Recovery from surgery is going very well. I am pleasantly surprised with the amount of energy I have had these past 2 weeks.  I know it has a great deal to do with the many prayers and positive thoughts that come my way.  Thank you all for that!  There are a few adjustments that come with a mastectomy and I am learning to cope with them. I still feel a bit of stiffness in my right arm and have different stretches to do that will help bring mobility back.  

I saw my oncologist today to discuss the next steps.  Chemo treatments will start as early as next Monday, March 5^th.  I will receive a treatment every other week for the first eight weeks.  Each of those treatments will take approximately 3.5 hours and will require a next day shot to boost the white cells count.

After the first 8 weeks of chemo are completed, I will be given one treatment per week for 12 weeks.  After the 20 weeks of chemo are done, I must take monthly medicine for a period of 5 years.  The doctor said that considering the size of the tumor, there is a 30% chance of re-occurrence without chemo treatments.  Chemo will reduce the risk by 25%, bringing it down to approximately 23%.  

The usual negative side effects of chemo are expected, but we will take it one day at a time.  Radiation is not going to be necessary as the margins they removed around the tumor are clear, as well as the sentinel lymphnodes.  I am so grateful for that. The Lord has blessed us tremendously with wonderful people to cheer us on and encourage us.  We want to thank you for showing us such love and support.   

This is day 4 after surgery and Audree is doing great.  She is in pain around the left side where they removed the breast.  Today we took the dressing off, and we both agreed that it looked really good.  The surgeon did a great job.  Audree had this picture in her head of what it would look like but it turned out to look better than expected.  She still has the JP drain and we hope that will be taken out on Monday when we go to the doctor.  That drain helps get all the fluid, and blood out of the pocket in her chest.  We hope on Monday Audree will be able to start exercising.  She is really tight under her arm and wants to stay in shape.  Our kids have been staying at my parents house, so Audree can rest and so that my mom can spend some quality time with them.  My mom is in heaven, but not being with the kids has been tough on Audree, but I feel that it has been good for her to rest, and try to recover.  Hopefully when we look back we will realize this was the best decision, even though it is hard to be away from your kids for more than a day.  We received a lot of support from friends, family, and extended CFA family.  We will keep you posted!!!

Today was the day of the surgery.  Everything went well.  Audree is an amazing woman.  She is as tough as they come.  We arrived at the hospital at 8 am this morning to get everything started, and the actual surgery took 2 hours.  We are very blessed for the outcome, and for the doctors who did a great job.  The lord has been in this every step of the way.  The surgeon told me that the sentinel nodes were cancer free, and by the end of the week we will know if everything around the breast is cancer free.  We will also find out for sure if there is no need for radiation.  We are hoping that radiation is not necessary.  We also find out the steps we have to take from here until she is cancer free.  I want to thank everyone for their prayers.  Today has been an emotional day and we are glad that it is done, Audree has done great, and is in a lot of pain but in great spirits.  She knows that she needs to sleep a lot and I will need prayers to get Audree to be selfish over the next few days and take care of her self.  She loves to serve and give all of her time to others, but now it is time for her to receive and gain all the strength that she can.  From here on out we will update this page almost daily as now our journey begins to have Audree become cancer free.  One step at a time.

This post is done by Jason MacDonald her husband.  You will have to bare with me as my words are not as elegant as Audree's.

Well it has been a great weekend, a weekend of a lot to reflect on.  We were charged with the task of deciding the right procedure for Audree and preparing for our visit with the Surgeon on Monday.  We had a great meeting today with the surgeon and came to the decision to have the mastectomy.  This is a decision that Audree and I have thought long and hard over.  We have had a lot of support and prayers from many of our closest friends to people we do not even know.  It has been a testimony growing experience to receive calls, emails and to be stopped by people who do not know us telling us they are praying for our family. 

After our meeting today with the surgeon, receiving the different opinions we have received, and through our own prayers we were able to make the right decision and feel confident in what we chose.  The procedure is tomorrow 1:00 pm.  We have to go in to the hospital at 8:00 am to start all the prep work, and at 9:30 am Audree will have her sentinel nodes tested around her left chest to make sure the cancer has not spread to those areas.  This is an outpatient procedure if we want and we could come home that night.  However, since Audree won't be out of recovery until 4 or 5, and we will not know how she will feel we will probably stay the night, to be safe and come home Wednesday morning sometime. 

We have seen the lord's hand in this process everyday and know that our family was prepared to endure this road block in our lives.  Because of our faith in prayer and the lord, we both feel that this has not been a trial, and we have received so many blessings from this experience.  I cannot thank everyone enough for everything that has been done for our family.  I know that Jesus is the Christ and that he is always with us throughout our lives, though our trials are not easy, we can easily overcome them through love, faith, and turning to him.  We have to do our part and endure the best way we can, but if anyone is reading this post with doubt in their minds of our almighty creator, I implore you to turn to the scriptures and pray as hard as you can to gain a personal testimony of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.

