Stacey Flurry

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement, but most importantly we ask for your prayers.  Visit often and get the latest updates on Stacey's journey.


The last three weeks have been a whirlwind.  You never expect to hear those words...that someone in your family has cancer.  All of a sudden, your entire life stops, everything you had planned goes on hold, and you have only one thought...let's take care of you and beat this cancer.  Stacey has so many wonderful friends and family that have reached out to find out how she's doing and what they can do to help that it has been overwhelming (in a great way).  I may not have done the best job in contacting everyone since this started and I apologize for that.  I have been on the other side of caring bridge many times and had several friends tell me it's the best way to keep everyone informed.  So, I will do my best to keep it up to date and let everyone know how she's doing. 


Here's a brief timeline of how we got here:


Thursday, August  27
Stacey had an appointment with her OB/GYN, Dr. Jimmy Sparks at Brookwood.  She had discovered lump in her right breast and knew it needed to be checked.  Unfortunately, due to the COVID crisis, it took much longer than usual to get an appointment set up and she had to deal with the anxiety for several weeks.  The doctor agreed it needed further examination and sent her that day for a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound.  He called us that night and told us that he suspected it was cancer.

Monday, August 31
We met that day with Dr. Michael Littleton, surgeon at Brookwood Hospital.  Dr. Littleton did an ultrasound and recommended a biopsy right away.  

Tuesday, September 1
Dr. Littleton called and confirmed that this was indeed a cancerous tumor.  It was ER positive and PR negative with a KI-67 of 95%.  We had to learn what all of this meant.   ER positive means the cancer cells do have estrogen receptors and PR negative means they do not have progesterone receptors.  The KI-67 number represents how fast the cancer is growing.  We read on the internet that over 20% is not good.  Obviously, this was pretty scary considering it was 95%.  We met with Dr. Littleton on Wednesday and scheduled surgery for Friday to remove the tumor.


Friday, September 4
Surgery to remove the tumor.   They also removed and biopsied the sentinel lymph node.  This came back positive and, as a result, they removed 8 more lymph nodes.  The surgery went well from the standpoint of no complications.  However, the news of the positive cancer in the sentinel node was not the outcome we had hoped for.   Additionally, the tumor was 3.8 centimetres.  They had originally estimated 2.5 cm.  This will most likely necessitate chemo therapy.  However, the additional lymph nodes need to be analyzed to make a determination on that.  They also installed a drain that made Stacey very uncomfortable for several days.  We had a long anxious Labor Day weekend.


Tuesday, September 8
We met with Dr. Brian Adler, oncologist, at Brookwood.  Dr. Adler indicated that 5 of the other 8 lymph nodes also had cancer in them.  He was certain at this point that Stacey will need chemo therapy.  However, he still needs to get additional pathology reports to determine what kind.  Again, this was not the news we had hoped for.  Additionally, that day, Stacey's OB/GYN called to tell her that her Pap smear test had an unusual result and she would need to come in for an endometrial biopsy next week.  At this point we were really just praying for one piece of good news.  


Friday, September 11
We met with Dr. Littleton again to have the drain removed from her side.  It went well and was a big relief from discomfort.  However, Dr. Littleton said that they found additional cancer cells in the "margin" that was extracted from the area around the tumor.  He said it would be necessary to have another surgery to extract a greater margin that would be clean of any cancer cells.  He said it would be good to do this at the same time as surgery to install a chemo therapy port.  This is all scheduled for Friday, the 18th.


Tuesday, September 15
Dr. Sparks conducted the endometrial biopsy.  We're awaiting the results.


That's a full update on where we are.  I promise that I'll keep this website up to date on what we know and what comes next.  The chemo therapy is still several weeks off.  Stacey will need to recover from the surgery that is scheduled for Friday, the 19th,  and get back to full strength before that begins.  Right now, pray for her doctors to be great at what they do and for her to maintain her strength and positive attitude.  


My prayer throughout this remains Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."