All I can say is you all are amazing. I was really fighting discouragement and fear and I woke up today with the deepest sense of peace and trust. I feel a little like I am floating, I know your prayers are lifting me above the challenging circumstances that I am facing right now. Thank you a hundred times over!
So the story continues...
Yesterday, (Friday) I did get to see a plastic surgeon (my plastic surgeon who has been working with me on my breast reconstruction has been out of town). It was a very, very long day and I will not go into in all of the details, but suffice it to say that he was eventually able to successfully remove about half of the fluid in my left expander. Removing the fluid took the pressure off of the blood vessels that supply circulation to the wound. That in itself should help the healing process. He said there is very little tissue covering the expander on the wound site and that I had been in danger of having the expander break through the tissue. Thank the Lord we got that fluid out and the pressure off before that happened. I can't even imagine how much that would have hurt. It would also have required immediate surgery, so praise the Lord!
Today, I went in to see a doctor of Hyperbaric medicine (see wikipedia for a pretty good explanation and a picture of a chamber that looks like the one that I use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_medicine
I really liked the doctor and all of the techs that were working. Ron and I thought that we would just see the Dr. and then IF he decided I needed treatment, we would get a treatment on the calendar. Well, the doctor saw me today and decided to begin treatment immediately. So, I had my first treatment today, I have my second one tomorrow. Yep, they treat on Sundays!
The treatment plan will run about 2 hours a day in the chamber, 6 days a week (I'll usually have Sundays off) and I will need between 40 and 60 treatments! That was a little sobering. Yes, the wound is really bad.
I felt such amazing peace throughout the treatment. When I finished, the doctor said almost no one does as well as I did on their first treatment. The treatment feels similar to the pressure one feels when scuba diving to about 33 feet. The pressure builds up in the ears and they have to be cleared over and over until the proper pressure is reached. By God's grace, I did so well that when I finished the doctor shook my hand and said, "Welcome to the United States Navy!" I think he feels I am ready to be a navy diver! It was funny. One of these times I am going to walk in wearing my diving mask and snorkel just to make them laugh.
My plastic surgeon called me at home tonight; he just got back from his vacation. He is going to see me in his office tomorrow! He wants to see the wound himself and make sure everything is okay with my expander. (I have amazing doctors. Who hears of a doctor willing to come into his office on a Sunday during his vacation AND on a three day weekend!! God's favor is amazing.) I will see him and then go directly over to the hospital for my hyperbaric treatment #2 of 40-60. This is going to be a bit of a long haul.
Here is a final piece of good news. The hyperbaric Dr. told Ron and me that studies show that patients who receive hyperbaric treatment after radiation typically do not have any lasting negative effects in their bodies from radiation treatment. Apparently, the cells that are damaged during radiation are restored and repaired during hyperbaric treatment. The significant increase in oxygen causes new blood supplies to appear, enables the cells to repair the damage that radiation does to the walls of blood vessels and stimulates stem cell growth in the bone marrow, just to name a few benefits. All kinds of things in the body heal as the cells are restored, even the immune system is regenerated. So, I was thinking, as I listened to the doctor, that perhaps this is God truly working ALL things together for good. Without the burn, I wouldn't have been able to have hyperbaric treatment. Through this treatment I am believing that God is going to restore all that was damaged during radiation as well as whatever else needs to be restored in my body, even my immune system. God is amazing! So while on one hand, 40-60 treatments is a bit daunting, but on the other hand, I am focusing on the blessing that this treatment will be in the long run.
One more thing, the name emblazoned on the outside of the hyperbaric chamber is "SECHRIST" over the top of a world map! At first glance, it looked like "see christ" over the nations of the world. It was really encouraging to both Ron and me.
Thank you so much for rallying around me in prayer. I can totally feel it!! with a grateful heart, Leslyn
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
I really need your prayer or A Tale of Woe
Lots has happened since my last post. The good thing is, I didn't end up getting sick, just didn't feel great for a couple of days but it did not develop into anything. That was an answer to prayer!
On Friday, I noticed my burn wound began to look weird and smell kind of funky (I think that is a medical term...lol) so I called the doctor and they couldn't see me until Monday. I spent the weekend soaking the wound in domeboro solution and saw Kathleen on Monday. She didn't like the way the wound looked either and started me on antibiotics.
Today, I went in for my Herceptin infusion and asked to see Kathleen again because everyone in my house agreed that the wound looked worse this morning. She got me in right away and again she agreed and was worried about the area I was worried about. A section had gotten deeper and was looking a weird color, somewhere between green and black. She put me on a stronger antibiotic and sent me to the wound care center. The Lord was gracious and I was able to get in there today even though they were booked solid until June! Thank you Lord!
