Dalya and Julia in a tree at a local farm

CHEMO IS OVER! Man, that last round sucked. But Abby is clawing her way back to health and we’re all digesting the news from the latest MRI, which is mixed. The bad: chemo didn’t do much to shrink the damn tumor. Another small cancerous spot appeared in her lymph nodes as well. The better:  the chemo still probably had some systemic prophylactic effects, another PET scan showed no signs of metastasis to other parts of her body, and all her lymph nodes on that side were scheduled to be removed anyway as part of the surgery. Also, the breast tumor appears to be mobile, which is a good sign – it means they have a better chance of getting clean margins and the surgery will likely not include taking parts of the chest wall. And this is kind of cool: this kind of breast cancer doesn’t spread to the other breast, so she only has to have a mastectomy on one side. (Side note: we have been learning *a lot* about all the research and knowledge about breast cancer. Who knew?)

Surgery is the next major hurdle, most likely with radiation to follow. It is scheduled for November 7th, and neighbors and fellow parents from the elementary school have already signed up to bring over 10 days of meals. LOVE this community! Abby really feels so supported.

After surgery we will know a lot more about the pathology of the tumor and what the next steps are. Also, we can start the really important work of planning Julia’s 3rd birthday party (Nov. 21) and Owen’s 7th birthday party (December 10th). Bouncy house, anyone???