Hittin' the sauce and I don't mean alcohol :o)

Yesterday I had my first round of chemotherapy. We arrived at Dr. Q's office and went back to the chemo area and I plopped down in a nice cozy recliner. The head RN, Pam, came and sat with us and started explaining the process. At each session they will begin by drawing blood through my port for lab work. They are mainly looking for low red and white blood cell counts (mine were normal of course). When the lab work came back good she then gave me some medicine to prevent nausea (Anzemet with Dexamethasone). I then received Benadryl which quickly knocked me out. I was awake long enough to see her hang the first bag of chemo drug (Taxotere) and woke back up an hour later when she was putting up the next drug (Cytoxan). I stayed awake through this bag. I did make a few mental notes along the way. 1. Back a lunch...you're going to be there awhile and get hungry. 2. Bring your own blanket (thank you Robin and Tracey)--the little thread-bare one they supply is worthless. 3. Lots of reading material is not necessary as the Benadryl will knock me out for 1/2 of the treatment.

After the 2nd drug was finished, Pam hooked me up to Mr. Nasty otherwise known as Adriamyacin. This is the mean one that will make all my hair fall out and feel the worst. It is so nasty they have to send me home hooked up to it with a pump to drip it into me over 24 hours. So I am sitting here typing with my little bag of nuclear waste dripping into my veins. After explaining how the pump worked, Pam then had to give me two shots for my red and white blood cells. While they are in good shape right now the chemo will quickly begin to destroy them. The medications are designed to boost my blood cell production so they never drop to low. She offered these to me in either my stomach or my arms, but said most people prefer the stomach as they hurt less there. So like a sheep in the herd I followed the crowd and took them in the stomach. Wow! If they hurt more in your arms--forget that! I'll be tough and take them in the stomach next time too. Those medications for you medical minds out there were Aranesp (for red) and Neulasta (for white).

We then headed home after scheduling an appointment to come back today to unhook me from the pump. I also go back in on Friday for more lab work to check my blood counts. I will be doing that twice a week through this process.

She sent me home with 3 prescriptions. Emend for nausea, Coumadin to thin my blood the keep it flowing through the port, and Levaquin which is an antibiotic. I don't take the Levaquin unless my blood counts drop to low and then they will tell me when to take it. I just want to say thank the Lord for good insurance! The Emend is 3 pills for $300. We only had to pay $40. I don't know what the others run, but I'm sure glad we didn't have to pay full price. We walked out of the pharmacy paying $75 as is.

As for how I'm feeling, well basically normal so far. I had a couple of hot flashes last night. Those were fun! I had some tingling in my feet which is also a side effect of the chemo. I haven't felt sick thankfully just a little uneasy. You know how you feel when you have a bad chili dog? That pretty much describes me right now. Not really sick but feeling like...Oooo, I shouldn't have eaten that. I'm hoping that's as bad as it will get. I am a little run down this morning, so I'm canceling grocery shopping and snuggling on the couch with Emma instead. Not a bad trade off in my mind.

1 treatment down....5 to go! We're on the way to the cure! Thank the Lord for modern medicine!

There is always a ray of light in the darkness

I had my first round of chemo today. I am pretty tired and heading to bed, but I will update in full tomorrow. I just wanted to encourage everyone to look for the bright spot in your day even when you think it's not going so well. While dealing with all that comes with cancer and chemo today we received such wonderful news. Today Ed became a PawPaw! Olivia Dawn arrived at 2:39 p.m. weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long! EJ called to say that Tiffany and Olivia are both doing great! What a blessing to give you some perspective on life...it's easy to forget about the great moments in our lives when walking in the valley of the bad ones. We are hoping to get to see Miss Olivia in a few weeks at Christmas and are already chomping at the bit to get some photos of that sweet grandbaby!

I did have a few minutes of guilt today. Ed wasn't able to be there for the birth of his granddaughter which I know is a dream he's waited for all EJ's life. While I know having cancer isn't my fault, I couldn't help feeling guilty that "because of me" he missed one of the great milestones of being a parent--seeing your children become parents. It's hard not to feel that way, and Ed (to his credit) has not let me see anything but concern for my well-being today. I know he's sad he missed it, but this is the road that we have to walk down right now unfortunately. I'm so blessed to have him in my life and thank the Lord each day that Ed was part of His great plan for me!

Congrats EJ and Tiffany and Happy Birthday Olivia! We love you guys and hope to see you in a few weeks!

The update delayed by the Thanksgiving rush

Due to the Thanksgiving rush I haven't been able post the latest events. Here is a brief rundown with a bit of description when appropriate.

Friday, November 18th: Had MRI of both breasts (with contrast injected in my hand) to have a baseline reading for monitoring the tumor's response to chemo.

Monday, November 21st: Had a "clip" (yes that is the medical term they used) inserted into my breast near the tumor. This procedure was just like the biopsy (pain included). If the tumor responds so well to chemo that is disappears, the clip is used to show the area the tumor was located for surgical removal of surrounding tissue. They like to take some healthy tissue around the tumor "just in case".

Tuesday, November 22nd: This was the first big procedure I've had done so far. They inserted a PortaCath. This device will be used to administer chemo as well as draw blood. It helps to save my veins from the trauma of chemotherapy medications. The device is about the size of a quarter and about 1/2 inch thick with a rubber area for a needle to go into. It is placed under the skin in my chest and a tube runs from it into a vein and then down into the vena cava in my heart is what I believe they said. This is a large vessel that has so much blood moving through it that the chemo isn't as damaging as it would be to little veins elsewhere in my body. It also saves me the pain of having my arms poked each time I go in for treatment. The nurse now will poke the skin in my chest and find the port sitting right under the surface. This will then take the medication straight into my system.

It's not a great picture, but it will give you the general idea.

I am recovering nicely. I felt like I had been punched in the chest for the first 48 hours, but now it's only tender if I touch it. The procedure itself wasn't so bad. If anyone would like the medical details of that procedure just let me know. I'll spare those of you that may be a bit squeamish about such things.

Now it is Saturday evening and we just arrived home from Terri's house. We had a great time. In my mailbox was a package. It was from a charity website that I had visited last week. www.heavenlyhats.com
Please visit the website and consider making a donation. I gave them my diagnosis and age and they sent me 5 adorable hats FREE! I will definitely be giving to this organization in the future! My favorite hat is a baseball cap that is bright pink (breast cancer awareness color) and has the word FAITH embroidered in black letters across the front. What a great encouragement that my faith is strong and not in vain. I love how God shows Himself to us each day if we just pay attention.

Ok, so we have a plan

We met today with Dr. Q and he brought in an associate that he thinks very highly of. Dr. R is affiliated with MD Anderson and has been around for decades. He examined me and then the two of them formulated our attack plan.

I will be going in the first part of next week to have a Port-a-Cath placed in my chest. This will be to administer the chemo through so they don't have to find a vein each time. They will also be placing a marker on the tumor. This will help to show us the area of the tumor in case the chemo destroys the tumor totally. I will begin chemo after Thanksgiving. I will have 2 or 3 rounds of chemo at first. If the tumor responds well and shrinks we will then do surgery to remove the rest of it. If it doesn't respond well to the chemo then a mastectomy will still be on the agenda. I am scheduled to have a total of 6 rounds of chemo--1 every 21 days or so. I will have the first 2 or 3 prior to surgery and the remaining treatments after surgery. I will still have radiation after chemo unless I have a mastectomy.

We feel good with the plan. Dr. Q said he would administer chemo as a systemic treatment regardless of our surgery options due to my age. It just makes sense to try to shrink the tumor and remove a small part of the breast as opposed to just going in and removing the breast entirely in the beginning.

Thanks to everyone for your love and support. We appreciate the phone calls and cards. We are doing well with all of this so far. We are just ready to get the show on the road. The sooner they cure me the sooner we can get our lives back in order.

Oh and the good news for today is that all of my scans came back normal. As of right now the cancer is still contained in the breast. We won't know if it's in the lymph nodes until surgery, but we are encouraged that we did catch it early and I will make a complete recovery!

Something to make you smile

This isn't related to cancer, but it made me laugh first thing this morning which is a nice way to start the day.

This will make you keep and eye on your children while shopping this holiday season!

On a cancer note, we meet with the oncologist to find out my test results this morning. We met with a plastic surgeon for a consult yesterday. I will give a complete update when we get home this afternoon.

Hope everyone has a beautiful day today. Enjoy this wonderful fall weather!