Andrea’s Story

Site created on July 29, 2021

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. Thank you for visiting.


On July 8th, 2016 Andrea was told the she had breast cancer following a biopsy of her left breast.  She opted to have a lumpectomy to remove the tumor and following that procedure it was determined the margins were not clear and there was DCIS, so she made the decision to have a bi-lateral mastectomy.  On October 6th, 2016 she had a successful surgery and following the recovery her 4 rounds of chemotherapy would commence.  Her last chemotherapy treatment was December 30, 2016, following the last chemotherapy she had reconstruction surgery and maintenance therapy. She was receiving maintenance treatment quarterly up until March 2021 being her last and also still taking tamoxifen as maintenance therapy.  Also during this time she lived a very health conscious life with fitness and nutrition being at the forefront of her every day life.


Following Andrea's second Covid-19 vaccine shot she had some pain at her lymph node area under her arm and one lymph node was around the size of a grape.  For several weeks we tracked the size of the lymph node and it came down in size to about the size of a pee.  At her June appointment with her oncologist she noted her concern and pushed for an Ultrasound.  The ultrasound came back as showing the lymph node not as reactionary to the vaccine and also found another one of concern at the chest wall.  On Wednesday, July 21st she had a biopsy done of the one on the chest wall.


On July 23rd, 2021 she received a call from her oncologist that the biopsy came back and it was malignant. They need to determine if it has traveled anywhere else so a treatment plan can be determined so a Pet Scan and Breast MRI have been scheduled for July 28th.


  

Newest Update

Journal entry by Ryan Brennan

As a follow-up to December 13th scan to determine the new therapy response, Andrea had a Pet/CT scan today and we are very, very relieved, excited, happy, grateful…….It demonstrated a robust partial response to the new treatment, with resolution of most of the lesions, with marked reduction in quantity and avidity in the bone and liver metastases. With a recent side effect from this therapy, her treatment interval will change slightly to mitigate this and hopefully continue without issues until the next scan in ~3-4 months.

 

Thanks again for all your loving support over the past few months. We are beyond blessed for this gift.  We know this is a forever battle but news like this always gives us hope and faith in this process!

 

All our love,

Andrea & Ryan

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