Posted 2016-08-05T16:59:00Z

Another Battle Fought, Another Battle Won!

For those of you who have been through this sort of thing you know what post-surgery is like waiting for pathology reports. For those of you who haven’t I hope you never have to wait to hear those two words you are hoping to hear.

PATHOLOGY NEGATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just because the surgery went well doesn’t mean much if they didn’t get all the cancer or that it spread from the original tumor site. But for Shannon that’s not the case.

If you like doctor lingo:

“Multiple lymph nodes are negative for metastatic carcinoma. The surgical resection margins are negative for tumor”

If you like it in laymen’s terms:

They got all the cancer and there is no sign that it has spread!

This is the best result Shannon could have gotten from the Chemo, Chemo-radiation & Surgery.

Shannon is making small steps each day towards feeling better. We are hoping we head home tomorrow.

So what’s next?

Get discharged and head home to St Paul.
6 Weeks of surgical recovery and during that time we will be doing the following R&R.
- We have some dear friends from TX coming to visit mid-August.
- A trip to California to visit Kim & Dave and then Camp Hollywood (Shannon has been working towards being healthy enough to attend and it will be much needed break for both of us)
Sept 7 we have an appointment with Shannon’s team at Regions to plan her post-surgical treatment
- Most likely 4 more rounds of chemotherapy in case any cancer may have been missed in surgery.
After this??????????
- I think a trip to Hawaii or France or both may be in order.

Thank everyone so much for their support of Shannon and I. We couldn’t have come this far without all you pulling for us. I can’t overstate enough that this is not the outcome we were told to expect when we started treatment. But so many things had to line up to get to today. Shannon still has a long way to for full recovery and if there was one thing I learned in the military it’s that the first day isn’t the hardest it’s the last. We haven’t reached the last day yet…

This does not mean that she is cancer free or in remission yet. Just that the pathology results from surgery were negative.

But for today CELEBRATE A VICTORY! Battles are continuing to be won on our way to winning the war and this one was hard fought. Feels like this picture for this post is appropriate. Shannon has planted her flag on three hard fought battles on the way to final decisive attack that will break the enemies back and result in total victory. But now it is time to regroup and concentrate or forces for the final assault on our way to V.S. day.

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Another Battle Fought, Another Battle Won!

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