good news

This is Greg here, with my first ever blog post. We expect to get the final pathology report on Sunday, but they seem fairly confident that the lymph nodes are negative and there is "favorable histology". They are testing Ella for two genetic markers, which they will have the results of in about one month. If she is negative for these, which the majority of patients are, her overall 5 year survival rate is 98.4% !!! If she is positive for these, this lowers her overall 5 year survival to 90.5%, so they would offer to enroll her in another study where they would intensify her chemo regimen and possibly add radiation. Today, Ella also got her nasogastric tube, her epidural and her foley catheter out, so she looks like a new woman. Now her main complaint is extreme hunger, and since she has not eaten since Monday, we can definitely sympathize. We hope they will start to give her some ice chips and maybe a popsicle tomorrow. Sometime next week we will begin her chemo. It will consist of 14 treatments of 2 drugs, given over 19 weeks. It will be done on an outpatient basis, so we will get to stay at home in Bellingham, which is wonderful. She will be followed with periodic ultrasounds to make sure the cancer does not recur.