Becky's Surgery Update

Hello everyone. This is update #1 from the Siteman Cancer Center.  This is Nelsie typing and we are here at the hospital with my mom, Teresa (David's sister), Frank (David's brother) and his fiance JoGari, Don (David's brother), and David's parents. I am not going to say that nerves have not been high today; it has been quite a stressful day.  But we are starting to get some reprieve.

This is what we found out today: Becky tested positive for the BRCA gene and I think she is planning to have her ovaries out next (is that too much info?!).  What this means is that her kids have a 50% chance of carrying the gene and her risk is rather high for ovarian cancer--hence the ovary extraction. The doctor also gave some advice to my mom, Robin, that she needs to be tested as my grandma Patsy (Becky and Robin's mom) had the gene.

The next piece of information that we have is that the first part of the surgery is over, which was the removal of the breast tissue.  The surgeon indicated that everything went very well and that the removal appeared to be very clean.  They took two lymph nodes from each side to test but the doctor does not think that the cancer spread to those given what she saw.  However, she did not want to say that definitively until the test results come back from the lab within the next week (so again, more waiting!). 

The plastic surgeon is in with her now and we anticipate him ending around 6:30 central time. We will update you again once we hear more and see her tonight. 

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during this time. As you can tell from Beck's blogs, your prayers have helped make her stronger than she already is.

Love to all, 

Becky's Family

Update #2:

Beck is out of surgery and we hope to see her within the hour.  All seems to be going well.

Update #3: 

We just came back from visiting Beck.  She looks great but is in major pain.  I feel so bad for her.  Keep praying for her! 

Much Love to all from St. Louis!