Sam: This is it.
Frodo: What?
Sam: If I take one more step, I’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.
Frodo: Come on, Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.”
In some ways, the past few months have felt like Sam’s first steps outside of the Shire. Alycia and our family have gone further down this journey of breast cancer than we’ve ever gone before. We’ve walked through a lot on this journey and we’re now on the other side of her surgery. But much like each of Sam’s steps taking him further away from home, we’ve still got a long way to go on this journey.
First, though, thank you so much for your prayers for Alycia’s surgery.
On July 3, Alycia and I got to the hospital about 9:15 in the morning. She got checked in while I waited in the lobby. About 10:30 I was let back to hang out with Alycia while we waited for her turn in the operating room. At 12:30 she headed to the OR for her surgery. I got a call about 2:15 that the surgery had gone well, and she was in recovery. And we were in the car and on the way home by 3:30.
Alycia had a follow-up appointment on July 9 where she received a lot of information about her surgery. When the tumor was first scanned, it was 11mm, so 1.1cm. When they removed it, though, the tumor had more than quadrupled in size to 4.9 cm; technically this means that it was a stage-2 tumor. There was also a miniscule amount of cancer cells found in her lymph nodes, so small that the results are still negative for cancer in her lymph nodes. Thank you so much for those of you who joined us in praying that there wouldn’t be any cancer in Alycia’s lymph nodes. God was very gracious and chose to answer our prayer how we wanted it to be answered.
It’s been a little over two weeks since Alycia’s surgery and she’s recovering well. There’s still some tightness in her arm, but she’s improved a lot in two weeks. She’s able to lay a little bit on her right side while sleeping, which has been great. We still tell the kids that they need to be gentle when giving mommy hugs and snuggles. As much as we tell Bluey (our dog) not to jump on Alycia, he still doesn’t seem to get it.
Like I said, getting through the surgery feels like a long journey in and of itself, which it has been. But we now have a better understanding of what the rest of the journey is going to look like.
On Tuesday, Alycia had an appointment with her oncologist, Dr. Park. Dr. Park laid out the treatment plan for Alycia and we now know what to expect in the coming months. Here is the information we got regarding Alycia’s treatment, which should start within the next three weeks:
Alycia’s treatment plan consists of 6 chemotherapy cycles (about 5 months), followed by 11 cycles (about 7 months) of trastuzumab and pertuzumab, which is the targeted treatment for her specific type of cancer. A cycle length is 3 weeks. The first treatment will take about 5 hours. After the first treatment or two, each treatment will usually take about 3 hours. Her radiation treatments will likely start after the 6th chemotherapy cycle is finished.
Alycia has found some amazing women who have already walked this journey and shared their experiences with her. As far as chemo goes, they said that the first treatment is really hard, but that it gets a little easier and more predictable after that. Dr. Park said that everyone responds differently, so we’ll just have to see how it goes.
This entire journey has been unexpected and there are still a lot of unknowns. We know that we’ll be walking it for at least another year. Dr. Park said that Alycia can expect to lose her hair, but that it should start growing back after the 6 chemotherapy cycles. From what we gleaned, if things are going to be hard, they’re going to be hard in those first 5 months. Perhaps we’ll get a great Christmas present of finishing chemo.
Alycia is planning on taking some time off of work, at least for the first few cycles of chemo. She really wants to work, but obviously she needs to focus on her health. As for the rest of us, I’ll keep working and taking time off as I need to and the kids will both be starting school soon, which will make things easier for them and Alycia.
Here are some ways you can be praying for us:
- Pray that Alycia continues to heal well and recover from her surgery.
- Pray for Alycia as she begins her treatment, that it would effectively eliminate the cancer in her body but also not cause too many detrimental side effects.
- Pray for me and the kids as we do our best to support and care for Alycia.
A lot of you have been asking how you can support our family during this journey. We have been buoyed by your prayers. We have appreciated the meals. We are thankful for those of you who have taken our kids for an afternoon. We can’t say enough about Jackie, who made an Elven cloak for Alycia that was fit for the fellowship. Honestly, Alycia and I are trying to discern how best to let people help us. We know there are a lot of different ways and we just want to find one that feels right for us. There are going to be practical needs and financial needs, and we know so many of you really do just want to help. But we want to feel good about the help you provide, and we want you to know how your help is supporting us.
Thank you for continuing to journey with us. We’ll keep you updated on our journey, how it’s going, and how you can help.On
