Chemo officially over!

Yep, my actual chemotherapy is over as of Friday. I still have 9 months of Herceptin which is administered the same way and place as chemo, but the chemo drugs are done with! Yippee!! My hair is growing back and I'm feeling better. In fact, I've been so busy since my last chemo, that I haven't had time to sit and write since then.

One phase down and now moving to the next: surgery. I have my mastectomy scheduled for December 4th. It's one week after Thanksgiving and as most of you know, that's my favorite holiday. The heal time is 6-8 weeks post surgery, but I'll be home from the hospital after 5 or 6 days. That should give me time to decorate the house and get ready for Christmas and have a few weeks recovery so I can enjoy Christmas with the kids. The hardest part for me will not being able to drive and hold Hayden. I still don't know how that's going to work. We are trying to figure out help for the time I'm down. Jason will be able to take a couple of weeks off, but has to work after that. I have a number of friends waiting in the wings to help with the kids and shopping, etc. I think we will be able to manage some how.

I also have confirmed with my radiation oncologist that I will have radiation. That will start a couple of months after my surgery and will last 7 weeks, going 5 days a week. I should be able to have the Herceptin at the same time. If any of you saw the Lifetime movie last weekend called Living Proof, then you have heard of Herceptin. Apparently, if I had this cancer 15 years ago, I probably wouldn't survive. Herceptin is a drug that stops the growth of the Her2+ gene. My cancer is very aggressive and can spread quickly. Herceptin can stop the growth, but can also reverse it. I'll go in a few weeks to have another ultrasound to see if the tumor has shrunk. I've been told it should shrink a lot. Let's hope!!

In other news, the kids are great. Soccer season is nearing the end. The girls have had a lot of fun playing and making new friends. I never thought I'd enjoy spending my time going to practice and games, but it is a lot of fun. The first quarter of school is almost over and both girls have done a great job. Hayden is a typical 2 year old and is into everything. We have safety covers on all the bathroom doors and a couple of the bedrooms to keep him out of trouble. And if the back doors aren't locked, he often escapes into the yard with the dogs.

Life is good!

Chemo #7 and soccer

Well, I am almost done! I had my 7th chemo on Friday. It wasn't too bad. I still feel tired and a bit cranky, but not sick. My last one is in mid-October.

The girls had their 1st soccer games on Saturday. Anna is in the 8-9 girls league and her team, The Texas Crushers, won 3-2. Sydney is in the 6-7 girls league and her team, The Shooting Stars, tied 1-1. They each had a lot of fun and ran hard. We are so proud of them!

Hayden was so cute too on Saturday. He played hard too, but had a hard time taking a nap. He actually fell asleep on Daddy. It's been a long time since he's done this.

Chemo #6 and Echo

I forgot (and how wonderful that I could!) that my sixth chemo was over. It went well. I was able to take the girls to karate that evening and still make it to our 1st PTO meeting on Friday. These ones are so much better than the 1st 4. I have 2 more before I'm done so I think I can function as a normal human being.

My echo results were also good. I'll have those done periodically for the year that I'm on Herceptin. Cross your fingers that everything stays this good!

Chemo #5 is over

That one wasn't so bad! I actually ate a little bit yesterday and today. I'm not sick, a little tired, but doing okay. I even went shopping this morning with the girls for back to school clothes. If the next 3 treatments are like this, then I think I might actually do okay. Yippee!!!

I have my echo scheduled for 8/29 so wish me luck. Jason is off next week. We plan on cramming in an entire summer of activities into the next week along with some well child check ups and therapy. We end the week with meeting the girls' teachers for next year. It should be a fun week.

Countdown

I'll leave in 2 hours to go to chemo #5. By the end of the day, I'll be closer to the end than the beginning. What a great feeling! I'm very anxious about this one only because I don't know how I'll feel when it's done. I shouldn't be sick, but that is a possible side effect. Most likely, I'll be tired for a few days.

There are 2 drugs that I'll be taking. I'll take Taxotere until October. The other drug I'll take is called Herceptin. I'll continue Herceptin for 12 months with a break for surgery. My tumor is HER2+, which is found in about 25% of breast cancer patients. It is an aggressive tumor that grows and spreads more quickly and requires different treatments. Herceptin is not a chemo drug, but rather a monoclonal antibody. These antibodies are more targeted than chemo and attach directly to the proteins that are increasing the cancer cell production. Only patients that are HER2+ take Herceptin. A big risk is recurrence. Herceptin has been found to lower the chance of cancer coming back versus patients that didn't take it.

One of the serious side effects of Herceptin is heart problems. With heart disease on my mom's side of the family (my grandfather and both great-grandfathers died from heart attacks), I'm following orders closely on this one. I'll have an echo cardiogram scheduled soon to see how my heart is tolerating the drug. My friend Odessa who is also my nutritionist has me on supplements that are supposed to improve heart health. I'm determined that if I can fight cancer, then I can fight the byproducts of the drugs as well. The only thing I can't fight is the hair loss. I thought my hair would start to grow back after this last round, but no. What's another 3 months, right?

