Surgery 1/12/12

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays. The time has finally come for me to have my surgery this Thursday. I had my last major chemo on Dec. 1st. I will remain on Herceptin, a mild chemo drug through July. This is part of the clinical trial I'm on. I'm so thankful to say that I can no longer feel the tumor. My oncologist feels there won't even be any tumor left when they operate! How awesome is that?!

I have chosen to have a double mastectomy, which by itself is a 4 hour surgery. My reconstruction surgery will be done at the same time, which is a 12 hour surgery. At this time they will also be doing a sentinel lymph node biopsy to make sure there are not any microscopic cancer cells in my lymph nodes. I will be in the hospital for about 5-7 days. Recovery is about 6 weeks. I arrive at the hospital at 6:00am this Thursday to be checked in. The surgery will begin at 8:00am. I will be at the Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital (aka TOSH). Mike will post updates after the surgery.

Mike and I were blessed to meet with our pastor and elders at our church this morning for prayers. I'm so thankful that we have our faith in the Lord to take us through this trial. I'm also thankful that in this time we have been supported and blessed by so many people. My prayer requests are, that the surgery would be successful. That there would be no cancer cells found in my lymph nodes. That during my time in the hospital Mike and the kids would be okay. For Mike to be able to successfully manage his workload during this time. Please, also pray that the kids would be healthy.

Once again, thank you for support, love and prayers. We have also posted new needs on the calendar.

God Bless you all,

Melanie