Ashley Update: Thursday am In Surgery

They took Ashley in for surgery to remove brain tumors at about 8:15 am CST. Surgery is expected to take about 5 hours.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Ashley and Lillian Grace Denby Update: 5/7/2011

Ashley went for her follow-up visit with her surgeon, Dr Albo, on Friday. The results of the biopsies of the 30 lymph nodes Dr Albo removed from under her left arm: no malignancies! This is the best possible outcome for someone with stage 3 cancer; survival and cancer recurrence odds are directly related to the number of cancerous lymph nodes found. Dr Albo left the drain in her wound at least until next Wednesday; he’ll evaluate it then — he may need to open it back up to do some cleaning, but it appears to be healing well.

Last Wednesday, Ashley’s plastic surgeon checked the wound on her back from her original surgery; while overall healing is going well, the skin graft failed (largely as a result of movement and pressure related to further testing and surgery), so he removed what was left, and will do another skin graft in a few weeks. While she has to change (with help, of course) the bandages and dressings on that wound three times a day, she no longer needs to keep it completely dry; this means she can take a more or less normal shower.

We don’t have any current measurements of Lillian, but she appears to be growing like a weed. She is sleeping very well at night (mostly) and is in constant motion when awake. She can skooch across the floor on her back and roll over and over; she is trying to crawl, but not quite there yet. She quite suddenly developed an interest in the three cats who inhabit her home: the cats aren’t very happy about this development. While Ashley still can’t pick her up or hold her, Lillian lights up whenever Mom walks into the room.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Ashley and Lillian Grace Denby Update: 4/25/2011

Ashley went to University General Hospital this morning and had the lymph nodes under her left arm removed by Dr Daniel Albo. The operation took about four and a half hours; Dr Albo said it went very well. Some of the lymph nodes were inflamed: this could indicate that they were cancerous; it could also be a reaction to the earlier surgery on her back to remove the melanoma; the lymph nodes will be biopsied, and when Ashley goes to visit her oncologist, Dr Jorge Darcourt, in a couple of weeks, she’ll find out the results of those biopsies, and those results will help determine the appropriate follow-up treatment.

During her last surgery, Ashley reacted badly to the anesthesia, and was very nauseated. This time, the nurse anesthetist attacked the nausea aggressively and she was not nearly as sick. She had some nausea, and is in quite a bit of pain, but is lucid with occasional flashes of humor, and very much relieved to have the cancer out of her body. Josh was with her all day, and Nancy, Ashley’s mom, is staying overnight in the hospital with her.  Josh’s mom, Peggy, came down from Huntington again to take care of Lillian (who absolutely adores having her here) and Josh went home to spend some time with the baby and get some well deserved sleep. Lillian continues to do very well — she’s a happy baby (though she hopes her mom will hurry up and get well) and has adapted quickly and cheerfully (mostly) to all the stresses and strains and changes brought on by mom’s illness. There’s a video on the blog, Peek-a-boo with Dad, of her cheering everyone up.

One of the things we are going to have a hard time doing is thanking everyone adequately for the tremendous support you have given us. For food and prayers and kind words: thank you!

Ashley and Lillian Grace Denby Update:4/7/2011

Ashley went to University General Hospital early yesterday morning. After registering and filling out pages and pages of forms, she went to the hospital’s imaging center. There the technicians injected dyes and markers into her back and scanned the movement of them. They showed that drainage from the melanoma area potentially affected the lymph nodes on her left side — moderately good news. At noon, she went into surgery and went under anesthesia. Her surgeon removed the sentinel lymph node on her left side (i.e., the first node the scan indicated might be affected) for biopsy. Then he removed all the tissue around the site of her melanoma, and removed a suspicious mole from her head. After that, the plastic surgeon took skin from her left thigh and applied it to the wound site on her back. He covered it with a special film and installed tubes that lead to a small pump. She’ll have this pump for the next 7 days. If I understand correctly, it creates a slight vacuum and will remove some fluid from the wound site and slowly pull the wound together so that the divot in her back will be smaller.

Her doctors considered the surgeries a success and, after several hours of recovery, they let her go home. (She could have stayed the night, but did not want to stay a second longer than absolutely necessary). She is uncomfortable, in some pain and still a little nauseated from the anesthesia, but more or less coherent (and cranky!). She’ll go back to the plastic surgeon next Wednesday for removal of the pump on her back, and to the surgeon a week from Friday, when she should learn the results of the various biopsies. We hope that the cancer has not spread, of course; if it has, she will have to have some additional surgery, at least. Josh stayed with her, of course, and was a great comfort; he is the expert on her back pump and learned how to change her various dressings and care for her wounds.

 

Rice cereal... I like to wear it as well as eat it...

Lillian spent the day with her grandma Peggy, an experienced and very capable baby-wrangler. Her Houston grandparents came and helped for part of the day. Lillian loved all the attention (she is a bit of a ham) and did very well. She was not very happy about the abrupt switch from breast to bottle, but eventually gave in — babies are wonderfully adaptive creatures.

 

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Ashley and Lillian Grace Denby Update: 3/30/2010

In the great outdoors...

Lillian Grace continues to grow and flourish: she now weighs just over 14 pounds, loves to smile and laugh and sticks her tongue out at all and sundry. Ashley and Josh take her outside regularly; she loves to ride in her stroller, particularly if the path is bumpy. When you put her down on her back, she’ll do one of two things: either try to eat her feet or roll over and try to crawl. Sometimes she sleeps through the night and sometimes she doesn’t; however, her appetite never flags.

Resting from my labors....

Ashley met her surgeon and plastic surgeon today. She will have surgery Wednesday, April 6th, to remove a large area around and underneath the site of her melanoma; the tissue removed will be biopsied at the margins to ensure that they have removed all the cancer (if not, she’ll have to go back to have more tissue removed); then the plastic surgeon will take skin from her thigh and make a skin graft to cover the wound. Her surgeon also discovered another mole on her scalp that he will remove at the same time and have biopsied. The surgeon will also conduct a couple of tests using isotopes and dyes to help determine whether the cancer has spread to her lymph nodes: he’ll remove any suspicious areas and have them biopsied: the results take about a week; if they are positive for cancer, she’ll face further surgery and additional therapies.

Her surgeon (Dr Albo of the Baylor Clinic) expects that she will take about 7 to 10 days to recover from this first surgery (she’ll have some pain and will have to protect the healing wound). She may be able to come home the day of the surgery, though she may also have to spend a night in the hospital.

Thanks for your prayers and support.