A big thank you to my sister-in-law for
driving me to my chemo appointment!
Today’s appointment was pretty smooth. I was in and out by 2:30pm. My port access was done by a student, and was not too painful, but didn’t feel so great either. I’ve done my good deed for the year now. A students gotta learn somehow…
Today was the last time I will see my current Dr. He’s retiring at the end of the month. I am so happy to have had him as my Dr. What an amazing doctor he is! I met my new Dr., however I will only see him after I have my next echo cardiogram in 3 months. For my next nadir and chemo I will see the P.A. I’ve seen him for most of my nadir appointments and have really liked him. The reason I’ll being seeing the P.A. and not my doctor has to do with the volume of patients my doctor retiring had, there were so many they had to share patients around. For the ‘important’ stuff I’ll see the new Dr. and for the stuff the P.A. can do he’ll do. I’m cool with that.
Today’s appointment was pretty smooth. I was in and out by 2:30pm. My port access was done by a student, and was not too painful, but didn’t feel so great either. I’ve done my good deed for the year now. A students gotta learn somehow…
Today was the last time I will see my current Dr. He’s retiring at the end of the month. I am so happy to have had him as my Dr. What an amazing doctor he is! I met my new Dr., however I will only see him after I have my next echo cardiogram in 3 months. For my next nadir and chemo I will see the P.A. I’ve seen him for most of my nadir appointments and have really liked him. The reason I’ll being seeing the P.A. and not my doctor has to do with the volume of patients my doctor retiring had, there were so many they had to share patients around. For the ‘important’ stuff I’ll see the new Dr. and for the stuff the P.A. can do he’ll do. I’m cool with that.
*After my next, and LAST hard chemo I
will make an appointment for a consultation with the radiologist. This is just an
appointment to talk about radiation and what they are going to do and what I
can expect. Within 2 weeks of my LAST and FINAL hard chemo I need to have an
MRI done to see what’s going on in my breasts, and then within a few days
of the MRI I need to see my surgeon and discuss surgery. My oncologist
thinks I’m a candidate for a lumpectomy because I’ve had such good response to
chemo. He said to talk to the surgeon and get her feelings, this cancer was quite
involved and big and she may not be comfortable doing a lumpectomy. To be
honest I’m nervous doing a lumpectomy. I have a 12% change of getting breast
cancer again whether I do a single or double mastectomy. Interesting that the
percentage doesn’t change by doing a double mastectomy.
*The plan is still to do the herceptin treatment 3 weeks after my 6th chemo and do surgery the following week. BUT, I need to see when the surgeon is available, so that’s just my tentative schedule. For my Herceptin treatments I will not need to see the doctor, but I will need to have a blood draw. I will also not have a nadir appointment. After my 9th treatment (My 3rd only Herceptin treatment) I will do another echo cardiogram and at my next herceptin treatment I’ll see my Dr.
*After surgery I will be given 3-4 weeks of healing time before radiation begins. They will be radiating the whole breast and it will be penetrating deep enough to get my rib wall and everything in between. The side effects of radiation begin to be uncomfortable around the 3rd or 4th week.
My chemo buddies today were: My sister in law , my good friend, and 3 of my kids. 2 of my kids only came to see the therapy dog Trent. Turns out my youngest daughter is quite the dog whisperer! Trent loved her and plopped himself on the floor for her to rub his belly, this lasted for quite a while. It was fun playing games and visiting. My husband joined us at lunch time and brought me the best Jimmy Johns sandwich! Thanks honey!! My good friend brought me a yummy chocolate raspberry cupcake which I ate after chemo. It was delicious!
*The plan is still to do the herceptin treatment 3 weeks after my 6th chemo and do surgery the following week. BUT, I need to see when the surgeon is available, so that’s just my tentative schedule. For my Herceptin treatments I will not need to see the doctor, but I will need to have a blood draw. I will also not have a nadir appointment. After my 9th treatment (My 3rd only Herceptin treatment) I will do another echo cardiogram and at my next herceptin treatment I’ll see my Dr.
*After surgery I will be given 3-4 weeks of healing time before radiation begins. They will be radiating the whole breast and it will be penetrating deep enough to get my rib wall and everything in between. The side effects of radiation begin to be uncomfortable around the 3rd or 4th week.
My chemo buddies today were: My sister in law , my good friend, and 3 of my kids. 2 of my kids only came to see the therapy dog Trent. Turns out my youngest daughter is quite the dog whisperer! Trent loved her and plopped himself on the floor for her to rub his belly, this lasted for quite a while. It was fun playing games and visiting. My husband joined us at lunch time and brought me the best Jimmy Johns sandwich! Thanks honey!! My good friend brought me a yummy chocolate raspberry cupcake which I ate after chemo. It was delicious!
One of the highlights from today’s chemo was watching my friend Merna
ring the bell! It seriously made me emotional! Before she rang the bell she
could see I was almost done with my chemo so she waited. She came and held my
hand while I received my nuelasta shot, which I think is the most painful part
of chemo!!
Thank you to those who have surprised me with flowers! To say thank you
doesn’t feel like enough! I love the support, the encouragement,and your
generosity! I love the text messages, the emails and phone calls! You are all
the medicine I need to get through this! Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I
love you all!
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