Girls Day Out

The girls had a fun day of shopping and salon time today!  Madison and Lori donated hair to "Locks of Love".  Cousin Teri took pictures for us, then we enjoyed a girl's lunch along with some hat and shoe shopping! 

Before:

  

During:

After:



Tubeless! Yeah! (Updated)

Yesterday we said goodbye to James' sister and her husband, Sharyl and Russ who were here visiting and lending us a hand.  We always love when they visit - the kids get spoiled (and so do we).  Thanks for a great visit and thank you Sharyl for the beautiful pink quilt!  Sadly they were here about 10 days and I forgot to take pictures!  So no pic posts today.

Update:  This is the quilt...Sharyl is so talented and creative...can whip up anything in no time!

 

Lori got her "boob tubes" (drainage tubes) out yesterday.  No more getting caught on the kitchen knobs (OUCH!) and tube free sleeping and showering!  Yes!!!!  Celebrate those little accomplishments!

Up"Dates"

The newest updates:

Port insertion surgery will be next week, Wed., April 4.  No biggie...quick surgery...in and out and home!

Chemotherapy begins Thursday, April 12, then hair falls out 7-10 days later...perfect for hot weather! 
Chemo will be every 3 weeks for 6 cycles for two of the meds, then the final med, Herceptin for the remainder of the 12 month cycle.

We met with the nurse today and got the 'low down' on side effects and a grand tour of the facility...gotta love medical care...the cram 'em all in a room in recliners, then hook up the IV's...thank goodness for Kindles, Ipads and computers! 

Say Cheese!

 We decided to get some quick family pictures before Lori loses all of her hair, although during chemo we thought another picture with James and Lori bald would be hilarious!  The kids did great and we got some fun pictures. 



This Is the Life!

What a beautiful day just hanging outside with the kiddos in the hammock! 

Pass the Margarita please! 



Modesty? Not at our house!



Pictures are worth 1000 words - just don't tell me which words you're thinking for this one!  Madison snuck into the bathroom to snap this picture right after my surgery.  Although it's not a pretty sight, I thought I'd throw it on our blog to show all of you how well we're doing!  I've been resting often, but also getting the opportunity to visit with family members in town helping. 

We met with the plastic surgeon yesterday and got two of the tubes removed.  Lori still has two "boob tubes" (not to be confused with  the television term - ha!  Okay... bad joke...) in for drainage.  Those should come out next week. 

After meeting with the Oncologist today, Lori will be going in for surgery to put the port in during the next week or so.  Chemotheraphy will start in approximately 3 weeks.  Two of the medications will be given via IV through the port every three weeks for 6 sessions.  The final medication Herceptin (targeted specifically for the HER-2 positive result) also via IV port will continue every three weeks for 1 year.  With this specific kind of tumor, the doctors are saying there is a 70-80% cure rate, not quite what we were hoping for (the 98% breast cancer cure rate sounds so much better), but we're fighting hard, and not letting it get us down.    

  

Stage 1 - Yipee!

Doctor visit went well yesterday.  All as expected.  The tumor was slightly larger than first thought, but still considered Stage 1 since it was under 2 cm (1.8 cm - whew!).  The final biopsy still showed estrogen and progesterone negative as well as HER-2 positive, so chemotherapy will be a must.  Lori's port will be inserted in about 3 weeks, then the fun begins... Herceptin, so close heart monitoring and hair loss for about a year we're told (we'll see if we prove them wrong with my thick hair!!).  Regardless I'm thinking the look below may work for me:

I just better not get caught down on Van Buren or that area with that outfit right????  Ha! Ha!

So Many Blessings

Lori's recovery is going so well! We are so overwhelmed with the tremendous outpouring of love and help we are getting - transportation for the kids to and from school, lunches and dinners and just overall spoiling! How do we even BEGIN to thank everyone?!?!

My mom has been amazing keeping the house running smoothly and spoiling the kids - chocolate for breakfast, sure! Ha! Ha! And my wonderful, amazing, supportive husband who just loves on me and wants to take all of this away. Even the kids are amazing. Madison helps me to the bathroom, takes showers with me and holds all of my "goodies" (OnQ lidocaine bag and drainage tubes) and just loves to be my helper. She is such a caring, empathetic soul. We admire her so much for this! JJ is also helping in his own ways asking how I feel, if it hurts or if I need medicine. He definitely internalized his thoughts but his face shows his great love.

