The good, the bad and the ugly.

This was the hardest week of my life.  Not getting answers when you think they'll come after 48 hours was unbearable.  I was so depressed and in the dumps.  So I was so grateful to be able to finally talk about a game plan today!  Mat worked out to have another teacher cover one class so he could meet me at Huntsman for my appointment with my oncologist.  He's the bomb!

The Scoop:
Stage 4 cancer can't be cured with chemo, but it is treatable.  Pathology still hasn't come back on whether it is hormone receptive (estrogen/progesterone positive-she is assuming it is because it was last time), but this time it is also Her-2 positive (making it a little more aggressive cancer).  Last time Her-2 was negative.  That changes treatment a little.

I'll have chemo every week.  Every third week, I'll go to Huntsman for what I am calling "the big kahuna".  Three different chemo drugs, a 5 hour infusion.  The other weeks will be one drug, Taxol, that I'll do in Farmington.  I did Taxol last time for my last four rounds, and compared to the first four rounds I did, it was a cake walk!  The side effects will be similar to last time: nausea, hair loss, fatigue, etc. etc.  After three cycles, we'll do scans to see what the progress is.  My first treatment is a week from today, next Friday.

Dr. Prystas did share with us an "expected" life expectancy for a woman with this kind of cancer.  But guess what?  We're not telling anyone.  Not anyone!  I will only tell you that it's more than a year, but less than 25.  I won't be having anyone making any funeral plans, or giving up on me when they think it's time for me to croak!

On Tuesday, I go in for an echocardiogram, to make sure my heart is strong enough for chemo.  Right after that, I'll go to Radiology to have a port put in.  This is what it looks like
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I had one last time too, and it makes chemo SO MUCH EASIER!  The veins in my right arm don't play nice with needles.  The needles never win!  They use a curved needle to slip into the center of the port.  Easy peasy.

Other than the port, there isn't another plan for surgery.  They just don't remove a bunch of lymph nodes, and can't remove parts of a vital organ like the liver.  So, we pray friends.  We pray that the chemo will do it's job and start to shrink the tumors I have in my body.  And we think happy, positive thoughts.  And we love, love, love everyone around us!  That's what we do.  Enough said for today.