Long Road Ahead

Today I met with Dr. Max, my medical oncologist and the clinical pharmacist K. Glen, Lisa and myself went with notebooks in hand to learn the fate of the journey that awaits me. Yes, the journey keeps getting longer with every doctor's visit that I have. Results are all in. It turns out that I am HR+ (cancer is estrogen driven), even though originally thought to be negative, I am told that I am "midly" positive. As a result, Dr. Max would like me to take Tamoxifen (an estrogen receptor blocker), orally 1/day for 5 years, once my chemo is complete. I am also HER2 positive, therefore they will be adding Herceptin in succession to my last 3 chemo treatments, which will con't for...are you ready...every 3 weeks for a year. Wow, I can't believe it myself!

So chemo... I will be receiving 6 treatments in total, each 21 days apart. My cancer is considered aggressive, so subsequently I will be treated with the most aggressive chemo available for breast cancer, a 3rd generation chemo called FEC (1st 3 treatments), followed by D (last 3 treatments), which is otherwise known as the red devil. I will be at the hospital for a min. of 3-4 hrs. with ea treatment. At least the facility is new, roomy and comfortable. Made for a lot of visitors...hint, hint.

To make all of these treatments easier, they are going to insert a portacath in my chest wall. This will make for easy access for the IV's I will be hooked up to, since I will be going every 3 weeks for over a span of a year. Yeah...overwhelming. This means another surgery, a day surgery albeit. I am told that this surgery is performed at HSC, and that there is typically a 2 week wait. Dr. Max really does not want to wait any longer than we need to, and thus suggested going to Boundary Trails in Winkler, MB to have the procedure done. The wait time would be significantly less by doing so. I cannot begin chemo until 4 days after they insert the port, since the incision will need to heal first. Now I'm just waiting to see when they can schedule me. The chemo should realistically begin within the next week or two.

Here's some more shocking news, if I were to consider not having chemo, the cancer would have a 50-75% chance of reocurrance. Wow! After all is said, and I've rec'd the Herceptin, that percentage is reduced to 20%, (still pretty high in my opinion...).

Remember the story about my MUGA Scan? Well, it looks like I will have to have it repeated every 3 months throughout the course of my therapy. At least I know the method they will now have to take to get an accurate reading. The reason that I need to undergo this scan so often is because the first 3 chemo treatments (FEC) in of itself puts stress on the heart, as does herceptin. This is why they wait to add herceptin until the last 3 treatments. And remember, I will be taking the herceptin for an entire year. Uh huh.

It goes without saying that I can expect a few side effects with all of these powerful drugs, so I will also be taking some oral meds to counteract the most common side effects, nausea/vomiting for example. I have however opted out of the anti-nauseant following my first treatment to see how I do, since I want to believe that I will overcome this possibility. For myself, the fewer pharmaceuticals in me, the better...

Some words that describe how I'm currently feeling include: overwhelmed, scared, disbelief, anger. I did punch the shit out of the punching bag at the gym today, that felt good!

I'm sure you are likely as overwhelmed as I am at the moment, so I'm going to sign off now. I will update again when I hear news of the portacath, and first treatment dates.

I really should have blogged more in the last few weeks, especially about the Run for The Cure. What an amazing experience! Hope to find some time to blog all about that soon.

Jill xo