m sure hard to take for my siblings as they are not in Minnesota- I felt helpless enough, but could still give mom a hug at least! The both of them thankfully will be able to head home Wednesday before the surgery; we are looking forward to all being together.
Thursday brought another appointment, this time to the outpatient imaging center for a pre-op MRI. It’s debatable whether or not an MRI is necessary, since it has the potential to ‘look worse than it is’ as the doctor put it. Sometimes areas show up on an MRI that looks questionable, but they could just be blood vessels for instance. None the less, it was one more hoop to jump through to add more detail to mom’s case for Dr. Mestitz. We won’t have any results until later this week some time.
Mom has been so strong through this difficult week- one of the first things she said was “I can’t have cancer, I don’t have time for this!” You know her, always running in a million directions! She didn’t skip her hockey practice- 1.5hrs on the ice and she said now her hurting legs will keep her mind off her hurting boob! She has remained her positive self and hasn’t been afraid to laugh, sing and joke around- an inspiration to us already. And she’s thankful she looks good in pink too!
In between the many appointments, phone calls (thanks so much for the outpouring of support, we have the best family and friends!), working on getting the house back together and trying to pool as much information and research on this foreign diagnosis, the week has flown by. We are emotionally drained and sleep deprived, but hanging in there. I’m thankful for our medical backgrounds to help us better understand what the doctors are telling us, but sometimes it can be tough to ignore the other personal experiences our jobs have given us, and not think negative thoughts of what cancer can bring. But I do believe it has helped teach me some helpful coping mechanisms I can hopefully pass on to my family.
This week is full of organizing and getting ready for surgery- including one more pre-op MD appointment Wednesday and of course getting this blog up and running! We want to be able to post updates to this site so that everyone can get news in a timely manner- phone calls some times are tough to get done fast because we all love to chat so much!
We are anxious to get this next step over with and begin our fight to beat breast cancer. We also are looking forward to finding out more about the stage of the cancer- we’ve been praying for ‘No Nodes!’ and hope to find out Friday during surgery that the cancer hasn’t spread to her lymph nodes. If it has, then we will go from there, but for now NO NODES PLEASE! Once we get all the pathology results from Friday’s surgery, we will be able to begin to determine the treatment course and will meet with Dr. Londer the oncologist Thursday 9/3.
Thanks again to everyone for all the love and support and offers of help in infinite ways! We will definitely let you know if we need help with a meal or to whom ever offered to clean toilettes, we will keep you posted! Thanks also to our family and friends who have unfortunately been down this same path before us, their wisdom and help is invaluable. And thanks to another friend for graciously stepping up to assist with future lump checks- haha!
We are and will continue to be in high spirits and not let this cancer be a burden. We find strength and motivation in each other and most importantly in God our Father, who in the face of trials brings us love and encouragement. We have not choosen to be in this situation, and it has forced us to examine ourselves and our role on this so-called human journey. I have been forced to take a step back and leave my habits of planning and organizing and realize how little I know about the future and the things in store for me. The strategies we have for our lives can be shattered in an instant and the fact is we really aren’t in control of our destinies, but in deed in control of how we choose to react to them. Things do happen for a reason. People and relationships really are the most important things we have and life would be pretty darn shallow without them. I read on a website that cancer reminds us to “hug a little tighter, love a little longer and always thank God for the gifts He has given us!” Hopefully we all can remember to do that!
To close this inaugural blog I’ll leave you by saying “Life isn’t necessarily fair, but it’s still good!” We will keep you updated as best we can Friday as we are all brought together in the common bond of prayer for mom’s surgery to go well. Thanks again for EVERYTHING!
Love Lindsey (and Mom, Dad, Andrea & Tay!)
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