I will continue to update this blog as now the realness of this disease has hit our family.  We will stay positive and attack the cancer one day at a time.  After the surgery tomorrow we will know the steps needed to preserve Audree, and have her become cancer free.  Right now we are not going to have to do radiation, but that could change depending on what they see tomorrow.  They are also predicting 6 months of Chemo, but again we will not know that until later.  Thank you everyone for remembering our family.  We love you all. 

Next Step

I got a long-awaited call from the surgeon yesterday with the results of the BRCA test.  I was so happy to hear him say the results were negative.  What a relief! “Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) is a genetic condition. This means that the cancer risk can be passed from generation to generation in a family. Two genes are associated with HBOC: BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA stands for BReast CAncer). A mutation (alteration) in either of these genes gives a woman an increased lifetime risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers.” (www.cancer.net). Imagine my relief when I got the results.  I fret at the thought of the increased chance of getting breast cancer for my own children and my dear siblings.  The Lord is good and hears prayers!

Last week, I had to be put on a medicine called Parlodel to stop my milk production in preparation for my upcoming surgery.  In order to do so, I had to start taking the medicine and stop nursing cold turkey, without pumping.  For all you nursing mothers, you can imagine my discomfort!  The medicine has now finally taken effect and I am now thankfully pain free.  I will be meeting with Dr. Foster this Monday to discuss which surgery to perform, my choices being a lumpectomy, a mastectomy or a double mastectomy.  I feel like this is such a huge decision with life-changing effects, and I have been struggling with making up my mind.   I have been fervently praying to be guided to the right decision.  I want to make sure I make the right one.  I continue to research and seek counsel from my Heavenly Father to know what to do.  According to the doctor, all of the surgeries will take care of this cancer and none are superior to the other.  They did advise me to go with whatever one I feel most comfortable with and with whichever one will not keep me up worrying at night about the prospect of the cancer returning.  We are trying to think long term and want to do everything in our power to help prevent the return of this cancer.  We do know that it is ultimately in God’s hands and will accept His will regardless.  But we would like to ere on the side of caution as much as possible.  So I am thankful for the few more days I have ahead of me to come to a sound decision.

On another note, some of you may be aware that our family was planning on a move across country to Utah this coming week.  This has sadly been put on hold because of my recent diagnosis and upcoming treatments.  Jason works for a wonderful company, Chick-Fil-A.  We have been working really hard the past several years to get our own franchise.  Our dream finally came true last October as we were offered a store in Layton,UT.  We are saddened to have to put this on hold after waiting for this opportunity for so long, but know our family must stay together, as we know that is when we are strongest.  We cannot even begin to express our overwhelming gratitude and appreciation for the numerous accommodations Chick-Fil-A has provided us with upon hearing of the diagnosis.  We obviously needed to keep our insurance going and to continue to have income while Jason stays back to be with our family.  Chick-Fil-A has ensured these things to happen by letting him work for corporate from home until we are ready to move again. We feel so blessed to be working with such a family-oriented company with such compassion and Christ like love. We have had so many people from this company (peers, heads of the company and people Jason has never even met) reach out to us.  We were very much surprised last night as I answered a knock on the door to find two humongous boxes waiting for us.  We were DEEPLY touched as we opened them only to find an abundance (and I mean abundance!) of toys and other goodies for the children and the family.  They were sent by the Utah operators that are in the region Jason was going to be in and by a marketing team.  I was at a loss for words as I marveled at the tremendous thoughtfulness of these wonderful people.  We again feel so blessed through this experience and want to continue to thank all of you for your constant prayers and thoughts.  They touch us so much. We are reminded each day of the power of prayer and the blessings of having a tremendous support group in all of you.  We feel the outpouring of love and are uplifted by it.  Thank you for making this experience one of growth.   We will continue to update the blog as I go and have surgery, which is now scheduled for this Wednesday, Feb. 15^th.
~Audree

    

Prochaine étape

Audrée a reçu les résultats du test BRCA. Ils sont négatifs ce qui signifie que le cancer n'est pas génétique.  Une bonne nouvelle.  Elle va rencontrer le chirurgien lundi, 13 février.  Elle prend des médicaments, de la vitamine B6 et tisanes de sauge pour arrêter la production de son lait.  C'est d'ailleurs ce qui la rendait le plus triste, d'arrêter l'allaitement.  Notre petit Jaden a bien fait la transition et prend le biberon et la formule sans problème.  L'hôpital a contacté Audrée  cet avant-midi pour prendre toutes les informations nécessaires avant d'être admise mercredi 15 février.  Ce sont des dates faciles à retenir.  Le 25 janvier, elle a appris qu'elle avait un cancer du sein.  Ce jour est aussi l'anniversaire de naissance du père de Benoît.  Le jour de l'opération est le jour de l'anniversaire de naissance de sa soeur Arianne.  Depuis l'annonce, nous nous sentons tous enveloppés d'une grande paix.  Nous sommes si reconnaissants à tous pour votre amour, votre soutien, vos pensées positives et vos prières. 