Radiation still hasn't been completely ruled out. I need to meet with my radiologist to see what she thinks. She's also the doctor that did my genetics testing. Over the next month or so, I'll also be meeting with plastic surgeons to see the direction I want to go in for surgery. I have many options and, being so young, I have a long life ahead of me. I want to be happy with my decision for years to come.

Chemo #4 is over

Finally, I am half way thru my chemo treatments!! Number 4 was bad. I get a shot of Neulasta on day 2 after fluids. This is supposed to support production of white blood cells. A common side-effect is bone pain, which until this weekend, I had not had. Well, that's all I had on Saturday. I was achy, similar to body aches from the flu. It was gone by Sunday, thankfully. I was tired as usual all weekend and then my day 5 delayed nausea hit. I have some special compound medicine for that so I thought everything was okay. By Tuesday, I was up taking care of a few things and was tired, which is normal. Then, Tuesday night, it hit. I was so sick and miserable Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that I ended up going in for fluids on Wednesday. I was still sick when I left, but by last night was doing better. This morning, while still fatigued, I'm not sick and I've been out and about. So, I'm back to where I should be.

One of my trips out today was for another ultrasound. More great news: my tumor is down another 0.6 cm to 2.2 cm. Remember I started at 3.4 cm. So I'm pleased. I think I'll go in again in September after 2 rounds on the new drugs, Herceptin and Taxotere. I'm happy with the progress we're making. Of course, I'd like to see it smaller, but at least we know things are working.

In related news, my oncologist is taking a leave of absence starting August 1st. She'll be out until December, so I'm pretty bummed about that. The doctor taking her place, Dr. Kleinbaum, seems nice. I only talked with him a few minutes, but Dr. Crow is confident he'll take good care of me. Let's hope!

Today, we also took off the steri-strips on Hayden's wound and the incision looks great. A lot of the swelling is down, but the poor kid has a lot of bruising on the right side of his face, including a black eye. You can see the implant under the skin, but it may not be as noticeable once the swelling is gone. He seems to notice the lack of hearing in his right ear, but he's adjusted so nicely. We are proud of our little guy.

Chemo #3 is done

Well, this one is over! Overall, I think I felt better than last time, but still sick and tired, literally and figuratively. Usually, I am just tired and sleep on and off for a couple of days. This time, I was able to read, which was nice. I still felt sick through yesterday, and very tired. This morning, I feel better but I don't want to go out and eat a feast then run a marathon. I think I'll be happy if I can get the kids their breakfast and sit down on the couch for a few hours! The worst part today is the metal taste in my mouth. I haven't found anything that is appetizing when I have this. I just need to work through it as it should be gone by the end of the week.

Well, I have one more round on this set. My next chemo days are July 24th and 25th. That will be the end of these yucky side effects, I hope. The next cycle is supposed to be better. The biggest symptom is fatigue. My hair should start to grow back, but some people lose their eyebrows and eyelashes. I'm hoping that doesn't happen to me. The hair on my head was bad enough!

We did get one nice piece of news from my oncologist. I never got the measurement for the enlarged lymph nodes so I didn't know if they shrunk or not. The radiologist report said they shrunk from 4.2 cm to 3.1 cm! Yippee!! Again, this doesn't mean I'll escape surgery, but at least the chemo is working.

Bald is beautiful!

Okay, I can officially say I survived round 2 of chemo, barely! Dr. Crow, my oncologist, added fluids on the day of chemo as well as the next day which helped me through the weekend. But then on Monday, the nausea hit big time. I was sick all day long. We finally got it under control and, though still fatigued, I am up and starting to do more. I've even started to eat a little.


Well, as many know, chemo can cause one to lose their hair. I am no exception. My hair started to come out 2 weeks after my first treatment. I decided that day to let the girls cut my hair and have Jason shave it down to stubble. So here are some pictures of that wonderful evening.


The second treatment has kicked in the hair loss a bit more. It's more like molting than anything else. I did shave it down a lot more a few days after these pictures were taken. Sydney was the one that didn't like the idea of a "bald mommy", but she's gotten used to it. I thought Hayden would have the hardest time. He used to calm himself when tired or sad by digging his hands in my hair. He will do that sometimes with the wig on, but I don't wear it often. He's used to his bald mommy now. As soon as chemo is done, my hair will start to come back in. Just what it will look like is going to be a mystery!

Chemo #2 is done!

This is going to be short because I already feel it coming on. I wanted to share a couple of pictures from the first treatment. One of my dearest friends, Odessa, came with me and helped distract me for 3 hours! She took these for me. Thanks, O!

The second picture is the Adriamycin. It's reddish-orange. Very weird having that go in. I get about 4-5 different bags of fluids on chemo day. Fluid day is only 2-3 bags. The oncology nurses are great and they really care about their patients.

Okay, time to lie down. Actually, I'm going to rest on the couch and watch Shrek the 3rd with the girls. Enjoy the weekend.