Good News, Hard Day

Back to the recovery chair!

It's been a full week, and it's not even over yet! This week Kate had follow up appointments with the plastic surgeon, the radiation oncologist, the medical oncologist, and then a follow-up procedure with the plastic surgeon. Lots of information, but I'm pretty tired so I'm going to bullet it out:

First up on Tuesday Kate had a follow-up appointment with her plastic surgeon to check on how her surgery site was healing. There was one patch of skin that wasn't healing as well as they hoped so they scheduled a follow-up procedure later in the week to excise the necrotic skin.
The next day we met with the radiation oncologist to go over the pathology results, the oncotype test results and determine if radiation would be a necessary next step in treatment. The doctor explained that the oncotype test indicated that given Kate's type of cancer, stage, post-menopausal status, and other factors, radiation therapy would only provide minimal additional benefit. In her opinion it wasn't a necessary next step unless Kate really wanted to explore it. Which she most definitely did not! So, no radiation treatment needed - YES!! A definite answer to prayer.
Today was a big day. We started with a meeting with the medical oncologist. He went through the oncotype test and confirmed that we were on the same page with the radiation oncologist that we weren't pursuing radiation treatment. He also confirmed what we'd seen on the oncotype test results that given all the factors involved, chemotherapy is also not needed- YES!! Yet another answered prayer. We next spent a fair amount of time discussing endocrine therapy - taking drugs that would be used to reduce Kate's body's production of estrogen (which feeds her type of cancer) and block the cancer's access to the minimal that is there, effectively starving it. This is key, because everything from here forward is about preventing recurrence. Once she gets a bit further out from surgery he suggested starting on aromatase inhibitors which inhibit estrogen production. We talked a lot about a new drug that could be approved by the FDA by this fall called Giridestrant. This drug sounds amazing - an additional 30% reduction in risk of recurrence compared to standard endocrine therapies, AND it has shown fewer side effects than endocrine therapy in trials. This is a new prayer request that the FDA gives approval to this drug soon.
We left the oncologist's office and headed straight over to the Anschutz UC Health medical campus for Kate's surgical procedure. We checked in at noon and were told that her doctor's prior surgery was going long and we'd just need to wait in pre-op until they were ready for her. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally at 4:30pm - after 4.5 hours of waiting - they took Kate back for surgery. They were done by 6:00pm and the doctor called to let me know everything had gone well. He felt really good about the how the procedure went and was hopeful that she should continue healing normally. Please pray that the incisions heal well and the skin remains healthy.

So we're back home and Kate's resting. She's in some pain from the procedure but resting pretty well. Thanks for all the continued encouragement and prayer. Grateful for all of you who are on this journey with us.