I got to see a great doctor who specializes in wound care. It was a bit of a nightmare though. He had to clean the wound with a scalpel! Yes, I was awake, much to my dismay. He scrapped and scrapped to get off who knows what, I wasn't looking. Then he cut into the wound to cut out and clip off the necrotic skin...it was black because the tissue had died. The burn has now gone through all layers of skin and into the muscle...I thought it looked really deep. The blessing and silver lining in this is that the worst of it is where I am still numb from the surgery, so at least the deep cut part I didn't feel. The did numb the area some, but I could still feel it...trust me!
Tomorrow I need to go to a plastic surgeon that I don't know because my plastic surgeon is out of town. He needs to remove about half of the fluid from my left expander, the one that has remained expanded throughout the radiation. The doctor thinks if we get the tension off of the skin there that the wound might heal better.
He is also trying to see if he can get me into a hyperbaric chamber to super infuse my blood stream with oxygen to also help with the healing of the wound. That is major because apparently I will need to go 5 days a week for about 30 days. They are saying it could take weeks or months to heal a wound this bad. So you know a wound is bad when the wound doctor thinks it is.
So that is my tale of woe. I am really fighting being discouraged. I know the Lord is in control and I am putting my trust in Him. Do you remember when I shared awhile back that the Lord had given me a picture of being in the boat with Him in the midst of a huge storm and I was snuggled in with Him, asleep in the back of the boat because if the storm didn't worry Him it didn't worry me. Well, I saw myself in that same picture and I had put my head up and looked over the rail of the boat and saw the huge storm all around, with waves hitting the sides of the boat and splashing over the side and I felt fear. I looked back and saw Jesus still at peace and so, right now, I feel like I am in the place of crawling back to Him to lay back down beside Him. If He is at peace, I too want to be at peace too, so I am praying. Would you please pray too? I feel like I am about at the end of my coping capacity. Thank you for continuing to stand with me, I really need your support in prayer. gratefully, Leslyn
On Friday, I noticed my burn wound began to look weird and smell kind of funky (I think that is a medical term...lol) so I called the doctor and they couldn't see me until Monday. I spent the weekend soaking the wound in domeboro solution and saw Kathleen on Monday. She didn't like the way the wound looked either and started me on antibiotics.
Today, I went in for my Herceptin infusion and asked to see Kathleen again because everyone in my house agreed that the wound looked worse this morning. She got me in right away and again she agreed and was worried about the area I was worried about. A section had gotten deeper and was looking a weird color, somewhere between green and black. She put me on a stronger antibiotic and sent me to the wound care center. The Lord was gracious and I was able to get in there today even though they were booked solid until June! Thank you Lord!
I got to see a great doctor who specializes in wound care. It was a bit of a nightmare though. He had to clean the wound with a scalpel! Yes, I was awake, much to my dismay. He scrapped and scrapped to get off who knows what, I wasn't looking. Then he cut into the wound to cut out and clip off the necrotic skin...it was black because the tissue had died. The burn has now gone through all layers of skin and into the muscle...I thought it looked really deep. The blessing and silver lining in this is that the worst of it is where I am still numb from the surgery, so at least the deep cut part I didn't feel. The did numb the area some, but I could still feel it...trust me!
Tomorrow I need to go to a plastic surgeon that I don't know because my plastic surgeon is out of town. He needs to remove about half of the fluid from my left expander, the one that has remained expanded throughout the radiation. The doctor thinks if we get the tension off of the skin there that the wound might heal better.
He is also trying to see if he can get me into a hyperbaric chamber to super infuse my blood stream with oxygen to also help with the healing of the wound. That is major because apparently I will need to go 5 days a week for about 30 days. They are saying it could take weeks or months to heal a wound this bad. So you know a wound is bad when the wound doctor thinks it is.
So that is my tale of woe. I am really fighting being discouraged. I know the Lord is in control and I am putting my trust in Him. Do you remember when I shared awhile back that the Lord had given me a picture of being in the boat with Him in the midst of a huge storm and I was snuggled in with Him, asleep in the back of the boat because if the storm didn't worry Him it didn't worry me. Well, I saw myself in that same picture and I had put my head up and looked over the rail of the boat and saw the huge storm all around, with waves hitting the sides of the boat and splashing over the side and I felt fear. I looked back and saw Jesus still at peace and so, right now, I feel like I am in the place of crawling back to Him to lay back down beside Him. If He is at peace, I too want to be at peace too, so I am praying. Would you please pray too? I feel like I am about at the end of my coping capacity. Thank you for continuing to stand with me, I really need your support in prayer. gratefully, Leslyn
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Hit a rough patch
Well, no news was definitely not good news this time. I know it has been a long time since I have updated the blog, my radiation burns got pretty bad. I am finally healed enough that I am not taking copious amounts of Vicodin to be able to deal with the pain. I still have a fair amount of healing to go, but I am finally improving. (I spent about three days crying from the pain and then Kathleen, my nurse practitioner, gave me "the lecture" as she calls it about taking enough medication to keep the pain under control. I did much better after increasing my pain meds.)
