Family and friends,
Thank you for checking in. We're grateful for the
idea to start this blog as a way for everyone to stay updated and connected.
We'd like to start by first sharing with you our story.
It all started sometime back in early fall when Sarah
found a small lump in her left breast. She always had a history of fibrocystic
breasts – for many years small lumps would come and go with monthly cycles – so
finding a lump was a common occurrence that would usually disappear within a
few weeks or a few months. In 2006
she found a lump, which then led to a mammogram and ultrasound. There was no biopsy needed, as it was found
to be a cyst. The history of the
fibrocystic condition lead to her guard being way down and so back to last fall
2012, she noticed the lump and knew that her yearly exam was coming up and had
an appointment in early January. She brought the lump to the Dr’s attention,
and a referral for a mammogram was given. The next available appointment was
made for February 4th.
Meanwhile, life kept going on, and on January 12th,
we took a little test and were ecstatic to find out that we were expecting baby
number two. With that exciting
news, Sarah cancelled the mammogram appointment, knowing she was pregnant and
not wanting to expose the baby to any radiation. Sadly, on February 21st, it was confirmed that we
had lost the baby. It was very
tough on us, but we stayed strong, knowing that this happens all the time, and
that once her body was fully recovered, we would try again soon.
Sarah then rescheduled the mammogram appointment
for Friday, March 8th.
A mammogram and ultrasound revealed five masses in the left breast. The radiologist reviewed the images and
noticed that the axillary node was also prominent, so they performed a same day
biopsy of both the axillary node and three of the five masses. Stunned, but hopeful the masses were
benign, we waited for what we were told would be a week until the results were
back. Five days later, on
Wednesday, March 13th, Sarah and Lena had just gotten to the
playground when she got a phone call from her Dr.’s office saying, “You and
your husband need to come into the office today.” Sarah immediately knew what that meant. She then called Jason at work and he
came home. We went in to the Dr’s
office that afternoon, and we were the last patients to be seen that day. We found ourselves in the same office
where, just three weeks before, we were told that we had lost the baby. Next, the words came, “You guys know
why you’re here, I’m sure. The
results of the biopsy came back positive, you have breast cancer, and it looks
like you’re going to need a mastectomy.”
After that, we couldn’t tell you what was said.
What happened next was a complete whirlwind of
seemingly endless doctors appointments: four surgeons, three oncologists, a
reproductive endocrinologist, and tests, tests, tests. We spent two weeks being as proactive
as we could to help establish our team of doctors and the best treatment plan.
After a lot of wrangling to get appointments with the right doctors, we were
finally able to get into Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center here in New
York City. The Memorial oncologist
was our third oncologist visit, and after meeting with her, we knew we had found
the right person.
Because of the fact that the type of cancer that
Sarah has is a rare, aggressive and advanced one (the cancer was already in
stage IIIC when we found it), the planned treatment is for five months of chemotherapy
first, followed by the mastectomy (possibly bilateral), then possibly more
chemotherapy if needed, then radiation, and then reconstruction. It is going to
be a very long road.
During this whirlwind search of doctors, we were
also thrown another curve ball that needed immediate attention. We were told that there was a chance
that the chemo would knock out Sarah’s ovaries, making us unable to have more
children. We were told that we
should look into freezing embryos for post treatment IVF. This sent us into a very emotional two
days of trying to decide whether or not to go forward with having Sarah go
through two weeks of taking hormonal drugs to stimulate egg maturation, followed
by a surgical procedure of harvesting the eggs. This would all be done, and then the day after the eggs are
harvested, Sarah would start chemotherapy. We figured that most people, when faced with IVF treatment,
have sufficient time to do their research and make an educated and informed
decision on how they want to proceed. We had two days. Something just wasn’t sitting right in the decision to move
forward with the plan to put Sarah’s body through that kind of stress just
before the intense stress of chemotherapy. This was a difficult decision, and we were in an extreme emotional
dilemma filled with all the anguish of these difficult days. In the end, we thought of how extremely lucky
we were to have our healthy, happy little girl, as well as the chance that we
could still have children after treatment, and the option to adopt in the
future, so we decided it wasn’t worth stressing Sarah’s body at such a
difficult time. Yet, at the same
time, there was always a little something in the back of our minds that was
still questioning whether we would regret this decision in the future if faced
with infertility. We told our oncologist about this dilemma, and she
immediately said she didn’t feel that we should delay chemo for two weeks for
the egg harvesting – those were the words we needed to hear to feel comfortable
with our decision, with no future regrets.
So we had our medical team and plan in place, and
could begin to breathe… just a little bit. Days and days of pre-chemo tests included a PET scan that
confirmed that there was no distant spread of the cancer, but for some involvement
of the internal mammary nodes.
Sarah also had another biopsy of the right breast to rule out the
presence of cancer there, and thankfully that came back benign. Chemotherapy round 1 was set for
Thursday March 28th, just two weeks after diagnosis. Months before, we had bought tickets to
one of our favorite live music artists so we were very happy to be able to get
out for a night of great music with great friends prior to starting
chemotherapy the next day.
The first chemo visit was a surreal, but comfortable
experience. It just so happened that Sarah acquired a nasty chest cold about
this same time. The first few days after chemo were fine, then the cold really
hit and along with it some chemo-related nausea, so Sarah spent the week
feeling wrecked, with little appetite and a bad cough. After five days of little improvement,
the low-grade fever concerned the oncologist, so this past Friday we went in
for a chest x-ray and another blood test. Sarah’s white blood cell count had
plummeted, so the combination of severe nuetropenia with a fever lead to a
hospital admission that day. Four days later Sarah’s cell counts improved to
normal, and she was finally discharged. Despite a cough and some stomach irritation
from the IV antibiotics, she is feeling much better - all this just in time for
her chemo treatment round 2 coming up this Thursday.
So there it is, as neatly wrapped up as we could
make it. Now that things are slowing down a bit for us, we are gradually coming
to terms with what we are dealing with.
It still seems very surreal. There have been many setbacks along the way
over these past three weeks, but we are trying to keep our focus on all the
small victories instead. For
example, when we discovered that our insurance covered care here at Memorial
Sloan- Kettering, we were very grateful that we could be in the hands of one of
the top cancer centers in the country. We still have many more mountains to
climb though, and not just with this terrible disease. Jason had just signed a contract with
an orthodontist in Savannah, GA, so we were getting ready for that move after
his graduation in June. When faced
with this though, we felt that it would be best to stay here in NY for the
duration of treatment, so now we have a lot more to figure out. Jason has his written boards test in 9 days;
he needs to complete his residency and graduate in less than three months. After doing the job search for cities
outside NYC, we now have to find employment locally, we’ll need to likely find
a place to move to after June as we are living in hospital housing that won’t
be an option after graduation, we’ve got to figure out insurance coverage after
graduation, etc. So much to figure
out, but we’re doing our best to compartmentalize everything and handle one
hurdle at a time.
We have faith that God will help carry us through
these tough times. We know that we
will come out of this stronger and forever changed. We are eternally grateful for all of our family and friends
here in NY and beyond who have reached out and helped selflessly to keep us
glued together these past few weeks.
If you would like to reach out to us, please do. Please feel free to call, write, email,
text, whatever… it means the world to us to hear from all of you that have
become a part of our story through this journey of life thus far.
Please keep the prayers, positive thoughts and
energy coming our way as we work through this treatment.
All of our love,
Sarah, Jason and Lena
