Tara's Surgery Update May 31st, 2017
On May 31st, 2017, our little fighter Tara, underwent a major surgery that will change her life and ours, forever. She had a radical mastectomy and, also had to have a chest tube put in place for a malignant pleural effusion she has.
Let me take you back a little bit so you can understand this journey. In February of 2017, Tara finished her radiation therapy on her chest for her Ewing’s Sarcoma tumors. A few weeks prior to this, she had completed many courses of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, chemotherapy drugs aren’t that effective on Tara’s cancer. On March 24th, 2017, Tara’s doctors began her on a new trial medicine called Pazobanib, which is what is called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Essentially, and most importantly, it cuts off the blood supply to the tumors. This process interferes then, with the growth and spread of cancer cells.
This medicine was a life-saver for Tara! She responded very well to this treatment and the main tumor was quickly dying. As with most of these medicines, the side effects can be great. Pazobanib makes her body “remember” the radiation treatment she had and the burning effects of that came back. She was in a great deal of pain but was happy to pull through this since the possibility of this new drug working was so great. The main tumor began to die off. In doing so, it created a lot of necrotic tissue. In just a few short weeks, Tara’s main tumor was completely necrotic and now decaying on her chest. Now begins the infections.
Though Tara’s immune system is compromised, she has been able to, for the most part, keep the infection localized to the tumor/breast area. The necrotic tissue began to worsen, leaving her with a gooey, black mess with tissue separating and coming off. We had a home nurse that would come to the house two to three times per week to help take care of her. Then, she started to develop diminished lung sounds. As the home nurse suggested, we quickly got Tara a chest x-ray. This showed a very slight pneumothorax (lung collapse) in her right lung. We were sent home to rest and since she displayed no other symptoms of any sickness, she would be watched. Over the next few weeks, however, things progressed as they usually do. The decay on her chest was now encompassing her entire right breast/chest area and the follow up chest x-ray, which now showed the pneumothorax was slightly larger, but also showed fluid in her pleural space. Her will was being tested once again. She no longer had the energy to be so “positive”. Her clinic nurse saw her sadness and decline of her health and suggested that she be admitted into the hospital for further treatment. And it was so.
On Tuesday, May 22nd, 2017, Tara was admitted into the hospital where her teams could examine her more completely. As she was attempting to take a walk down the hallway from her room with her father, she couldn’t keep her breathing up to speed and leaned into her dad’s arms to catch her. They ran x-rays and tests immediately. They drained her pleural effusion of 1200 cc’s of liquid. Tara’s anxiety grew. By Saturday evening, she was placed into the ICU department to be monitored for impending surgery.
So now we are back to the day of surgery. Tara needed a chest tube inserted to drain her pleural space that is continually filling up with cancerous liquid. During surgery, they removed 2 liters from this lung space! She received a radical mastectomy that removed the entire breast and all of the necrotic tissue and infection. This area is also where the main tumor resides. While the surgeon was able to remove the bulk of the tumor, he was not able to get it all. We are not deterred though. This was only step one of the process.
Tara remains on a ventilator to help her breathe and dry out her lung. She is able to rest comfortably through the most painful parts of having surgery. They continue to drain her lung and body of excess fluid. They inserted a feeding tube to give her body nutrition. They began giving her 1,000 mg of vitamin C, as well as zinc and magnesium every day. All of this will give her body vital building blocks to heal.
Tara’s friends and family continue to stand by her side through this journey, as I know all of you do as well. We truly cannot express how wonderful it is to know we have your support in such trying times. Please continue to pray for her healing. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.