The radiation continued to express itself in my skin for some time after my last post. I felt a little like I was on some sort of Sci-Fi horror movie as my skin was sort of melting off in globs in the areas where I received the intensive bolus treatment. The area was pretty large. It started at my sternum or breast bone and extended horizontally across my left breast, under the arm and around the back a couple of inches. Vertically, it started just below my collar bone down to about an inch or two below my breast. The area under my arm was incredibly painful, but has healed very well, it is just red and feels like a sunburn now. The area that is still pretty bad is right on the front of my left breast. It is an area about 3 to 4 inches by 3 to 4 inches. Hannah and I agreed it looks a little like the Grand Canyon. The whole thing is still raw and oozing with two very deep pockets. It seems to be healing very slowly. The deep areas are right in the spot where some of the skin had died after my double mastectomy. I think the skin that grew back must have still been pretty delicate and so burned more than the rest. At least that is my best guess as to why that area is so bad.
[For those of you with cancer who are reading and still have to go through radiation, the good news is that most people don't burn this badly. It is very likely that you won't experience what I have...I pray that is true for you! I am putting a couple of ointments on the burned areas that seem to be helping. Biafine seems to help the most. Just having the burn open to the air is also very helpful.]
Thank you for your prayers. I have so needed them and know that I got through this rough patch, as my Dad used to say, because you were carrying me in prayer. I am very, very thankful for you!! I have heard from several of you that the Lord had really put me on your heart over the past couple of weeks. Thank you for your faithfulness to respond to His leading by increasing your prayer coverage over me. You are amazing!
Please continue to pray for the area that is still so burned. It hurts and I will be very glad when it is healed. Also, today I have started feeling like I am coming down with something. It has gotten worse as the day has progressed. I am achy, have a headache, swollen glands and am a little stuffy. Please pray for complete and swift healing! Thank you so much!! lovingly, Leslyn
The radiation continued to express itself in my skin for some time after my last post. I felt a little like I was on some sort of Sci-Fi horror movie as my skin was sort of melting off in globs in the areas where I received the intensive bolus treatment. The area was pretty large. It started at my sternum or breast bone and extended horizontally across my left breast, under the arm and around the back a couple of inches. Vertically, it started just below my collar bone down to about an inch or two below my breast. The area under my arm was incredibly painful, but has healed very well, it is just red and feels like a sunburn now. The area that is still pretty bad is right on the front of my left breast. It is an area about 3 to 4 inches by 3 to 4 inches. Hannah and I agreed it looks a little like the Grand Canyon. The whole thing is still raw and oozing with two very deep pockets. It seems to be healing very slowly. The deep areas are right in the spot where some of the skin had died after my double mastectomy. I think the skin that grew back must have still been pretty delicate and so burned more than the rest. At least that is my best guess as to why that area is so bad.
[For those of you with cancer who are reading and still have to go through radiation, the good news is that most people don't burn this badly. It is very likely that you won't experience what I have...I pray that is true for you! I am putting a couple of ointments on the burned areas that seem to be helping. Biafine seems to help the most. Just having the burn open to the air is also very helpful.]
Thank you for your prayers. I have so needed them and know that I got through this rough patch, as my Dad used to say, because you were carrying me in prayer. I am very, very thankful for you!! I have heard from several of you that the Lord had really put me on your heart over the past couple of weeks. Thank you for your faithfulness to respond to His leading by increasing your prayer coverage over me. You are amazing!
Please continue to pray for the area that is still so burned. It hurts and I will be very glad when it is healed. Also, today I have started feeling like I am coming down with something. It has gotten worse as the day has progressed. I am achy, have a headache, swollen glands and am a little stuffy. Please pray for complete and swift healing! Thank you so much!! lovingly, Leslyn
Monday, April 27, 2009
Having a hard day
I will keep this short, but wanted to ask for specific prayer. The burning has gotten worse and is so very painful that I am feeling overwhelmed by it all today. I am not sleeping well, and I know that effects my ability to handle the pain emotionally. Please pray that I can sleep, please pray that the pain supernaturally is lifted and for swift and miraculous healing for the skin. I won't even go into how gross the burn is, but it is bad, much worse than I imagined it could get. I really need your extra support in prayer, it makes all the difference. Thank you.
