Ill news is an ill guest.

I hate bad news, so I've put off sending out this email for as long as possible. My last MRI showed an increase in the size of the tumor in my breast. Basically it's no longer responding to treatment. To prevent it from spreading again Dr. Lee and I have decided to go ahead with a mastectomy of the left breast. The surgery is scheduled for Friday September 8th; I'll spend one night in the hospital, and will be taking 2 weeks off work to recoup. The strange thing is that it appears as though the tumor in the liver and lymph nodes is still responding to the chemo. It's atypical, but not much about my case has been typical. Until the scans show otherwise, I'm going to keep having treatment every 4 weeks as usual with the mini-treatment at the half way point. Hope is not all lost, but this is certainly a set-back. It's hard to look at the removal of my breast as a positive, but I think in the long run it will turn out to be the best decision. Now if only the liver will continue to respond to the chemo I'll still be progressing towards remission.