June 21, 2023
In the past 2 weeks, Erin has had a number of appointments including neurosurgery, medical oncology, a PET scan, medical oncology again locally, a CT scan, and a radiation treatment, not to mention home visits from PT and OT. Her scans look good and her PT/OT progress has been excellent.
From here, we have follow ups in a month with each neurosurgery, medical oncology, and radiation oncology and hopefully soon she will be progressing to being cleared by OT, and begin going for in office PT visits for the next level is of PT.
June 22, 2022
Erin’s surgery went as planned yesterday. She was able to come home last night, and can now begin the 4-6 week recovery process. Her initial biopsies have shown no additional signs of malignancy. From here we have regular follow-up’s with her surgeons, but we are looking forward to a return to normalcy.
June 20, 2022
Through the end of chemotherapy, Erin’s treatments still continued to progress in a positive direction. She is scheduled for a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction tomorrow.
The doctors continue to remain optimistic that she should enter remission after surgery without a need for radiation.
Bryce is going to be 4 months old on June 22. Despite joining mom through the first 12 weeks of chemotherapy, he has continued to grow and amaze us day over day. Already be send so determined to stand, the last few months he has really wowed us. He is so strong just like his mother and grandmother.
Bryce, along with our other children, have continued to give positive focus through a difficult journey.
After surgery, Erin begins the 4 to 6 week recovery phase and we are looking forward to an eventual return to normalcy.
May 13, 2022
We are incredibly grateful that Erin’s treatments have continued to progress in a positive direction. She is approaching the end of her second phase of chemotherapy on 6/1, and the masses have continued to retreat.
From here she will be allowed about 3 weeks to recover and will then proceed with a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction. The doctors continue to remain optimistic that she should enter remission after surgery without a need for radiation.
It’s hard to believe it, but Bryce is going to be 3 months old on May 22. Despite joining mom through the first 12 weeks of chemotherapy, he is healthy and already growing and changing so quickly. His little smiles and laughs are contagious and heart warming.
Bryce, along with our other children, have continued to give positive focus through a difficult journey.
March 21, 2022
Since Erin's diagnosis, she has found writing to be therapeutic and she has started a blog to share her thoughts, experiences, and reflections. If you are interested in following, the link is below:
https://erincahillwetzel.com/
March 3, 2022
This past Twosday was remarkable for many but for our family the significance of Tuesday 22/02/2022 goes far beyond a palindromic date when expressed in ddmmyyyy format.
Tuesday marked the halfway point in Erin’s chemotherapy treatments as she tackles triple negative breast cancer.
Tuesday marked the halfway point in Erin’s progress as she kicks this cancer’s butt and her ultrasounds confirmed 1 of 2 masses have disappeared, the remaining mass and lymph nodes have shrunk in half.
Tuesday marked the arrival of our newest addition to our family with the arrival of our son Bryce Xander Wetzel.
Tuesday marked the day we finally held our boy after a pregnancy compromised of 12 weeks of chemotherapy, countless appointments with doctors and specialists, lots of monitoring, and tons of care, love, and prayers from family, friends, and doctors.
Bryce was delivered in the same hospital as all 4 older siblings, by the same obstetrician who delivered his oldest sibling, who also beat the same cancer diagnosis, and with the help of Erin’s breast surgeon who came to visit expecting to meet our new baby and instead ended up assisting in his delivery.
We still have about 4 months of treatment ahead between chemotherapy and eventually surgery, but we have got this, of this we are sure. Erin (and our son) are both tough, and there was never a doubt, having been in the delivery room all 5 times we know she’s truly one tough mother, but for now we have such a wonderful positive focus through a challenging time.
