Recovery in Progress!

We've got a few bits of good news to share:

First, we are one week into recovery from the surgery and things are going well. Every day Liz gains more strength, but her arm mobility is still very limited. She's up and walking and definitely feeling back to herself, but isn't able to lift more than a fork or remote control and still has bulky (bothersome) bandages. Liz is hoping to get the bandages off by the end of the week - this will mean she gets to take a shower!! She can't wait for that.

Next, we received a great call yesterday from Liz's surgeon, Dr. Akbari. We knew coming out of surgery that Liz's sentinel lymph node tested positive, requiring them to remove more lymph nodes for testing. You can imagine that this was not news we wanted to hear. We felt very relieved yesterday, though, when Dr. Akbari told us that of the other nodes, only one tested positive - and it contained only a "speck" of the cancer. Bottom line is that this was the best possible news to hear given the news coming out of surgery.

Finally, we had an appointment with the oncologist today to learn about Liz's treatment plan. She will be receiving chemotherapy every three weeks for 4 1/2 months - starting on Monday, November 30 and ending in April. Treatments will last 2-3 hours - the doctors told Liz to expect fatigue and hair loss but do not expect much nausea. We are hoping this is the case, and are very happy to have the plan laid out for us.

We want to close by thanking all the family and friends who have helped us over the past week to keep food on the table and the house in good order! We are also so grateful for all the prayers, cards, flowers, emails and support that we know we are receiving from you all. We are truly blessed.

We'll leave you with a picture of Carter at his last soccer game of the season this past Saturday - he loved his fourth season with Coach Lamb, and he can't wait to start basketball next week!