How it started...

I wish I could adequately express the feelings I am feeling as I sit and start this blog. They are many. First off, my heart is filled, overflowing really, with gratitude to all those who have reached out to us in the past week. Countless offers to help with the children, encouraging facebook messages, text messages, phone calls, visits, cards, goodies and dinner dropped off, people giving us formula, offering to give breastmilk, etc. We can't even begin to express just how touched we are by the outpouring of love and support. We decided to start this blog to facilitate getting the word around on what is going on. So here is a quick account on how the breast cancer was found, up to our last appointment with the surgeon yesterday.

Jason and I are blessed with 3 wonderful children, 2 beautiful little girls, Halle 5 and Bella 3, and our latest addition being our son Jaden. Jaden is almost 7 weeks old. I was scheduled for a c-section on 12/16/11. I went in to see my ob/gyn on 12/14 for my pre-op exam. During this exam, Dr. Hearn did a routine breast exam, which he always performs on his patients before a c-section. Many doctors do not do this, but how thankful I am that he does. During this exam, he found a lump on my left breast, located at the 6 o'clock position. He didn't seem too concerned, thought it was what they call a lactating adenoma, but thought it safer to have it ultrasound. We scheduled the ultrasound that very afternoon. The radiologist also thought it was probably a lactating adenoma, but also felt it safer to monitor it and have me come in 4 weeks later for a follow-up ultrasound. So I went back for my 4 week follow-up.  They realized then that it had grown a good bit since the last ultrasound, so they scheduled a biopsy.  I had the biopsy done shortly after and went home, expecting them to call with the results.  Waiting for the results, the fleeting thought of it being cancerous came and went. As I thought about it, a great peace came over me, so I did not worry.  We got a phone call the day after the biopsy from the oncology department saying the radiologist wanted to meet with me the next day.  I knew then that my thoughts were probably a way my Heavenly Father used to prepare me for the news to come.  I went to my appointment the next day accompanied by my mother and mother in law, along with Jaden. They sat us down and revealed to us it wasn’t good news.  They proceeded to tell me I had invasive ductal carcinoma.  (Most breast cancers start in the ducts or lobes. Almost 75% of all breast cancers begin in the cells lining the milk ducts and are called ductal carcinomas. If the disease has spread outside of the duct and into the surrounding tissue, it is called invasive or infiltrating ductal carcinoma. www.cancer.net).  It was hard to hear, but I again felt the peace I had felt since the lump was found.  I knew it was a peace only my Heavenly Father could bring me.  I held it together until I was told I would have to discontinue breastfeeding since chemotherapy was in store for me.  That was very hard for me to come to terms with.  I struggle still with that reality, but must say I have felt so blessed by our little Jaden, as he has been so great through the transition.  I then met with my surgeon to discuss the different options for surgery.  The options are lumpectomy (the removal of the tumor and a small, clear (cancer-free) margin of normal tissue around the tumor. Most of the breast remains. For both DCIS and invasive cancer, follow-up radiation therapy to the remaining breast tissue is generally recommended. www.cancer.net) or mastectomy (the surgical removal of the entire breast).  Things are a bit more complicated in my case because I am lactating.  The surgeon has never performed breast surgery on a lactating patient, therefore was not sure of how the healing process would go. We originally set up a tentative date of surgery for Feb. 1^st, but that changed as I had another appointment with the surgeon on Jan. 31^st.  We are running additional tests to help determine which surgery would be best for my situation.  The results should take 7-10 days to get back.  Once they are in, we will set up the date and details for surgery.  I was also put on medication to stop lactation, as it will facilitate the surgery and ensure good and speedy recovery.  I also met with my oncologist, who gave us more details about my tumor.  He informed us that having breast cancer now puts me more at risk of getting it again.  Also, my tumor is over 1 cm, so that puts me at greater risk of getting any other type of cancer again (lung, liver and bone cancer being most common).  The tumor is a grade 3 tumor, which means it has a high tendency to spread and separate.  So we need to act as soon as possible.  I will be able to start chemotherapy once I am healed from surgery, which typically takes 4 weeks.  This has been a lot to take in.  I have felt quite overwhelmed this past week.  But I find that taking it one day at a time makes it much more manageable.  I have faith that this is in my Heavenly Father’s hands.  I am confident that I can overcome this.  I have seen His hand in my life countless times and know he carries me through.  I know it will not be an easy journey, but one I can make with the support of loved ones.  I have felt the many thoughts and prayers given in my behalf and in the behalf of my family.  It gives me the strength and courage necessary to make it through.  I thank you all for the amazing support.  I am overwhelmed by the compassion shown to me and my loved ones.  We will keep posting the details of surgery and chemotherapy here on this blog as we find out what they are.  I send my love and thanks to you all as we go through this journey armed with your love and support.



~Audree and family