Not a Part of the Plan: A Great Week With the Doctors

We had a great week with all the doctors.

Emma had her one month check-up and passed all her milestones. She is looking at faces, tracking with her eyes, focusing on objects about a foot from her face, displaying the startle and grasp reflex and is cooing, grunting and making all types of noises. She can even move her head from side to side when laying on her tummy. Last week she had really discovered her hands, and now she has further discovered her fingers (they end up in her mouth mainly, sometimes the full fist) and reached for her feet the other night when we were changing her diaper. She is even learning to hold in her binky with her hand!

Hand in our mouth

I can't believe she turned one month old. We had Kelly back out to take her professional one month photos and we can't wait to share them with you in about a week's time. But here are some pics I took (definitely not professional).

1 month old

My cheeks get fuller every day.

Happy girl!

She is 18 inches long and weighed in at 6 lbs 2 oz.

I had a busy week last week with my second to last chemotherapy session and a MRI.

UNO! One more left!

I was much more nervous about the MRI than I thought I would be. Because I couldn't have a MRI while pregnant this was my first one and a lot of things began to race through my mind: what if it spread? where could it have spread to? what if the lump is bigger than they could feel during the exams? what about the lymphnodes? was the chemo successful? what is the path ahead of me?

There was a lot of quiet alone time during the 30 minutes of the MRI test that I was able to think through the above questions and reflect back on the last 5.5 months. I am confident that I chose the right doctors and the right course of action for me and I had to rely on higher powers to take this one into his hands.

It was an agonizing 48 hours but when I got the call from the doctor's office it was great news! My medical oncologist and my surgeon both reviewed the MRI together and called to tell me...the chemotherapy was a complete success and they can't see any remains of the lump. What a relief! This further validates that the choice to have the lumpectomy vs mastectomy was the right choice. My surgeon, Dr. Yazdi, will go in to remove the dead cancerous cells and remove a clean margin of healthy cells that once surrounded the lump. The MRI also showed less inflamed lymphnodes than originally thought meaning we will only have to remove 6-10 vs the original plan of 10-20! Thirdly, the MRI showed no sign of the cancer spreading elsewhere in my left breast nor to my right breast!

Tomorrow, I celebrate the completion of my chemotherapy (before surgery). After 5.5 months and 16 chemotherapy treatments my body is ready for a three week vacation! No chemo and no doctor's appointments. I am ready to have a break from the side effects and the weekly grind of a 3 hour chemo session. The side effects have begun to add up and were getting quite annoying. My bloody noses persist, my face is broken out like a 13 year old's and my legs and feet have a tingling sensation like diabetics get neuropathy. We will celebrate with a Valentine's theme and say thank you to the nurses that have cared for me during my chemotherapy. And we plan to take a trip to the NICU to drop off some sugar cookies too!

Here are some other photos from the week: