6/11/2007
Dear friends,
Today I am thinking about tomorrow. At 11:30 a.m. I check in for surgery which is scheduled to take about an hour starting at 12:30. I will be sleeping, which is OK with me. Dr. Haun has become a friend. She and I have sons in H.S. together and she has been my surgeon for 7 years. Last year at about this time she and I decided she needed to biopsy a scar that had gotten thick (I thought it might have anyway) under my left arm where my nodes were removed 7 years earlier. Two other times, similar biopsies were negative and last year’s seemed like another routine check “just to be sure.” The next day the startling news came that it was actually a metastasis of one of the cancers I had originally. It was lobular, medium aggressive, loose on my chest wall. It was considered metastatic and therefore “loose” in my body. That is why my treatment was so aggressive.
I did chemo again last July, August and September, and then radiation last November and December. I hadn’t done radiation before. I am still recuperating from all of the side effects of those treatments. Now I (and my oncologist and surgeon) am feeling a lump on my left side in the field where I had radiation near last year’s cancer. I had some tests which haven’t shown anything. My lungs are OK and nothing showed up on an MRI of my reconstructed breast tissue. My original cancer didn’t show up on these tests the first time I had cancer either, and that is why Dr. Haun feels she needs to do this surgery. The only way to be sure is to take it out and check it. Scar tissue could develop a lump like this, or it could be some other cancer growing. It is tender (sore) like last year’s small tumor was. But scar tissue can hurt too…
I will share some of what is going on inside me today. I know that the Lord asks us not to borrow trouble from tomorrow and that each day’s worries are enough for that day. I am hoping and praying, and ask you to join me, that this will only be scar tissue. A friend told me yesterday that she and another friend fasted and prayed for me last Sunday. Wow! I feel honored to have such wonderful friends. I would say that I feel less cocky than last year. Having just gone through it, I sure wouldn’t like to go through it all again. Greg and I are going to take things as they come. We will let you know as soon as we get any information. Hopefully it will be nothing of concern. Last year we found out results the next day, but sometimes it takes several days. Dr. Haun is going to come in on her vacation day to do it tomorrow.
I was in Spokane last week with Jesse visiting our new house, new friends and his new school. It will be nice to have time to develop these new friendships once we get there. We are now about a month out from our move, so things are getting real.
Regardless of biopsy results, we are going to move to Spokane, WA for Greg’s new job with Partners International in July. We are planning to close on our new house in 2 days. We plan to say good-bye to friends at our church on July 8th, and to everyone else on July 7th in the afternoon at a park. Denver folks will be hearing more details soon. Some friends are planning these times for us. We might be loading the moving truck on the 13th of July, and then Greg heads back to Spokane to work the second half of July. Jesse will be going to Kenya on a mission trip the second half of July and will meet us in Spokane. All of his money has come in for his trip to Kenya. Jenni, Allison and I will be going to 2 family weddings at the end of July and then heading to Spokane. So it is going to be a busy summer.
Thank you for your love and prayers and concern. We are blessed by an amazing group of friends! We will be in touch when we know the outcome.
Blessings on you! Nancy Fritz
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