What's up with those Finfers?

First and foremost...apologies for not updating this earlier.
Second and nextmost...here's how it looks from here:

We went up to Stanford this past Thursday, September 4th.
Dr. Wapnir, who performed Deb's surgery went on vacation, so we were meeting with her "fellow," Dr. Chow, (who also helped perform the surgery) - who both Deb and I totally dig. Very easy to talk with, which is always a benefit for anyone in the medical profession, let alone a surgeon. Dr. Chow said Deb is healing well and removed her drains. This news came with great relief, until she actually removed the 1st drain. In Deb's words, if she didn't like her (Dr. Chow) so much, she would have hit her. Fortunately, the remaining 2 drains were removed without incident as well. That should alleviate some of Deb's discomfort...

So, now that that was taken care of, on to how Deb's doing in general. That discussion resulted in a slight tweak of the meds Deb's been prescribed and we're hoping that the Percocet treats her better than the Vicodin. Deb is also very fond of the valium. ;)

Next was the initial pathology from the surgery. The finalized version should hopefully be completed in time for our Wednesday visit with Dr. Yen (Oncologist, in Santa Cruz). The tumor was bigger than anyone hoped or expected (except for Deb, who hit it spot on from our first appointments when asked how big she thought it was)anyhow, the tumor came in at 5 1/2 cm. 24 total lymph nodes were removed from her right armpit. Of those, 5 showed cancerous symptoms. We knew of 2 on the day of the surgery, and all that I'm reading tells me that your course of treatment will be the same if even a single node was found to have the characteristics. The thing is, once cancer is found in lymph nodes, the next question that gets asked is, "where did it go from there?" and that's the real question. Dr. Yen will help us try to find that answer. So we're looking at more tests, scans, and the usual annoying path to discovery on these types of things. The course of treatment is also still to be determined, but after speaking with the surgeon and nurses at Stanford, and speaking with Dr. Yen on the phone yesterday afternoon, in addition to the series of scans to see if we can't figure out where, if anywhere, this cancer has spread, a course of chemotherapy will be followed by radiation. Treatment can't begin until Deb's healed from the surgery (which takes about 4 weeks on average or 3 weeks from now +/-). That's the end of September if my counting is right.

So that's about what we know now. Next, as I mentioned, will be to meet with Dr. Yen on Wednesday to go over the full pathology report and begin developing our plan to get Deb healthy again.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....
Wendy went back to Eureka and it was kind of scary to watch her go. We SO SO SO appreciate that she put her life on hold to come and help with ours. Grateful doesn't quite sum it up.

Mike has been stepping into the role of "toddler caretaker" very gracefully. Ryan has what seems to be a crush on Mike. In fact, after Mike helped me get Ryan into the bath the other night and left just Ryan blurted out "Love Mike". I swear it was the first time I've ever heard her use the "L" word. She's signed it before, but the first verbal use was directed towards him. Gotta love that.

The food continues to roll in. Have I mentioned the food? Personally, and familially speaking, we're just blown away by people's generosity. I could individually list, but you all know who you are and how you have such special delicious places in our hearts.

But, the question on all of our minds, "How's Deb?"...here's my take on "how Deb is":
Deb's fine. She's sore and in some discomfort and on meds still (they make her high) and tired after she does stuff, but she's Deb. She's in good spirits and just trying to gain some sense of normalcy given how abnormal everything has been around her and around here. Basically, it sucks. Cancer sucks. We're just going day by day, trying to have as much fun as possible, which is very real and very normal for people like us.

So you all know, Deb really wanted to write this herself and will read every word of this before you do and I know she just really wants everyone to know how much she appreciates each and every one of you. Your love, support, generosity, friendship and willingness to listen mean so much to her, Ryan and me.

In our continued effort to stay distracted and busy, we'll be hosting Granmda and Papa K starting Thursday and I can't wait for them to hear Ry belt out "Pop K" -- pretty cute stuff. On Saturday the 13th we'll all be here to celebrate Ryan's 2 year birthday and we can't wait!

That's about it for now.
With much love from Sunny (and hot) Santa Cruz,
Howie (& Deb)