First Post

Hi Everyone.

I created this blog so that we can communicate our happenings with you, the people that we know, love and want to keep in the loop.

As you may or may not yet know, Deb was diagnosed with Breast Cancer on August 1. Yes, Jerry Day will be forever scarred in our memories.

Here's how I remember it thus far. Some weeks back, Deb told me she felt a lump in her right breast. She let me feel it. It felt lumpy. Her primary care physician advised her to go through a cycle and see if it diminished; possibly a clogged milk duct. After her period, when the lump was still there, she need to get an ultrasound. Can't mammogram a nursing mom. Ultrasound showed that it needed to be checked more.
Thursday, July 30 we went to Dominican Breast Center in Santa Cruz where they attempted to aspirate the lump with a needle. The goal here is to pull liquid from the lump. If they were able to that would have proven that the lump was not solid, but no liquid came out. Next step is to biopsy the tissue. They use a larger needle and take what's called a "core biopsy". The results were to take 48 business hours. i.e. Monday we'd know more.

Friday, Aug 1 we went to meet old Slavin family friends, the DeCuir's (sorry, might be spelled wrong, but certainly not out of disrespect) at the SanFrancisco Zoo. We were having an enjoyable enough visit when my phone vibrated from an unfamiliar number. Normally I don't answer those calls, but saw it was from the 831 and decided to pick it up. It was Dr. Herman, our primary care physician asking if we were in town - she wanted to come to the house. Instantly I'm asking what's up and she only said that she didn't want to talk on the phone and to call her when we get home and not to mention anything to Deb. Ugh.
So we drove from the Zoo down highway 1...Deb drove, I sat in the back seat not saying much staring at the ocean. When we got home, I called Dr. Herman who was knocking on our door less than 15 minutes later. She apologized for the bad news she was delivering, but once she found out, couldn't let us wait until Monday to hear this news from the radiologist, who we have no relationship with. Above and beyond the call of duty - making a house call after 6pm on a Friday.

We took the rest of the weekend in stride as much as possible and went to meet Oncologist, Dr. Yen on Monday afternoon. He is young and was very communicative and clear (and wore one of the nicest business shirt I've ever come close to touching ;-) Anyway, he went over our treatment options with us and answered our questions. He's referred us to a surgeon at Stanford, with whom we'll meet tomorrow morning at 9:15 to solidify our situation and scheduling for treating this.

For the most part, we're in good spirits. We'll put our heads down and beat this thing. Every single day. Almost immediately Deb has had to begun weaning Ryan....first by eliminating the night feedings and at this point, Ryan is only nursing right before bed and right when she wakes up. It's unfortunate that we're forced to wean, and at a rather stressful time, but we're all glad that Deb's been able to supply nutritious mama-milk for almost 2 years. I can't begin to communicate how proud I am of her (and Ryan) for learning to nurse and sticking with it EVERY DAY for so long. Ryan is lucky to have such a dedicated maternal figure in her world.

Besides our obvious concern for Deb's health is our concern for how this will effect Ryan - not just in her future as a girl and woman, but how this time of adversity will undoubtedly create a more unsettled world for her in the coming days. We'll do what we have to do and are very fortunate to have an excellent support group of family and friends and an amazing roll model in Deb's Mom so close to us. Many of you may know that Diana herself is a Breast Cancer survivor of over 20 years. Inspiration indeed.

The purpose of this blog is so that Deb doesn't need to tell the same thing to a bunch of people everyday - we love that you're all concerned and interested, but this will be a better method for us to make sure everyone is in the loop throughout this time. My hope is that eventually this space becomes one where we can share the cool awesome fun things that we do as a family. I look forward to many posts about how many ducks we fed at the pond and what we ate for dinner last night, etc...but until then, it's our space to share our happenings, thoughts, plans, feelings and observations with you all.