April 2, 2022

Can you hear the music playing?  It’s singing “The Final Countdown” by Europe (for the full effect – the link is found here I recommend you play this while reading today’s blog).  As of today, we are three (3) days away from my surgery date, well, two (2) days if we don’t count today or the day of surgery.  Either way, it’s approaching quickly.  

Mano and I were in Houston last week for my pre-operative appointments and his follow-up visits with his Oncologist.  Now, if this statement confuses some of you, let me clarify.  Mano was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins B-Cell Lymphoma (MALT – slow-growing) in June of 2020.  The good news with Mano’s cancer (as if there is ever good news with cancer) is that it’s slow-growing and in the words of his doctor – “something else will probably kill you before this cancer does”.   How about that for some good news?  But, I digress.  Mano’s cancer was found in his eye.  He had surgery & radiation back in 2020 to treat it.  So he visits his optic oncologist who manages/watches cancer in the eye and then he visits his oncologist who manages cancer in all other areas of his body.  He’s been on routine visits every 3-6 months since diagnosis.  When he’s there the day customarily consists of an MRI of the orbital area, to monitor if there is any cancer forming behind his eye  (PRAISES – so far, everything has been clean) and then a CT scan with and without contrast to check the rest of his body (neck, chest, abdomen area, etc.) and blood tests to monitor the few cancer markers they can track for his type of lymphoma. 

On Tuesday, we received GREAT NEWS regarding Mano’s current prognosis.  All tests showed that currently there is no sign of any active Lymphoma in Mano’s body, in fact, the lymph nodes that the doctor has been monitoring have gotten smaller from his last visit.  (PRAISES!!!)  In fact, he’s so impressed with the way that things have been going over the past 2-years that he’s been monitoring him that he is now comfortable in moving Mano to annual check-ups instead of check-ups every 3-6 months.  GOD IS SO GOOD Y’ALL!!!

My visit this past week consisted of bloodwork, EKG, Chest x-ray of my heart and lungs, meeting with an internal medicine doctor, meeting with an anesthesiologist, and a final meeting with my surgeon where I signed all final consent forms to proceed with surgery.  All tests are good and I’m clear for surgery so far.  As we all know, with everything COVID-related, I still need to pass a COVID test on Monday and some final procedures, which I will explain in a moment, before I will be fully cleared for surgery on Tuesday.  Either way – we are well on our way to having surgery on Tuesday morning and I am confident that all other tests and procedures will be okay, and off to surgery, I will go.

Monday I have the following tests and procedures:

• Ultrasound-guided needed localization – this is where they will use an ultrasound to guide a needle to the tumor marker and then inject a dye into the tissue in that area.  That tissue drains to a sentinel node under my right arm.  Those are the sentinel nodes that the surgeon will remove during surgery.  The nodes will be frozen and then tested while I’m in surgery to see if there are any residual cancer cells in the nodes.  I did not have any cancer found in the one node they biopsied going into surgery, therefore the surgeon believes it’s “highly unlikely” that there will be any cancer found in the nodes during surgery.  (PRAYERS PLEASE).   In the event that they do find some residual cancer in the nodes, the surgeon will then remove more nodes and test those, if there is no cancer found in the additional nodes, she will not remove any more.  If there was cancer found in the additional nodes, then she will harvest all the lymph nodes.  Again, we believe this to be highly unlikely.  (PRAYERS for negative nodes!)
• Breast lymphoscintigram – this is where they will look at the tissue to assure they are seeing the dye and which node it’s leading to.  If they can see the dye and which node it’s clearly going to, I will only have to do this once.  If there hasn’t been enough time for the dye to drain to the node, then I will need to have this procedure twice.  
• Reconstructive surgeon visit – this is my final visit with the plastic surgeon who will be handling the reconstruction part of my surgical visit.  I will be signing all final consents and she will be doing the final markings (drawing the surgical markings) on my breast which will remain for surgery.  
• Asymptomatic testing – we all know what this is – Yep, the good ‘ole COVID test, whereas Mano says, they stick a Q-tip all the way to your brain and then swirl it around.  Good times!
• Blood Collection – they will then type my blood in the event that I needed a blood transfusion for surgery.  Again, highly unlikely.  But always a chance. 

On the morning of surgery, my day will start with a Mammogram guided needle localization.  This is where they will use a needle guided by a mammogram to locate the marker in my right breast and they will insert a guidewire and attach it to the marker.  This guide wire shows the surgeon where the affected tissue was and this is the tissue she will remove.   Once the wire is placed, I will then be moved to a room where I can then be prepared for surgery, or as I would like to call it, the place where I can prepare for my private Pink Floyd concert.  You get it right, the good drugs, nice ER music – sounds fun right?

My sister flies in tomorrow morning – thankfully her back is feeling better and she is able to make the trip.  (PRAYERS ANSWERED).  We will be picking her up and then heading to Houston for the week ahead of us.  

So – what can you do this week for us?  Prayers, Prayers, and more Prayers (I will list them below), and food assistance, I will create a separate blog for that later today.  

Prayer Request for:

• Safe travels to and from Houston this week
• Safe travels for my sister, Nicky, and nephew, Tanner, to and from Texas this week
• Negative COVID test
• Successful and safe surgery with the following pathology outcome – No Evidence of Disease (NED) and Pathological Complete Response (PCR).  Basically, both of these means there is no cancer left in my body.
• No complications post-surgery
• Quick healing for the surgical site
• REST, REST, and more REST for Tracy
• Prayers for strength and peace for Mano – he’s got a lot of work noise going on currently, as he’s in the middle of his launch and we have some teenager noise going on also and all parents know how that drains our energy.

Praises recap for the week:

• Great test results for Mano
• Annual visits going forward for Mano
• Great test results for Tracy and cleared for surgery
• Safe travels for us last week too and from Houston
• Healing for my sister, Nicky, so she can be with me this week

Thank you all, over and over again, for all the love and support you have given us during this journey.  Many have asked if I am ready for surgery this week and my answer is “I am ready for it to be over.”  For me, surgery is just another checkbox that needs to be checked so I can move to the next steps of this journey.  As Mano said last night, “We are almost 2/3rd of the way through”  and he’s right.  We are almost 2/3rd of the way through.  God is so good that we are finally here.  

Mano will post a quick update after surgery so you all know how I did – and I will write to you all as soon as I can.  Hugs and love to everyone.

Xo,

Tracy