Surgery!

Dear Friends and Family --

This has been a great day for us -- and was a real confirmation of how truly blessed we have been.
Rebecca had surgery today to remove her cancerous tumor. It could not have gone better.
The MRI that Rebecca had about a week and a half ago showed that chemotherapy had successfully reduced the size of her tumor by about 1/3. Our oncologist and surgeon had also both expressed how much the tumor had softened up and become indistinguishable from the other tissue around it. This was a good sign, showing that the chemotherapy had been killing off the cancer.
We got to Huntsman this morning at about 7am. Rebecca first had to have a "wire localization" done -- which is a little procedure in which a doctor, guided by a mammogram, inserts a wire inside a needle into the breast tissue ending just behind the location of the tumor. The wire lets surgeon know exactly how deep to cut to remove the tumor, and is removed with the excised tumor. This insertion is not a pleasant experience, because the wire goes in a good 2 to 3 inches. But Rebecca endured this well.
A couple of hours later, Rebecca also received 2 shots of a radioactive agent, one directly behind the nipple and another just under the skin. The radioactive dye is absorbed by the breast tissue and then drains into the lymphatic system. During surgery, the doctors use a Geiger counter to trace the dye back through the lymph nodes so they can locate, remove, and biopsy each lymph node until they are certain that the cancer has not spread beyond that point. In a lumpectomy, they typically expect to remove at least 3 and usually up to 6 lymph nodes to be certain it has not spread.
We were supposed to have surgery at 12:30pm, but unscheduled emergencies delayed Rebecca's surgery until 4:20 in the afternoon. (This became quite a "fast" for us, since neither of us had eaten since the night before, and Rebecca couldn't have anything to eat or drink before surgery.)
An hour and a half later, the surgeon came out (just before 6pm) to give me the results. Not only did she say that everything had gone extremely well, but she said that the tumor had actually shrunk more than what the MRI had indicated (probably 50% instead of only 33%), and that it appeared to be completely localized. They easily removed the tumor and a "clear margin" around it. In addition, the radioactive dye, instead of lighting up several lymph nodes, all collected in a single ("sentinel") lymph node. They removed just that one lymph node -- and it tested clear of cancer -- completely negative! Of course, we had already expected from prior tests that the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes -- but to have to remove only one is rare, and extremely positive. It's less invasive and does not even require a drain.
These results are better than we could have imagined or reasonably asked for.
But here's another amazing part. I met Rebecca in recovery at about 6:30. By 7:30, we were on our way home! Rebecca is now sleeping peacefully in her own bed, with the calm assurance that everything went just as well as it possibly could have.
I want to share with you my belief that we have been so blessed and sustained by our Savior during this whole trial. During some of our darkest hours in the days early after the discovery of Rebecca's cancer, and well before we had even completed the diagnostics or had a plan to treat this disease, Rebecca received a blessing from our Stake President. In this blessing, the first thing he had stated was that he "felt very impressed to tell Rebecca that her cancer would go into remission, and that she would be OK." It was a bold thing for him to promise at that time, but we know that the Spirit of the Lord, who sees all things, had guided him.
A couple of weeks ago, after her final chemotherapy, Rebecca told me that "we're going to beat this disease! We're going to win!" I told her then, that she may not have recognized it yet, but that we had actually already won this battle on the night she had received the President's blessing. Before we even had known the stage or progress of her cancer, we had been promised that it would be OK. And since then, every diagnosis, test, and treatment has worked in our favor. It has not been an easy journey at all, and Rebecca has certainly received excellent medical care -- but we have travelled this path in faith that things would work out -- and they are. Some might call this luck, but we believe it is because of the faith, prayers, fasting, service, positive attitude, and love of all of you who have done these things on Rebecca's behalf.
We are not done yet -- Rebecca will need a couple of weeks to recover, and then 6 weeks of radiation will commence in about a month. But we are already confident of the outcome.
We have been so impressed and humbled by the generous support, compassion, and sacrifices that so many of you have shown us during this trial. Our hearts our so filled, and we are so honored to call you our Friends. Thank you all so much for you kindness and help.
May you all be as blessed as we have been . . .

Love,
Mark