We continue to laugh at those crazy things - taking a shower, brushing teeth, even going #2 has been a hilarious celebration at our house! Those silly things you take for granted right? Heading off for a doctor appointment to plan for the next steps - port insertion, then the chemotherapy...time for HAT SHOPPING - woohoo!

Surgery - Recovery - Back Home - Hooray!

So, consultation with the surgeons occurred on Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday at 5am we entered John C. Lincoln Hospital and the surgery began right at 7am.  Just over an hour later the assisting O.R. nurse shared the fantastic news that Lori's lymph node test came back negative - no cancer cells present in the node.  This was obviously great news and confirmed the findings from the earlier MRI.

Dr. O'Neill, the masectomy surgeon's work was complete around 9:30 and came out to report that her procedure went great - "textbook" were her words.  Dr. O'Neill repeated the great news about the nodes being clear and the skin tissue near the removed tumor also was clear - confirming that the cancer was confined to the tumor itself.

The second surgeon began his work on reconstruction and completed his work shortly after Noon.  His post-op visit with James in the waiting room provided additional great news - that his work went just as expected too!  Dr. Andres was able to do his reconstruction during this surgery - which was a blessing so that Lori shouldn't need a second surgery.

Her recovery on Wednesday and Thursday went very well.  Lori had some pain initially (obviously), but quickly grew to very manageable with the pain medications.

Lori was released on Thursday afternoon and is in GREAT spirits!  The kids are excited to have Mom home....and Dad is too (obviously).  We are all buoyed by the great news of the successful surgery and that the cancer was contained to the tumor.  Details of Lori's continued treatment will be known in a few weeks, but chemotherapy will be necessary to ensure we catch any stray cancer cells that may be present and that will begin in about 4 to 6 weeks.

Lori and James thank everyone so far for the tremendous outpouring of positive thoughts, love and genuine affection for Lori and our entire family.  Lori's fight ahead will be a year long plus, but we can all rejoice at the fact that although the initial findings of cancer were obviously negative, all news since then have been very positive.  Let's all hope the positive news keeps rolling in!

Bye-Bye Boobies!

And so it begins...Lori will be going into surgery on Wednesday, March 14.  The doctors will be doing a double mastectomy and preparing things for reconstruction.  The surgery will last about 7 hours - yikes!  We are confident things will go well, and know we are in very good hands.

We also found out that given the double mastectomy, it is now highly unlikely that Lori will have to undergo radiation.  Yeah!  However, chemotherapy will begin 4-6 weeks after the surgery to kill any stray cells that may have traveled elsewhere.

REALLY ?!?!?

Almost exactly one month after Marissa was born, Lori found a lump in her left breast.  After further testing and a biopsy we have sadly discovered that Lori has Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.  We are completely shocked, but we've kicked cancer's ass once (Madison was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia "ALL" in 2004 and completed her treatment in 2006), and we plan to do it again! 

After several tests and doctor visits, today we met with a surgeon and received some good news and some frightening news.  The good news... the cancer appears to be localized at this point in the one tumor and does not appear to have spread to the lymphatic system or other areas.  The frightening news is... the cancer cells tested positive for HER-2 protein and are not estrogen and progesterone fed.  This type of cancer cell is more aggressive and resistant to one of the drugs that is commonly used to defeat the cancer.  Having fewer options for successful treatment is disappointing and frightening, but survivability can still be very high based on what we know at this point.  Like we've all heard a billion times, catching it early is key to long-term success.

Next step is surgery and more testing before a complete treatment plan can be devised.  After surgery and radiation, chemotherapy may be necessary.  We're taking one step at a time, but we're ready for the fight.

Hmmmm... is this payback for all the times I teased James about going bald?  Forgive me!!!!

Commercial plug - Check our our Video Channel on YouTube!

The Little Nordicans have been busy this winter (is it really still called winter in Arizona?) making YouTube videos.  So far the videos are predominately product reviews and stop action videos featuring Legos.  Be sure to swing by YouTube and check them out.

Search "capcyclone" - which is our YouTube handle or click the link below to go directly to our "channel" on YouTube.  We hope you enjoy watching the videos as much as we enjoyed making them.  Check back often as more will be added along the way.

http://www.youtube.com/user/capcyclone/videos