Friday, April 24th was the last day of radiation
Good news! I was able to complete my radiation treatment on Friday!! Ron was going to take me, but needed to take Hannah to the doctor to get some antibiotics for a bacterial infection she developed, so Linda D. was kind enough to take me to my appointment. Thanks Linda!
I was able to take flowers in for my doctor and the amazing techs who have been so kind to me over the past six weeks. I feel like they are helping to save my life so the least I could do was give them flowers. They've been so nice and so kind. They are so funny, they call me "Jamie Lee" because they all think I look like Jamie Lee Curtis, and they call Ron "hallway man" because he often spent the time he was waiting for me to have my treatment out in the hallway making calls for our church, Lighthouse.
I am so grateful to be finished with treatment and so grateful to you for praying me through it all! They said that the burning, which is considerable, would get worse before it gets better. It is hard to imagine that because the burning is pretty bad already. They said it would take a couple of weeks before the healing begins. Radiation has a cumulative effect, so the burn I am experiencing today is from radiation they gave me a few weeks ago. I have a couple more weeks of radiation in me that still needs to works its way out.
Thank you for your continued prayer as I begin the healing phase. Love to you! Leslyn
I was able to take flowers in for my doctor and the amazing techs who have been so kind to me over the past six weeks. I feel like they are helping to save my life so the least I could do was give them flowers. They've been so nice and so kind. They are so funny, they call me "Jamie Lee" because they all think I look like Jamie Lee Curtis, and they call Ron "hallway man" because he often spent the time he was waiting for me to have my treatment out in the hallway making calls for our church, Lighthouse.
I am so grateful to be finished with treatment and so grateful to you for praying me through it all! They said that the burning, which is considerable, would get worse before it gets better. It is hard to imagine that because the burning is pretty bad already. They said it would take a couple of weeks before the healing begins. Radiation has a cumulative effect, so the burn I am experiencing today is from radiation they gave me a few weeks ago. I have a couple more weeks of radiation in me that still needs to works its way out.
Thank you for your continued prayer as I begin the healing phase. Love to you! Leslyn
Monday, April 20, 2009
Really, really burned
On Thursday my skin was so burned that the doctor wanted me to skip Friday's radiation treatment, which turned out to be a very good thing! By Saturday night my skin had blistered up pretty badly, on Sunday morning I woke up and my shirt was stuck to the skin. Before I realized what was actually going on, I pulled my shirt away from my chest and my skin tore off...oh my goodness did that hurt!!!! So I cried a lot on Sunday from the pain, I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had been treated on Friday. A dear friend reminded me that there is a Person who also had His skin torn off and that she knew He could help and bring healing...I so appreciate how Jesus intimately understands all that we suffer.
I went in to see the radiation oncologist this morning (thank you Jennifer for the ride!). My doctor wanted to see me before treatment to decide if they needed to delay treatment again. I am so burned that she wanted me to take today and tomorrow off. I will go in and see her on Wednesday to decide if they can treat me then. If so, I will have radiation on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and then I'll be finished. I am hoping that works. I would love to have this behind me.
Thank you for continuing to pray for healing and supernatural restoration of my skin, it hurts really badly.
I went in to see the radiation oncologist this morning (thank you Jennifer for the ride!). My doctor wanted to see me before treatment to decide if they needed to delay treatment again. I am so burned that she wanted me to take today and tomorrow off. I will go in and see her on Wednesday to decide if they can treat me then. If so, I will have radiation on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and then I'll be finished. I am hoping that works. I would love to have this behind me.
Thank you for continuing to pray for healing and supernatural restoration of my skin, it hurts really badly.
Friday, April 17, 2009
My hair is growing again!
I asked Hannah to take some pictures of me so that you could see my hair. It is finally growing in again. It is still really short and it has come in grayer than I expected but it is mine!! As my friend Mary L says, "any day with hair is a good hair day!"I still haven't decided if I am going to color it or just leave it gray. I think I will wait and see how it looks when it gets longer. I have been told that I am not supposed to color it or use a curling iron on it (not that there is enough to curl anyway!) for awhile. I guess that the hair is so new and fine that it damages it too much. It feels like baby hair. You can see that my eye lashes and brows have grown in too! It is all very exciting!! I have never enjoyed having hair so much in my life.
I included a picture of my sweet dog, Charley, because he has been my constant companion throughout my illness. He is never far away and has been so patient and sweet during my long and many days of bed rest and being house bound. He has been such a blessing from the Lord.
Thanks for your many prayers! My head of hair is a clear sign of the healing that is happening in my body and the recovery that is taking place after the chemotherapy.
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