Hello there,
Larry's pacemaker surgery went very well yesterday and he is recovering nicely! He did GREAT, and today, you'd never know he went through anything, other than the bandage on his chest! I am so proud of him! And we are both very grateful for all your prayers!
Love to all,
Deb
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
And here's the latest!
Hi all,
Once again, I'd like to ask for your prayers and thoughts for us. Tomorrow, my Larry goes into the hospital for a brand-new pacemaker. The heart doctor anticipates no problems and expects that all will go very routinely. It is an out-patient procedure, and should take only about an hour. But your prayers are still so appreciated, so thank you in advance! Larry means everything to me, and I just want him to be, and remain, WELL!
Meanwhile, I got a good report from my plastic surgeon today. He thinks I will need only one more reconstructive surgery instead of two. I am healing nicely, and all restrictions for my activities have been lifted -- that is, except for the limitations place on me by my fractured foot!
So thank you everyone, for everything! For continuing to pray, to think of us, and to always be supporting us! This last year-and-a-half has been a bit rocky, but things are looking up for us now!
Love to all,
Deb 33333333
Once again, I'd like to ask for your prayers and thoughts for us. Tomorrow, my Larry goes into the hospital for a brand-new pacemaker. The heart doctor anticipates no problems and expects that all will go very routinely. It is an out-patient procedure, and should take only about an hour. But your prayers are still so appreciated, so thank you in advance! Larry means everything to me, and I just want him to be, and remain, WELL!
Meanwhile, I got a good report from my plastic surgeon today. He thinks I will need only one more reconstructive surgery instead of two. I am healing nicely, and all restrictions for my activities have been lifted -- that is, except for the limitations place on me by my fractured foot!
So thank you everyone, for everything! For continuing to pray, to think of us, and to always be supporting us! This last year-and-a-half has been a bit rocky, but things are looking up for us now!
Love to all,
Deb 33333333
Friday, September 17, 2010
Uh oh ... more prayers, please!
Well hello, it's me again, asking for more prayers, but at least it's not life or death this time.
Last week, I found that the pain I'd been experiencing in my left shoulder was the result of some torn tendons. Ugh. Then today, I found out that the pain I've been experiencing in my left foot is because the darn thing is broken in two places! Who knows how I did it, but somehow, I did. Geeze.
Also, my Larry is having a new pacemaker implanted on Tuesday, Sept 21. Big-time prayers for us that day!
I'll keep you all posted as to our progress around here! I'll bet you're not surprised to learn that our medical deductible was met in full last APRIL!
Love and thanks to all,
Deb
Last week, I found that the pain I'd been experiencing in my left shoulder was the result of some torn tendons. Ugh. Then today, I found out that the pain I've been experiencing in my left foot is because the darn thing is broken in two places! Who knows how I did it, but somehow, I did. Geeze.
Also, my Larry is having a new pacemaker implanted on Tuesday, Sept 21. Big-time prayers for us that day!
I'll keep you all posted as to our progress around here! I'll bet you're not surprised to learn that our medical deductible was met in full last APRIL!
Love and thanks to all,
Deb
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Reconstructive Surgery Done!
I'm Baaaack!
I am pretty hacked up, but I am here! Whew, that "latissimus flap" surgery was NO picnic! I feel like a stabbing victim; I have pretty large incisions all over the place, I think there are 5 or 6 in all. But my surgery seems to have been a success and the transferred skin seems to be "taking." THANK GOD! I am still very sore, and I still have a drain in (two weeks post surgery now) to drain blood and other fluids. I am soooo eager to get this drain OUT!
Overall though, I seem to be recovering pretty well. I still can't do a whole lot and still have to take it easy, espeically because the output in my drain is still very high. So, I rest a lot, as I have for pretty much the last year.
Larry remains my angel and has the patience of a saint. He takes excellent care of me, and I am sooooo blessed. The Lord knew what He was doing when He put Larry in my path! A heartfelt, loving thank you goes out to Larry, the best husband in the world!
I want to thank all of you for the cards and messages. After all this time, I still get them from you guys, and trust me when I say that I just can't express what those well-wishes mean to me. Thank you ever so much, from my heart.
Getting tired now, so I'll sign off. I just wanted to thank you all for keeping me going throughout this challenging journey! My road would have been a LOT tougher without all this support!
Love to all,
Deb 333333333333
I am pretty hacked up, but I am here! Whew, that "latissimus flap" surgery was NO picnic! I feel like a stabbing victim; I have pretty large incisions all over the place, I think there are 5 or 6 in all. But my surgery seems to have been a success and the transferred skin seems to be "taking." THANK GOD! I am still very sore, and I still have a drain in (two weeks post surgery now) to drain blood and other fluids. I am soooo eager to get this drain OUT!
