The Plan and My girl turns 6!

I have made the trip to Boston and saw Dr. Anderson. She is a great dr. to talk to. She said that there is no reason that I need to have the heavy duty chemo again. There are no studies that show hard chemo drugs given after surgery is helpful. She did mention another chemo drug called navelbine that may be used with the herceptin but she didn't know if she would give that to me or not. Herceptin in a must. This drug will help shut down the receptors that came back positive for cancer after surgery. It is given by IV every 3wks for a full year. Also she wants me on lupron and tamoxofin for 5yrs. These 2 drugs will suppress my ovaries and the hormones that are causing the cancer. Because I am on both of these I will be getting a bone density scan. I will get these every 3 months as the one lessens the density and the other helps it. Also I will still need radiation.

After leaving that appt I felt very good about all of this and I felt like we were back on track. Now I just had to wait for my Fri appt with my oncologist Dr. Ray.

Thursday I saw my OT, Joy, and she said I am doing fabulous and she actually discharged me!! I have almost all of my range of motion back and most of my strength back. I still need to do my stretches to remind the muscles of where they should be. I am also starting walking again. My goal is to get in shape, loose weight and be ready to beat my time in the Frostbite in Nov!!

Today I saw Dr. Ray. She was able to talk with Dr. Anderson and we now have a plan!! I will be getting my mapping done for radiation next week and I will also be starting on the herceptin. As soon as everything is ready I will be starting radiation 5x a week for 6 1/2wks. The appts are only 20-30min long so I am doing this right here in town. When I am done with the radiation I will start the navelbine. From what we have heard and read this is a much mellower chemo drug and the side effects are a lot easier. I will also be able to keep all or most of my hair too!!!

Next June, as long as there is no sign of disease I will be IN REMISSION!!!!

I also can't thank my Auntie Catherine enough. She has been such a huge huge help. She has come down for a week at a time almost every week since my surgery. She has cooked, cleaned, done laundry and taken care of my children. She has been such an amazing blessing!! I love you Auntie!!!

Last week my precious little girl turned 6!!! I can hardly believe it!! She started life with a lot of struggles between her hip displasia and her very weak muscles. Now she is a very strong little girl and has overcome many of her sensory issues. She is my struggle but also an amazing blessing!

Abby the day she was born:

Abby at 6yrs old!

I now pray that God will give me the strength to keep up the walking and keep pressing on as I continue on this road that He has put me on. I know that He will get me through the rest of my treatments and bring me into remission stronger than ever!!

Robert gets glasses and Information Overload

Robert has been having a hard time seeing and so we took him to the eye drs. We found out that he definatly needed glasses. We picked out a pair and an hour later picked them up. He is SO handsome!!!

Where to begin! 

I am healing well from surgery. I have started occupational therapy for my arm and it is going super well!! I have had a lot of range of motion come back so quickly! My body was ready for this! Emotionally I am ready for this too!! I just want to get back to "normal". 

I went to my first radiation oncologist appt on Thurs and it went well. The dr. explained all that was going to happen and we booked my "planning" appt. At this appt they will take a mold of my upper back and arms in the position I will need to be in for the treatment. This way I am in the exact same position every day. Then I will go to the surgical center and they will give me 4 tattoo dots. One below my clavicle, one in the center of my chest and one on either side of my body. These are permanent but are small and won't be very noticeable. These dots are to make sure their placement of the radiation is in the same place every day.

I went to my oncologist on Friday and she had a load of information for me. Upon the initial pathology report they found that I was ER/PR + and HER2 - (ER is Estrogen Receptor/ PR is Progesterone Receptor and HER2 is another receptor). They did another test called a FISH test and the findings showed I was ER/PR + and HER2 +. This is good as they can totally treat this. The bad news is that it means more chemo. It is a different kind and I will have to go through all the things I went through with my first chemo like loosing my hair. I don't have a lot but it is still really hard to loose what I just got!

The first thing my dr wants me to do is go back to Boston and see if there are any studies or trials that they have for someone like me. This isn't rare but it isn't that common. Also she wants to see if her plan of treatment is what Dana Farber would suggest. We are going on May 24th for a 9am appt on the 25th. 

I was suppose to start the planning and getting ready to start radiation. With this new information Bob and I feel that it would be best if I hold off on the radiation until this next course of chemo is over. If it acts like my first course there is no way I would be able to handle radiation 5x a week for 6 1/2 wks. Plus I would need a ride to radiation and that is just way too much to ask of anyone. 

I did get my next lupron shot so that is taken care of and one less thing to worry about. It also keeps my ovaries from putting out estrogen and keeps my risk of recurrence low.

With all this new information I was on overload and just cried and cried. I still feel like crying at times. This is the first time during this whole trial that I said "it's not fair". I did my chemo why do I have to go through it again? I know that God is in control and He has a reason but it really really stinks. 

I went through chemo and lost my hair. I went through surgery and lost my breast. Now I have to go through chemo AGAIN and AGAIN loose my hair. I don't have much but it is still so hard to think about starting over. 

God WILL carry me through.