Walking With Brenda

On Monday, April 3, Brenda begins her first chemotherapy session at Burnaby General Hospital. We expect her to lose her hair, so we booked an appointment for a buzz cut on Saturday, April 1. It’s hard to watch your wife get shorn like a sheep, but she took it like a champ. She also acquired a couple of wigs that she likes. Personally, I don’t care. I think she looks great. The two photos below were both taken on Saturday, April 1.

Brenda’s chemotherapy will be on a somewhat compressed schedule: an in-hospital treatment about once every two weeks for four months. A patient’s response to chemotherapy can range quite widely: some people aren’t bothered by it at all, others are very ill and nauseous, and everything in between. A bunch of other symptoms can crop up along the way. We have to be especially cautious about secondary infections and making sure she gets the right amount of rest. The chemotherapy will compromise her immune system so we don’t want her acquire something either during or after treatment.

Imaging Update

For those of you interested in such things, Brenda had a “second-look” ultrasound on March 24. Last episode, you might remember, an MRI found a small-to-medium “suspicious” lesion that they figured was the cause of the troubling biopsy in February. They’re calling this one “L1”. (Frankly, I wish they were a little more creative with lesion names.) The MRI also found a “moderately suspicious” lesion, much smaller, nearby. They’re calling this one “L2”. Got it? L1 and L2.

Anyway, the “second-look” ultrasound on March 24 was able to locate L2, which was first spotted on the MRI. They will biopsy L2 using ultrasound. Even though it’s small, they want to find out if it’s cancerous or benign. The ultrasound report called it an “irregular hypoechoic lesion with angulated margins and posterior acoustic shadowing, and no definite
internal vascularity.” They swear they can’t verify whether this thing is actually cancer, but in my view, that wording? “Irregular hypoechoic lesion with angulated margins and posterior acoustic shadowing” — yeesh.

The “second-look” ultrasound wasn’t able to locate L1, even though they used the MRI results to help guide the hunt. They really, really want to find this one and biopsy it, because its the leading suspect for causing all the trouble in the first place. So the plan is to do an ultrasound-guided core biopsy for L2, and an MRI-guided core biopsy for L1. In both cases, they’ll insert little chips as markers to guide the surgeon, because evidently healthy tissue looks the same to the eye as cancerous tissue.

A complete surgical plan can’t be finalized until they biopsy both lesions. Obviously, we hope L2 is benign.