Overall though, I seem to be recovering pretty well. I still can't do a whole lot and still have to take it easy, espeically because the output in my drain is still very high. So, I rest a lot, as I have for pretty much the last year.
Larry remains my angel and has the patience of a saint. He takes excellent care of me, and I am sooooo blessed. The Lord knew what He was doing when He put Larry in my path! A heartfelt, loving thank you goes out to Larry, the best husband in the world!
I want to thank all of you for the cards and messages. After all this time, I still get them from you guys, and trust me when I say that I just can't express what those well-wishes mean to me. Thank you ever so much, from my heart.
Getting tired now, so I'll sign off. I just wanted to thank you all for keeping me going throughout this challenging journey! My road would have been a LOT tougher without all this support!
Love to all,
Deb 333333333333
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Winding Down
Well hello everyone,
You may or may not have noticed I am winding down on my blog entries. As I said before, one reason is because I have kind of moved over to Facebook and put small entries regarding my condition on there every now and then, as well as other bits of info. But, you all have been with me for an entire year now, do you believe it? Yes, my mastectomy was Aug 6, 2009; and here we are an entire YEAR later! It's gone slow, but fast too, if that makes any sense.
I am scheduled for my reconstructive surgery this Thursday, Aug 12. It is not going to be an easy surgery. The doctor tells me it will be very much like another mastectomy in terms of pain and recovery (4-6 weeks). But I will get through it, and that is largely due to your thoughts, prayers, encouragement and love, all of which have given me more strength than I can express.
There've been some unexpected bumps along my journey. A year ago, when doctors implanted a "tissue expander" at the time of my mastectomy, its purpose was to stretch the skin I'd lost, so that there would be enough skin to cover an eventual implant when reconstruction took place. However, at the time of my mastectomy, they did not know that I would need radiation. Radiation shrinks the skin, and sure enough, that's what happened to me. So although I went through weeks and months of "fills" in my expander to stretch the skin, radiation virtually undid any progress made in stretching. Therefore, my reconstructive surgery will be the "latissimus flap" procedure. Yikes! The plastic surgeon will make an incision in my back at the bra line. He'll leave the skin connected because it needs a blood supply. He will then "tunnel" through, and pull that skin out another incision in the front, and stretch that skin over an implant. OUCH! And of course, the doctor will remove this God-awful tissue expander that's been in there for a whole year, replacing it with the implant. The expander is hard to the touch, and even harder now, since my skin has shrunk around it. That has made it even more painful and uncomfortable, so as frightened as I am of my upcoming surgery, I am just as happy that the expander will be HISTORY!
I am so blessed to have a spouse, my Larry, who has been by my side and never faltered in my care this entire time. He remains my angel. And he is prepared to continue to care for me throughout the journey of this next surgery too. I thank God for him. I also thank God for all of my family and friends, who have cheered me on along this difficult road! How will I ever be able to thank all of you??? Please know that I remember all of you in my prayers every night, and I don't take for granted the blessings you all have bestowed upon me in being there for me. THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES!
I don't know when I'll be back on here again. As I said, if this upcoming surgery is like the mastectomy, as I have been told, it will be hard to use my right hand again (and just when I was getting used to the "new normal" of its limited mobility and its numbness!). But as soon as I am able, I will inform all of you of my progress and recovery. In the meantime, I thank all of you in advance for your prayers and well-wishes, and for your loyalty in guiding me down this road. I love you all.
Love, Deb 33333333
You may or may not have noticed I am winding down on my blog entries. As I said before, one reason is because I have kind of moved over to Facebook and put small entries regarding my condition on there every now and then, as well as other bits of info. But, you all have been with me for an entire year now, do you believe it? Yes, my mastectomy was Aug 6, 2009; and here we are an entire YEAR later! It's gone slow, but fast too, if that makes any sense.
I am scheduled for my reconstructive surgery this Thursday, Aug 12. It is not going to be an easy surgery. The doctor tells me it will be very much like another mastectomy in terms of pain and recovery (4-6 weeks). But I will get through it, and that is largely due to your thoughts, prayers, encouragement and love, all of which have given me more strength than I can express.
There've been some unexpected bumps along my journey. A year ago, when doctors implanted a "tissue expander" at the time of my mastectomy, its purpose was to stretch the skin I'd lost, so that there would be enough skin to cover an eventual implant when reconstruction took place. However, at the time of my mastectomy, they did not know that I would need radiation. Radiation shrinks the skin, and sure enough, that's what happened to me. So although I went through weeks and months of "fills" in my expander to stretch the skin, radiation virtually undid any progress made in stretching. Therefore, my reconstructive surgery will be the "latissimus flap" procedure. Yikes! The plastic surgeon will make an incision in my back at the bra line. He'll leave the skin connected because it needs a blood supply. He will then "tunnel" through, and pull that skin out another incision in the front, and stretch that skin over an implant. OUCH! And of course, the doctor will remove this God-awful tissue expander that's been in there for a whole year, replacing it with the implant. The expander is hard to the touch, and even harder now, since my skin has shrunk around it. That has made it even more painful and uncomfortable, so as frightened as I am of my upcoming surgery, I am just as happy that the expander will be HISTORY!
