My wife, Keri Haberstroh, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 25. It was March of 2005, and we had been married for nine months.
My name is Doug, and I am here to tell Keri's breast cancer story, from start to finish. That is what Keri would have wanted -- to share what we learned as a young couple in love, fighting breast cancer, and living life as best we could.
In this first set of emails, Keri discusses her plans for chemotherapy and surgery to remove the tumor in her breast; I try to keep Keri laughing, as she anticipates starting her chemo.
Subject: Surgery Info
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 9:32 AM
Hi,
Just some FYI -- my surgery to remove the tumor is supposed to take place next Wednesday April 6. It should happen around 10:00 am, although I am after a couple of other patients of the same surgeon, so it may run later. It should only take one hour, though I will be there a couple of hours ahead of time.
Also, I'll be staying an hour and a half afterwards, so they can monitor me before I get to go home. Doug will be with me as much as they'll let him.
If you want to call during or right after my surgery to check on how things went I have a phone number to Gulf Coast Medical Center and a passcode to give you. You have to have the passcode to find out any information. The phone number is (850) 769-____ and the passcode is ____. If for some reason you can't find this number you can always just call Doug's cell phone (850) 819-____, and see if he answers. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I'm sure everything will turn out just fine. Talk to you later.
Love to you all,
Keri
Subject: Update on Keri
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 5:03 PM
Hello All,
Just wanted to let everyone know of the update on my treatment. The doctors want me to do my chemotherapy first. They say I will respond better to it now instead of after a major surgery and that it decreases the risk of it spreading during surgery. Basically it's going to kill off any active cancer cells that are in my body.
They put in what's called a life port, which is a long "straw" that starts around my collarbone area and goes down near my heart. It's all under the skin. This is what they use to give me the chemo drugs. They just tap into that instead of giving me an IV each time. I will go every two weeks for the next 12-16 weeks. It takes two days each time because they have two drugs they are giving me that they do not want to mix.
After my chemo is done I will still be going to have a modified radical mastectomy. This means that they take off everything except the muscle that is still attached to my chest wall. As of yet I don't know when the surgery will take place, since it will be in a few months because of the chemo. After that surgery we will look into more surgery for breast reconstruction.
