Hello All! My amazing friends are helping me manage this site, so that you can all keep track of what's going on in my neck of the woods. In June of 2020, I stopped to take a beat and did a self exam after realizing that my left breast kept aching. I had been ignoring it, assuming it was hormones during my cycle. Which of course it wasn't otherwise you wouldn't be reading this and I wouldn't have to write it. I found what I thought was a lump in my breast that day. I called my midwife's office but she was not available so I saw someone else in the office just a few days later. During that visit they did not find anything remarkable, but sent me for testing just to rule things out. I waited 2.5 months before being able to get in for a mammogram and ultrasound. (early September). I "knew" as soon as the nurse came back in and needed to take additional images. I then moved to the next room for the ultrasound, where the doctor told me she would let me know what was going on before I left that day. She "hung-out" in the same area for quite awhile before asking me where I had felt the lump. She then showed me on the screen that what I had felt was actual a void of healthy tissue between 2 much larger areas of potentially unhealthy tissue. She said they were lacy, spongy, and large and was surprised I had felt anything. (I chalk this ability/sensitivity up to being a potter and feeling air bubbles in clay). Anyway she couldn't say if it was the "C" word without biopsies, but we knew they weren't cysts. So for 2.5 weeks I had to wait it out until I could get in for the biopsies. I started researching surgeons even though I had no proof that it was cancer, I just "knew", it was 2020 after all. Sure enough about 24hours after the biopsies, I got the call. Stage 3, the larger of the 2 tumors being about 12-15cm long. It has been a whirlwind ever since, meetings with 3 different surgeons, an oncologist, and a genetics doctor and testing: an MRI, which led to lymph node biopsies a week later (where one node was positive for cancer), CT scans, bone scans, EKG and several blood draws - so I'm pretty much a lab rat at this point. However, after a few of these tests we finally had a plan. 1.) Surgery which will be a complete mastectomy of the left breast (possibly the right as well depending on genetics), as well as some lymph nodes. 2.)Chemotherapy starting about 3 weeks after surgery. (We do not yet know which concoction or duration of chemo, that will vary on the findings of the lymph nodes that are further biopsied after the surgery.) This will be a minimum of 3 months, but probably more like 5 - 6 months of treatment. 3.)Most likely radiation after about a month of healing from the chemo. 4.)Reconstruction once they are feeling confident that all the cancer has been eradicated. So... it's going to be a long year...
There are many things I don't know at this point, and I will do my best to update you here. I do want to thank each of you for reading this and taking the time to reach out. I know many of you I haven't had the chance to reach out personally to tell you about my news, and for that please forgive me. You never realize how many people you know and care about you until something like this happens. It's incredibly humbling. Many have asked what they can do to help, and honestly, I don't really know at the moment, but I'm sure I will need the help later during recovery / chemo. It's been a strange and difficult year for all of us. Be kind. Be forgiving. Pay it forward. Be creative. Be authentic, the world needs you. Support one another. And don't forget to VOTE!
Many thanks to my amazing staff who are struggling through COVID and now this.
Andi finished Chemo on May 19. She had had some time to rest and recover and her hair has started to come back! She has eyebrows again!!
She got away on a family vacation in the beginning of June and dropped M at her summer internship.
She had surgery again yesterday to get the expander that got infected replaced. The doctor wanted to do this to prepare for radiation that will start in about 3 weeks. Andi is back home recovering and trying to gain more strength before radiation starts.
All prayers and positive thoughts much appreciated. Also if you would like to provide a meal more dates have been opened up on the meal train. Here is the link: https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/7ykr3m
Thank you all for your love and support! It means so much to Andi and her family!
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