First Checkup- Pathology Report

We are now 5 days removed from Aly's surgery and she is getting better. I think it is safe to say that we may have understood what they would be doing in function but now so much as a whole what exactly this surgery took to make happen.

As Aly has recovered we have come to realize that whatever they go in and do must be quite a little task because Aly has not been able to beat the soreness and pain. That could be a combination of the actual surgery but is also going to be an ongoing pain where the drains exit her body.

For those that do not know what these drains look like I will try and describe on some level what they are. Take a drinking straw and make it about 2-3 feet long, attach a hand size plastic balloon on one end and put the other end where you want the fluid to drain from. They literally make a 2-3 inch cut in her side halfway between hip and armpit, insert the drain tubes and sew them in place. There are 5 of these drains that are always draining fluid from inside of Aly and are kind of pulling her skin. Sounds painful, looks painful so needless to say we are ready for them to go.

We will leave tomorrow after church and head to Houston for appointments on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday morning we will meet with Dr. Litton who is Aly's medical oncologist. We hope to get the pathology report on the breast tissue that was removed and also the results of the lymph nodes. We have been told that when you have a lymph node di-section and run pathology on them even after chemo you have a 20-40% chance of being cancer free in those lymph nodes. That means by medical definition there is a 60-80% chance of there being residual disease in those lymph nodes. We believe God has put Aly in the percent of patients that have no residual disease whatsoever. We ask that you pray with us that this is the case.

On Tuesday we will meet with Aly's surgical oncologist and also her plastic surgeon. In those meetings we will hear how Aly is actually healing after the surgery. According to how the drains are acting there is a chance that Aly could get some of them removed if not all of them. Needless to say we are praying and believing also that Aly be able to get some of the drains removed if not all of them.

Thank you all for believing with us that God has healed Aly and that on Monday or Tuesday we get further confirmation of that.

Here is Aly in the spot she has occupied for the last few days. The note you see is from Anna Cate Miller.

Lord, give me faith like a child.