PATHOLOGY REPORTS

Dakota got two tension stitches removed this morning. She'll get the rest of her stitches out next Thursday--hopefully. This assumes we can keep her in a T shirt and keep her from licking the stitches. She's actually been very good about wearing her T shirt and she even keeps them remarkably clean.

Her pathology reports came in from the University of MO. I had hoped for a Grade 1, she got a Grade 2. Grade 2 is much better than the Grade 3 she got the last time she had cancer. Even better news is that the pathology reports said that Terri was able to get all the cancer cells. They remove a full two inches of tissue around the tumor in the hopes that the edges of the removed tissue will be free of cancer. The edges of the removed tissue was free of cancer. Last time, Terri was not able to get it all because the cancer had spread beyond the two inch margin and she had been forced to remove a substantial amount of muscle. Dakota still has a "dent" from her surgery in 2006. We had hoped the chemo she had in 2006/2007 would kill everything that Terri could not surgically remove.

I don't know if this current cancer represents cells that survived the prior chemo or if it is a genetic vulnerablility that Dakota has, but she'll start her second round of chemo later in the month after the stiches are completely removed.

I am just so thankful that Eric found the tumor during one of his nightly massage sessions with Dakota because it was too small to see with the naked eye. I'm sure that it's early discovery is a major reasons that it didn't get a chance to make it to Grade 3.