A tough few months for mom

Earlier this year, my mom had a knee replacement. She had been having a lot of pain all over her body, but it all stemmed from her knee. So, that went well, but then it caused her to begin having foot pain and is dealing with that with a really constricting brace that she wears on her foot as well as periodic cortisone shots from the pain doctor. Ugh...what a pain, literally!

Then a couple of months ago, she had a mammogram and the doctor saw that she has ductile carcinoma, which she also had a couple of years ago. Ductile carcinoma for my mom means that the doctor found suspicious cancerous cells in her milk ducts. The last time she had it, her doctor was able to remove it with a needle biopsy (ouch!) and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Well, when it came back, she had another needle biopsy and the doctor wasn't satisfied that she had gotten it all, so she had another procedure done to make sure it had not spread to her lymph nodes. It had not spread (whew!) but the options were a) radiation or b) a mastectomy. If she chose radiation and it came back again down the line, the next step would be a mastectomy and the past radiation would make for a difficult recovery, so mom chose option b---to have the mastectomy now. (I am probably messing up on some of these details...sorry, Mom!)

I love my mom's outlook on this whole situation. She says she is not that attached to her breasts to not do this.

So, the 6 hour surgery (including reconstruction) was today and I am so happy and relieved to say that everything went beautifully! I am looking forward to seeing her tomorrow!

Even though this has been a tough 6 months for my mom with my brother and his wife and kids moving to Africa in January and my grandmother (her mother-in-law) passing away in February and then all of the medical issues she has faced since then, I am very excited for what God has in store for her in the remaining 6 months of 2009! Mom, things can only look up from here!