New Cancer Update!

May 19, 2010

I have a new doctor at M.D. Anderson’s. We have seen her once before and loved her. It seems every time we meet she is blown away by my experience with cancer. She is a doctor at arguably the best cancer center in the United States. Even so, one of the best cancer centers' in the world. She sees cancer. She sees cancer day after day, year after year and patient after patient. She has seen people beat the disease; she has seen some loose their battle. Even still, this doctor looks at my file and gasps every time. We talk about my past routines with chemo; we discuss where I’ve been and what I still have left to do. She realizes I haven’t been off of chemo in years. This sudden realization brings her to her chair. With an overstated thump she sits down, stares at the computer going through my file, and undoubtedly looking up my history of chemo and different medications. After a few minutes she looks up and with a exacerbated sigh she assures me that we still have plenty more options left in chemo even with all the chemo I have been on already. She shares with joy the results of my PET scan, my ultrasound, and my biopsies. After all this time, all the stress, we have good news. The tumor that we had worried about under my left arm causing pain and worries of recurrence came back as negative for cancer! Thanks God! The tissue had grown around a clip from my breast reconstruction surgery, at that point we had only the preliminary report so all they could tell me was that but most probably it is fibrosis like my previous benign tumors that were direct results of my surgeries and the foreign objects in my body. There was a tumor noticed in my right arm lymph nodes as well during the ultrasound that they also biopsied. By the Grace of God, it also came back benign. A couple of the tumors that had appeared before in the chest mammary node area and in the neck were no longer showing the action they had before, more or less now considered benign. The only thing now left is the tumors in my clavicle area, and surgery is back on! My cancer has now been moved to the category of “stable disease” and the surgery option is back on the table!

This week before I get my surgery scheduled though, my baby is getting her tonsils removed and I have to set up that surgery first. My poor baby got strep so much this year she was out every few weeks for it. So hopefully this will help my baby out. So, at this time I am waiting to hear back from my surgeon in Texas to schedule surgery. Then after that surgery and the recovery I will go to New Orleans to my breast reconstruction doctors to see about having the rest of my breast reconstruction! Yay! Finally! After the recovery for my breast reconstruction I will stay off of my xeloda medication (THANK GOD!!!) and remain on tykerb (that’s fine, it’s not that bad) and then I will be put on a medication to stop the estrogen production that occurs in the rest of my body. So by the end of the summer this all may be done. It’s like a dream. How awesome of a dream!

In three months, maybe I’ll be able to start school, part time of course. Maybe I’ll be working, putting food in our mouths, clothes on our backs, providing for us. It would be absolutely amazing. Please pray that this all works out according to plan! I will stay on chemo until the first surgery. Please pray no more tumors form that will make them cancel surgery again. Please pray that the chemo continues to hold the cancer in the position it is now. Please pray that when Madisyn gets her tonsils taken out that this will be the end of her illnesses. She missed 21 days of school this year, only two unexcused (ok we had to go to see Taylor Swift in Bossier City for her birthday and she got invited to go see Miley Cyrus with a friend and they got back real late that night so I kept her home the next day, who says no to free entertainment for your kid? I sure don’t, she doesn’t get much here from me when I am sick so we take it when we can). Please pray that we find a way to pay our bills until all this is over. If anyone has an idea for a fundraiser and has spare time to do a fundraiser we could really use one, soon. In time for rent for June and all the bills for May, June, July, and August which includes rent, electricity, water, sewage, phone, food, clothes for school, hospital bills (ha, like those will ever be paid off, lol), and everything else I am not mentioning right now. We get some money from the government to help but it barely covers the rent. We need money for day to day expenses as well. If anyone has some ideas, some connections, some energy and a little extra time please let me know. You can reach me on my facebook page, my email: shannonmbridges@hotmail.com, or on Madisyn’s phone (mine is disconnected for the moment): 225-323-4646.

I also would like to reach out to you guys for help with organizing my house. I have things that need to be filed, cleaned, laundry, dishes, etc and I could use all the help I can get right now through the summer. Also if anyone loves kids and would love to entertain my child now and then it would be greatly appreciated. When I am sick, she gets so board because sometimes I will be in bed for days. She makes me breakfast, and lunch, and dinner, and takes care of me. She needs to be a child and have fun this summer so if anyone wants to help her be a kid, let me know.

Also this summer we will need lots of help with meals. If anyone wants to volunteer to be a meal coordinator or a coordinator of all things it would be awesome. Like I said just let me know. We are so grateful to have all of you in our lives and we really need you guys right now but we now have an end date!!

Thanks to Everyone, we love you!

Shannon