I am so blessed to have a spouse, my Larry, who has been by my side and never faltered in my care this entire time. He remains my angel. And he is prepared to continue to care for me throughout the journey of this next surgery too. I thank God for him. I also thank God for all of my family and friends, who have cheered me on along this difficult road! How will I ever be able to thank all of you??? Please know that I remember all of you in my prayers every night, and I don't take for granted the blessings you all have bestowed upon me in being there for me. THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES!
I don't know when I'll be back on here again. As I said, if this upcoming surgery is like the mastectomy, as I have been told, it will be hard to use my right hand again (and just when I was getting used to the "new normal" of its limited mobility and its numbness!). But as soon as I am able, I will inform all of you of my progress and recovery. In the meantime, I thank all of you in advance for your prayers and well-wishes, and for your loyalty in guiding me down this road. I love you all.
Love, Deb 33333333
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Hangin' in There
Hello to all!
I am feeling rather guilty for not posting as much here on my blog of late. As I mentioned before, I am posting more these days on Facebook than here. So if any of you are still keeping up with my blog here, and haven't seen anything from me in awhile, you might check my Facebook page when you do a search for Debbie Brady Brueckman.
Now to Larry. PRAISE GOD, he is fine after having had 8 inches of his colon removed a couple of weeks ago! There was no cancer, and since they did the surgery lapriscopically, his recovery was much quicker! He is doing great! Thank you one and all for your prayers and your concern!
As for me, I am gearing up for my next surgery, and it will be the "big" one I had hoped to avoid. I will be having the latisimus flap surgery on Aug 12, performed by my plastic surgeon as my reconstruction. It has been a year now since my diagnosis -- can you believe that?? And since my radical mastectomy of Aug 6, 2009, I have had a tissue expander implanted in the void in my chest. For the first many months after my mastectomy, I would receive saline "fills" in the tissue expander, in the hope of stretching my skin enough to eventually cover an implant. Unfortunately, radiation un-did everything the tissue expander did, and shrunk my skin. Now the tissue expander is still in there, but all the more uncomfortable, since my skin is so very tight and taut over it. It is quite painful. Since my skin shrunk, I am now going to have to have the surgery I had so dreaded: the latisumus flap surgery, where skin will be taken from my back and moved to the front to cover the implant. My plastic surgeon explained it this way: He will make an incision in my back at the bra line, then "tunnel through" to the front, and pull the skin from my back through an incision in the front, then stretch it over an implant. Ugh. He says it is on par with another mastectomy, pain-wise and recovery-wise, so I am bracing myself. And I will need some more prayers, please. My recovery time will be 4 to 6 weeks, but I will be sooooo very glad to get this tissue expander OUT of here! It is like a rock in my chest, it does not move as a natural breast does, and it is very hard to the touch.
So that's the update for now. As I said, please check out my updates over on Facebook if there aren't as many updates here on my blog. I so appreciate those of you still hanging with me on here, still caring and still praying! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. As I said, I can't believe it's been a whole year now, and I can't believe even yet that this happened to me. But I have come a long way in this year, and that has been in large part from the support of all of you! Thank you!
Love, Deb 333333333
I am feeling rather guilty for not posting as much here on my blog of late. As I mentioned before, I am posting more these days on Facebook than here. So if any of you are still keeping up with my blog here, and haven't seen anything from me in awhile, you might check my Facebook page when you do a search for Debbie Brady Brueckman.
Now to Larry. PRAISE GOD, he is fine after having had 8 inches of his colon removed a couple of weeks ago! There was no cancer, and since they did the surgery lapriscopically, his recovery was much quicker! He is doing great! Thank you one and all for your prayers and your concern!
As for me, I am gearing up for my next surgery, and it will be the "big" one I had hoped to avoid. I will be having the latisimus flap surgery on Aug 12, performed by my plastic surgeon as my reconstruction. It has been a year now since my diagnosis -- can you believe that?? And since my radical mastectomy of Aug 6, 2009, I have had a tissue expander implanted in the void in my chest. For the first many months after my mastectomy, I would receive saline "fills" in the tissue expander, in the hope of stretching my skin enough to eventually cover an implant. Unfortunately, radiation un-did everything the tissue expander did, and shrunk my skin. Now the tissue expander is still in there, but all the more uncomfortable, since my skin is so very tight and taut over it. It is quite painful. Since my skin shrunk, I am now going to have to have the surgery I had so dreaded: the latisumus flap surgery, where skin will be taken from my back and moved to the front to cover the implant. My plastic surgeon explained it this way: He will make an incision in my back at the bra line, then "tunnel through" to the front, and pull the skin from my back through an incision in the front, then stretch it over an implant. Ugh. He says it is on par with another mastectomy, pain-wise and recovery-wise, so I am bracing myself. And I will need some more prayers, please. My recovery time will be 4 to 6 weeks, but I will be sooooo very glad to get this tissue expander OUT of here! It is like a rock in my chest, it does not move as a natural breast does, and it is very hard to the touch.
