Dear Family and Friends,
I have to admit that I have not wanted to write this update, and as a result, it has been awhile. My gentle reader will please understand as I try to get this out this morning (amidst all the other last-minute crap) before Julie and I fly to Seattle this afternoon.
Julie's surgery, the double mastectomy we have dreaded since the days in mid-April after her diagnosis, is this Wednesday. We are travelling today, then tomorrow is the "patient education" where our surgeon and his staff will discuss the nitty-gritty details, sign the consent forms, and start marking Julie's chest with the surgical sharpie.
Wednesday's festivities start early with another diagnostic, this one involving measuring the uptake of another radioactive dye, so that they can get a last read on the extent of the lymphatic involvement, and then the surgery itself. About six hours... I am thinking that I will go mad. I absolutely hate this... and I am not the patient. No more joking around with looking at boobs and all the other denial crap I have been hiding behind. Julie is having a hard time dealing with the significant chance that mortality is involved. And then there are the issues of losing her breasts... I pray that no one else ever has to go through this for themselves.
The decision about whether or not to take both breasts has been weighing on us for months. Ultimately, it comes down to Julie (and me, but they are not mine so I don't get a full vote) deciding that she never, ever wants to go thru this breast cancer again. I have stopped thinking about the analogy to my testicles (you know, whether I would want them to take both if I had cancer in one), and I support her decision completely.
Julie will spend a few days in the hospital for recovery, probably getting out on Saturday. Other than that, we will be existing at the Hotel Nexus (near the NorthGate Mall, north of the UW) until the 20th, when she has a post-op follow-up with the docs. We plan to fly back to Juneau on the 21st, thanks to the generous donation of airline miles from one of my firefighter brothers, Mike, and his wife, Sara. There are still great examples of goodness amongst the bad...
Depending on how far into the lymphatic system the doctor needs to go, Julie will be extremely limited in her physical activity for about a month, so that we can do everything we need to do to prevent a permanent lymphadema on her left side... a condition essentially where the lymph draining from the arm goes to where nodes have been removed, and like a clogged storm drain, the fluid has no place to go but into the surrounding tissue. I am going to have to step up and do everything around the house: Julie has been told literally... no lifting more than one pound. If anyone asks if we need anything in Juneau after we get back, I am thinking that lunches and dinners are going to be the ticket.
We still don't have the date for starting radiation (we hope to set that up before we return to Juneau), but we have decided to run the entire 6-week course of treatment in Seattle at Swedish. Again we were torn about having Julie do the radiation in Longview so she/we could stay at her Mom's, but we didn't really get a warm and fuzzy from the radiation doc there... and the staff at Swedish has been so great to us, that we decided not to screw around. We are still working out the logistical details, but between a housesitter ad we put in craigslist to which we just got a reply, and some dear friends who live in Seattle (Lurilla, Cate, Dan and Jo, you know who you are), we think we can make Julie comfortable while keeping the expenses down. The radiation is about 30-minutes each day, Monday thru Friday, for about 6 weeks. Yikes...
We have done our best to enjoy this last few weeks in Juneau, at home, with friends, coworkers, and the dogs. We thank everyone for their continued best wishes and prayers... we could never have done this without all your support.
Ken & Julie
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