Walking With Brenda

Brenda’s surgery happened on August 4, 2023, and it went off without a hitch. Brenda and I went to the New Westminster Surgical Centre (near Royal Columbian Hospital that specializes in certain types of surgeries, I guess) at 7am for her procedure. The most concerning thing at the time was that the elevator was out of service and a repair person was trying to get it going again. So Brenda and I hiked up to the fifth floor to check in. I figured they would cancel the surgery since, without a working elevator, they would have had no way to move a patient from the surgical centre to the hospital in the event of an emergency. But the guy fixed the elevator quickly and everything was fine.

Brenda’s surgery was a lumpectomy/day surgery under general anesthetic. I picked Brenda up around 1:30pm; she didn’t look great. She was ashen and stoned from the meds, but sitting upright and smiling a little. She was very sore but otherwise okay. I drove her home (very slowly) and she slept the rest of the day.

Brenda has since recovered very well. Her pain has been very low. The next day, she was well enough to have friends over for take-out, and again the day after that. She has been a little sore and a bit hunched, of course, but improves a little each day. She slept a lot over the first couple of days but less so after that. There’s been no sign of fever or infection, and very little pain. Overall, her recovery has gone better than expected.

Biopsy Results From Surgery

I mentioned in a previous post that there are two lesions: one very small but definitely cancerous (L2); one larger (L1) and no one’s sure if it was cancerous. Anyway, they removed both lesions, plus margins, plus three sentinel lymph nodes and three nearby non-sentinel lymph nodes. They sent the whole batch out to be biopsied. The idea is to test the margins to make ensure that they removed all the bad stuff, and to test the lymph nodes to find out if there’s anything bad left over in the lymphatic system.

Last night, we got our hands on a copy of the biopsy results, and today we met with the surgeon: the surgery was successful and there’s no evidence of any cancer remaining in her body. Of the nine samples that were sent to the lab, eight came back clear of malignancy. The one sentinel lymph node that did test positive was the one that was biopsied back in February. So it was not surprising or worrisome that it tested positive. We expected this. That lymph node was snipped out anyway, and is probably wondering what the heck just happened.

In the meantime, we’re starting to organize the next steps in the treatment plan, which is three weeks’ worth of radiation therapy. The Government of BC is shuttling some cancer patients to the US for radiation treatment, to meet current demand. If that’s the case, Brenda will start getting radiation treatment in the US, probably starting in October.

After Brenda’s surgery, we can be pretty confident that there’s no remaining cancer. But they’re doing radiation anyway. I’ve come to understand that it’s one thing to deliver a good knockout punch, but why not get in one more swing for good measure? Let’s make sure it stays down.

Before I close, though, I must pay homage to a friend that recently lost his wife to cancer, after a long and difficult battle. There’s a lot of good news with Brenda, but my friend, his boy, and their present darkness is never far from my mind.