Now that you know a little about Cathy, I'll update you on her situation and give some further background.


This is the short version, by the way.  The long version is to come.


Cathy, my wonderful and beautiful wife, has triple negative breast cancer.  That means she has about a 2cm ductal carcinoma tumor in her right breast.  That tumor is estrogen and progesterone receptor negative and HER2 negative.  Being triple negative means that hormone therapy and heptacin, which are common breast cancer treatments will have no effect on this tumor.  The good news in that, is that triple negative breast cancer is often quite responsive to chemotherapy.  Triple negative breast cancer is way too long, so in the spirit of my father's favorite pastime, I'm going to turn that into an acronym - tnbc.  Those of you who know my dad just spit your drinks on your computer screens.


Tomorrow Cathy will have bloodwork done to determine if she has the genetic marker for breast cancer.  She will also get a bottle of contrast dye for a CT scan next week.  On the 12th, I think it's the 12th, she will have a CT and a bone scan.  Next week seems like the time that chemo will begin as well, but we don't have a date yet.  Sometime in the next couple of weeks she will have an MRI, as well.  An MRI will not be helpful now because her breasts are still active in producing milk.  Which brings us to another important issue - kids.  We have an 8 month old daughter who just quit breast milk today.  If any of you have any addictions you've tried to quit, I liken this to maybe heroin.  The formula (in the heroin analogy would be methadone) is just not cutting it.  Another task for tomorrow will be talking to pediatricians and lactation consultants to get good advice on this.  Aaron is 8 and staying with a friend tonight.  I will devote a whole post or more to our great friends at some point.  Jonah is 11 and in Sandusky on a mission trip.  With both of them gone Cathy and I were able to have a good cry together tonight.  There will be more tears.