What’s in Your Glovebox?

This morning was one to remember - Amira had an ultrasound to check on the chemo’s progress and received news that she’s had a complete radiographic response to her cancer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other words, the ultrasound couldn’t visually detect any cancer in her left breast or lymph nodes. You read that right. In just three rounds of chemo over two months, her body responded to the targeted therapy and it appears to have wiped out the cancer.

So what does this mean? After the first appointment, we meet with Amira’s surgical oncologist, Dr. Garreau who shared our excitement as she reviewed the details. She mentioned that because Amira has calcifications all throughout the left breast, a mastectomy is still needed. Wah wah. We then got to planning and compared pics of various mastectomies to Amira’s IRL boobs. We talked about Goldilocks reconstruction, but not the children’s story version, and came up with a tentative date for her surgery.

What’s next? To be safe, the original chemotherapy plan is still in place. Three more chemo rounds to make sure the cancer is indeed gone, and the bilateral mastectomy at the end of May. Finally, she’ll be topped off (niiiiice) with a few more doses of Herceptin and Perjeta along with radiation.

In case you’re wondering, some heavy duty pain drugs numb more than just the pain. How does that manifest itself in Amira? A couple of days ago Amira placed her plate in the car glovebox. Cars can do more these days for sure, but dishwashing is a stretch.

Amira continues to work through symptoms from the last round of chemotherapy. Sores, exhaustion, and brain fog can’t keep her down. She’s been pushing through with a good sense of humor, exercise, lots of snuggles and story times for our kids, and even made it out for dinner and a modern dance performance this past weekend. We’re elated!!