happy whipple day

One year ago today, my mom spent 8.5 hours in surgery while hundreds of prayer warriors stormed the gates of heaven on her behalf. Volunteering to pray during specified time slots, our friends made sure that a prayer was being said for Mom during every moment of her Whipple surgery. They also made sure that the rest of us were not alone as we waited - forty friends came by to love us, feed us, and pray with us during our 10-hour stay in the waiting room. Nearly 400 people visited this blog throughout the day checking for updates. Our facebook pages and phones overflowed with messages of support, encouragement, and love.

To each of you who said a prayer, who came to visit, who brought a meal, who sent a message of hope - "thank you" doesn't seem sufficient. But thank you, thank you, thank you. God has carried us through the last year with amazing grace and He's used you to do it. Your kindness and love still overwhelm me.

One year later, Trish still has no pancreatic cancer in sight!

Happy Whipple Day. : )

 

  
"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!" -Psalm 126:3


P.S. One of those friends who waited at the hospital with us was our dear friend Nancy, who unexpectedly passed away this past Thursday. She and her husband Don have loved my mom as one of their own since she was a little girl. My parents and some other friends had just been out to dinner with Nancy and Don the night before she died. Please keep her family and friends in your prayers, especially this weekend.

I was in English class.

something normal

Trish/Granna and her oldest grandson Hunter during Camp Granna last month . . . Granna is probably the only person with whom Hunter will willingly pose for pictures!

So you may have already heard this news from Trish or me on facebook. Or, if you're like my mom's sister, you heard from one of your co-workers (oops! sorry, Aunt Bernie!). Anyway, the latest good news we've gotten is that my mom's tumor markers are still NORMAL!

In no way does this mean we're in the clear. Tumor markers are not always reliable; thus, those mystery lymph nodes could still be cancer. However, with normal tumor markers, we can still hold out hope that they're not cancer. And that is a very good thing! We like to hold out hope around here. : )

Trish is feeling great. She has a routine appointment with Dr. B (surgeon) next Tuesday. I'll let you know if anything noteworthy comes from that visit!

the Saturday evening post (aka, the latest on Trish)

Okay, here's the detailed version of Tuesday's visit with Dr. Tauer, for those of you who are really nosy. :-) As I said before, Mom's CT scan was unchanged, which is a good thing. Obviously, we would've rather heard "all clear", but we weren't really expecting that. And we wanted some definite answers about what's going with those enlarged lymph nodes, but the only way we'll get that is if we do a biopsy. And since "unchanged" means the nodes are still too small to biopsy, that's definitely a good thing! The nodes in question are two enlarged lymph nodes in her chest and one in her abdomen. We didn't find out about the one her abdomen until now, even though it's been there. This worries us, because it could be the pancreatic cancer (PC). The ones in her chest are more likely to be breast cancer (BC). Neither would be good, but there are definitely more treatment options available for BC. Mom said, "I don't know whether I should wear pink or purple!" (Purple is the PC awareness color, and I'm sure you know that pink is the BC awareness color).

It is still entirely possible that none of this is cancer. Lymph nodes swell for all kinds of reasons. Dr. Tauer said the lymph node in Mom's abdomen could be post-surgical (i.e., caused by something Whipple-related). I've read online that Crohn's disease (which Mom also has) can cause enlarged lymph nodes. And Trish also has a stent (from the Whipple) floating around in her intestines that could be causing inflammation. So who knows. As far as the lymph nodes in her chest go, we learned last week (thanks to some in-depth googling by yours truly) that those could be caused by a complication of the reconstruction surgery Trish had after her mastectomy in 2001. We (along with Dr. T) will be discussing that possibility more with Mom's plastic surgeon. We really have no clue. Dr. Tauer has no clue. But he was very pleased with the results of Mom's scan and wants to continue to monitor these mystery lymph nodes closely. Mom will have another CT scan in two months, on Halloween day.

As far for Mom's tumor markers, we have no word on them yet. They're a send-out lab, so it takes a day to get the results. If they're bad, Dr. T will call and let Mom know (at least that's what he did the last time, which was seven years ago). If they're good, Mom gets a postcard in the mail. Yes, we could call the clinic and find out, but we're not worried enough to do that. We will, though, if a postcard doesn't arrive next week! So, as many on facebook have said, pray for a postcard!

Mom will see Dr. Behrman (remember him? the Whipple surgeon?) for a routine follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks. He may have something to say about the lymph node in her abdomen. We'll see.

And the prayer requests are as follows:

• Mom's next CT scan is October 31st. Pray for good news!
• the mystery lymph nodes . . . pray for no further growth and for whatever's causing that inflammation to go away! 
• normal tumor markers . . . pray for a postcard!
• wisdom for Mom's doctors - Dr. Tauer, Dr. Adams, and Dr. Behrman - as well as wisdom for Trish as they all work together to make the right decisions
• praise, praise, praise and thanksgiving for God's grace and faithfulness . . . Mom is now a 10-year breast cancer survivor and a 1-year pancreatic cancer survivor! Amazing!