So that's the update for now. As I said, please check out my updates over on Facebook if there aren't as many updates here on my blog. I so appreciate those of you still hanging with me on here, still caring and still praying! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. As I said, I can't believe it's been a whole year now, and I can't believe even yet that this happened to me. But I have come a long way in this year, and that has been in large part from the support of all of you! Thank you!
Love, Deb 333333333
Monday, June 14, 2010
I'm Still Here!
Hi everyone,
Well, it's been a long, long time since I've blogged. I guess as my recovery progresses, there is less to report. Also, I have now reactivated my Facebook account, so I do write some on there.
As I said, my recovery is progressing, though I still have a ways to go here. I am now taking Arimidex, which I'll be on daily for five years, to try to keep the cancer from returning. But boy, are there ever side effects from this drug! I ache all over (which scares me, of course, because I don't know if I have another problem brewing, or if it's this Arimidex), I am very, very fatigued and rest a lot, still spend a good amount of time in bed. Bah. But I am progressing.
I am scheduled for reconstructive surgery on Aug 12. I can't WAIT to get this tissue expander OUT of here! It is so very uncomfortable and so hard to the touch.
My husband Larry is now experiencing some health issues as well. He is scheduled for colon surgery on June 18. They will remove part of his colon to prevent cancer in that area. Prayers please! He is the love of my life, and I don't want him to have ANY health issues. He has been my biggest supporter throughout my breast cancer experience, which has made me love him all the more. He has done EVERYTHING around the house, inside and out, as well as care for me (and I probably wore him out). I hope and pray that I will be able to take as good a care of him as he has me. I would take on ANY health issue if it would prevent Larry from having to go through any health issues himself. He is a wonderful man and I ask for prayers that he will be okay. He deserves a good, healthy, happy life!
I know that Larry and I have both been "under the radar" for awhile, and I think in being so, we have offended some people. I pray for understanding that we are doing the best we can, just trying to get by. We hope that we will be given time to just get all this health stuff under control. If we can just get better, we'll be back to going and doing, just as we used to. But until then, we just need time and space to deal with these health issues. It's been a long time, I know, since we've been ourselves, and since we've been out and about. Unfortunately, our maladies here have tied us down quite a bit, and thus, some of our friendships have been compromised. But with time, and especially with God's grace, we will be back to ourselves, hopefully by Christmas.
Love to all,
Deb
Well, it's been a long, long time since I've blogged. I guess as my recovery progresses, there is less to report. Also, I have now reactivated my Facebook account, so I do write some on there.
As I said, my recovery is progressing, though I still have a ways to go here. I am now taking Arimidex, which I'll be on daily for five years, to try to keep the cancer from returning. But boy, are there ever side effects from this drug! I ache all over (which scares me, of course, because I don't know if I have another problem brewing, or if it's this Arimidex), I am very, very fatigued and rest a lot, still spend a good amount of time in bed. Bah. But I am progressing.
I am scheduled for reconstructive surgery on Aug 12. I can't WAIT to get this tissue expander OUT of here! It is so very uncomfortable and so hard to the touch.
My husband Larry is now experiencing some health issues as well. He is scheduled for colon surgery on June 18. They will remove part of his colon to prevent cancer in that area. Prayers please! He is the love of my life, and I don't want him to have ANY health issues. He has been my biggest supporter throughout my breast cancer experience, which has made me love him all the more. He has done EVERYTHING around the house, inside and out, as well as care for me (and I probably wore him out). I hope and pray that I will be able to take as good a care of him as he has me. I would take on ANY health issue if it would prevent Larry from having to go through any health issues himself. He is a wonderful man and I ask for prayers that he will be okay. He deserves a good, healthy, happy life!
I know that Larry and I have both been "under the radar" for awhile, and I think in being so, we have offended some people. I pray for understanding that we are doing the best we can, just trying to get by. We hope that we will be given time to just get all this health stuff under control. If we can just get better, we'll be back to going and doing, just as we used to. But until then, we just need time and space to deal with these health issues. It's been a long time, I know, since we've been ourselves, and since we've been out and about. Unfortunately, our maladies here have tied us down quite a bit, and thus, some of our friendships have been compromised. But with time, and especially with God's grace, we will be back to ourselves, hopefully by Christmas.
Love to all,
Deb
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