I survived surgery!!! Ron and the girls took very good care of me and I couldn't have survived without Ron. I at first thought Ron was crazy for taking the week off to help me but am so glad he did. Do you remember the vows for better or for worse - Ron is feeling that right now. He has to help me get dressed, shower, empty the drainage tube, do laundry, finish Christmas shopping and the list goes on.........He can't thank everyone enough for the meals continually provide because it is one major thing he can cross off his too do list.

Now a few details on what is happening with CANCER. I had a partial masectomy and reconstruction done Tues. Dec. 11. My mom took me to the surgeons office on Mon. to have the drain removed and she told us that from the looks of the preliminary pathology report they are still showing some cancer. The surgeon removed 12 lymph nodes and 4 out of the 12 still showed signs of cancer - this didn't surprise her. I guess that is pretty normal results with people who have chemo first. She said that people who don't have chemo first sometime have 50 nodes removed. I am looking at the bright side and am happy with my 12!!! The surprise part is that they still found some ductal carcinoma in the original tumor area. I guess other pathologists are reviewing the sample and then will let her know the final results hopefully later this week. If I understand everything correctly this means possibly more surgery and a potential of more chemo. I DON'T LIKE either option but will do whatever they tell me to do. Please pray for my strength to get throught this!!! I haven't handled this news very well and have shed a lot of tears. Please pray for my families strength to get through this and for the doctors expertise to successfully remove all cancer from my body.

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and say THANKS for everything. Love, Ron, Julie, Anna, Rachel, and Grace

Hi everyone - I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you all enjoy this special day with family and friends. I am thankful for all of your friendships, kind words, food, and support. I couldn't have gotten this far without you!!!!!! Well a quick update on me: CHEMO is officially done. Last Monday was completion day and I have been recovering ever since. I am not bouncing back to quickly this time. I think I have told you in the past that my hands and feet are numb as a side affect to the chemo well 2 days before chemo I fell down a small flight of stairs and sprained both of my ankles. Very embarrassing and VERY PAINFUL. I stumbled painfully into chemo and then have basically been home since. Everone who comes over finds me in the same place - my big blue overstuffed recliner. I'm going to surprise them someday and be in a different spot. I can't wait for that day. Our bedroom is in the basement and finally after a week managed to sleep in it. I'm making progress.
More about what happens next with me: After speaking with the doctors lately it has been made clear that my cancer was much more aggressive than we originally thought. Because of this, I will have to go every 3 weeks for an IV treatment of a preventative drug called Herceptin. (I was very depressed about this because I thought I would be done with IV's and I wanted my port removed) I will have to do this for a year. They also took some blood and sent it to a high tech lab to do some genetic testing so I can see what my future and the future of my children hold. Pray that the result are negative!!
I must tell you that Grace is screaming at me to get out of the tub so I have not proofed this letter - I hope it makes sense. Happy Thanksgiving - Love, Julie