Walking With Brenda

Hello, friends! I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve done a blog post. There’s considerable news to report.

About the L1 lesion. As you might remember, Brenda has two lesions: L1 and L2. You also might remember that L1 was slightly larger and suspected to be the main cause of all the problems. Well, she had an MRI-guided core biopsy of L1 — and now, we’re not so sure. The biopsy result was that L1 is something called “lobular carcinoma in situ” (LCIS), which occurs in the linings of the milk-producing glands called the “lobules”. It sounds like cancer, but it isn’t. However, it does carry an increased risk of breast cancer in the future. (For women who have had or have LCIS, the risk of developing breast cancer is about 20%; without it, the risk is about 12%.) As it happens, the surgeon and a bunch of other slick doctors couldn’t determine whether it’s really LCIS or something a little more nasty, but it doesn’t really matter: L1 has to come out. (You might remember that, in the previous blog, I said that we’re “sure” that L1 was cancerous. Well, sorry, but we’re not “sure” anymore.)

About the L2 lesion. They’re much more certain that L2, which is considerably smaller, is definitely cancerous. It’s possible that L2, rather than L1, was causing the problems all along, but that doesn’t really matter, either. Both L1 and L2 are coming out, and let me tell you, I won’t miss them at all. See ya, lesions.

Upcoming surgery. All this means that Brenda is scheduled to undergo a lumpectomy on August 4, 2023. The surgeon will remove L1 and L2, plus the lymph node that originally altered us to breast cancer back in February. Brenda will undergo general anesthetic but not stay overnight. Today, the surgeon hinted at a recovery time of about 6 weeks. I’ll take some time off work and her Aunt Rita is scheduled to come for a couple of weeks, too.

Chemotherapy is almost over. Brenda has undergone a four-month chemotherapy regimen; her last treatment is scheduled for
Monday, July 10. Phew. Chemotherapy of course isn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Brenda has definitely had some uncomfortable side effects — nausea, fatigue, neuropathy, etc. — but largely she’s managed quite well. I was expecting doomsday but it wasn’t that bad. They switched up the chemo cocktail about half way through treatments, and the second half was harder than the first — but it still wasn’t that bad.

Radiation — in the US? So she’ll be done with chemo shortly, and then it’s surgery. After that, she’ll have radiation treatments — which make take place in the US! Stay tuned for more details.