Partial Pathology Results

Hope everyone enjoyed their families and had as many laughs as we did during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Sorry to hear about Maggie Daley and her passing. She lived her life graciously and with dignity and will be missed by all Chicagoans.

My sister, Peg, came to town on Thanksgiving to give Ron a hand in my recovery and has been cooking up a storm and adding lots of entertainment to our household. Thanks to my other family members for adding their characters into the mix as well. Family is everything. My dirty little secret is out as my organizational skills in the kitchen are not the best.

I received partial pathology results as follows: I had seven invasive tumors, one as large as 5.2 mm and as small as 1.2 mm. They found 9.2 cm (@ 4 inches) of  non-invasive DCIS. That is alot of bad fast growing cells in a short period of 10 months since my last good mammogram. The pathologists also stated that they do not have a clean margin of 2 mm of cancer free cells. A clean margin is where there is no indication of abnormal cells in a span of a 2 mm edge. I do not recall what clearance I did have, but I do not have the recommended amount of clearance. Therefore, Dr. Jaskowiak's recommendation is to go back into the hospital on Monday at 3:30 and reopen the flap and take a small layer of tissue to test for any further cancer cells and to get a clean margin. The Reincision Anterior Margin should only take an hour and I should be going home that evening. This procedure should bring me peace knowing that I will get a clear margin and that the doctors got all the cancer. The remaining biomarker tests for estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 factors are still pending. Those results will determine the type of cancer treatments that will follow.

I was stunned at first, but now that I have thought about this Reincision Anterior Margin, I am grateful that we will have definitive results and will more forward to the next step.

I will update when I get a moment.