Saturday, April 2, 2011

Our Sister


A couple of months after my nephew Jonah was born, my sister Angie was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer, at the age of 27. She had a major surgery to remove the cancer, went through months of chemotherapy and radiation, and was started on a long term medication called Tomoxifen to reduce the risk of her breast cancer coming back. In the process of taking this highly toxic medication she became pregnant with our niece, Kora (who weighed 3 lbs at birth).

Needless to say, Angie has been getting at least yearly check ups with her oncologist, Dr. Abraham, at WVU Ruby, including images to check for any spread of cancer. However, all of these up to recently have been negative and showed no new signs of cancer.

All this to say that my sister has been through a lot when it comes to her health over the last 7 years...

Now, 7 years after her initial diagnosis, she went to the doctor for knee pain. An x-ray taken at this appointment showed a "moth- eaten appearance of the distal femur" (or the thigh bone). This led the doctors to believe that this was not just a bone problem, but an aggressive process that was/is destroying the bone. From here several other scans were performed to look for cancer elsewhere in the body, and one scan showed some small areas of metastasis (cancer spread) in the lungs as well.

This is a typical pattern for breast cancer, which likes to start in the breast, move to lymph nodes (which she had at initial diagnosis ), then to the leg, then lungs...so on and so forth.

Deep breath...

With all of that said Angie is an obvious fighter who has claimed victory in the name of Jesus and knows that she is in His hands. As of now, the plan appears to be moving forward and all parties seem optimistic about the promise of treatment and cure for her Stage IV cancer. The initial issue is to take care of the thigh bone, which has become very very thin by the process of the tumor eating and pushing against it from the inside out. She is scheduled to have a surgery this Friday (April 8, 2011) to place a rod in her thigh and help stabilize the bone. If not treated promptly, this bone will definitely fracture her leg and lead to a much more difficult path of treatment and recovery.

After the surgery on her femur, Angie will then start radiation therapy which will be aimed at directly shrinking the tumor in her leg so that the chemotherapy (which will be done after radiation) can have more opportunity for success. Depending on the type of surgery that is done for her leg, the radiation therapy will start within the next couple weeks.

Though this is essentially all that is known up to this point, there is a very long road ahead, not just for Angie, but for her family, including her husband, Scott, and their two beautiful children, Jonah (age 7) and Kora (age 5).

The Fowler Family
Jonah & Kora
We write to anyone who reads to ask you to pray for peace, confidence, comfort, and an overall feeling of His presence for all involved. Angie is no doubt a fighter and will continue to give her medical treatment, healing, and recovery all that she has.

We love you Angie, more than you could ever know and are praying and thinking about you constantly and with confidence that God is in control and you are in the best of Hands.