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My pathology came back, actually it came back last week but I just needed some time to process the news. During surgery they took the two tumors and 13 additional lymph nodes. We knew the tumors had melanoma in them obviously. Unfortunately though, we found out that all 13 of the additional nodes tested positive as well. They also noted that there was "minimal response" seen from the treatment. :( This news hit me hard.
However - now that I have had some time to think about it and process it, I am doing better. The fact there was ANY response is good news. I was only on the treatment for 8 weeks. They usually don't even see a difference on scans until 3-6 months. So we are not losing hope yet! I already started back on the targeted therapy treatment, after taking a 5 day break for surgery. I will stay on this treatment for at least a year (or as long as my body can tolerate it) and will keep having scans to make sure nothing else is progressing. If something grows while on the the treatment then we will have to go back to the drawing board.
Surgery recovery has SUCKED. I am 10 days out from surgery and still moving slow and hurting some. Thank goodness my mom, sister, Jerome & friends were here to help me get out of bed, bring meals/meds, do a million loads of laundry, and keep my kids fed. :) Thank you all for the prayers, cards and good wishes. I know these updates are probably getting super annoying. This will be the last one for awhile, as I am back on cruise control for awhile. :)
Love you all,
Lacey
PS I talked to my old Dr from Walter Reed and she told me "the fact that we are still only talking about lymph nodes after all these years is a miracle". So... that made me feel pretty bad***, and made me feel like I must be doing something right and all of the prayers are working. :)