Round 3 all aboard the chemo train!
January 13, 2012 I started chemotherapy for the third time. This time I'm getting Abraxane, my oncologist assured me it was of the same family as I what I was getting before but a lot less harsh. I didn't need steroids because the side effects were supposed to be milder! Yeah right! Once again I experienced nausea, vomiting for two days followed by an achy body for the next five days! At my next visit I requested better anti-nausea medication but was told I had to work up to the good stuff...give me a break!
So here I sit, I had my second infusion of the abraxane and once again spent two days being nauseous followed by unbelieveable joint pain that had me popping tylenol 3's every four hours! Turns out somewhere along the line I had caught the flu so it was hard to distinguish between chemo pain and flu pain...needless to say I was not a happy camper!! I still continue with the aches and pains and now I just have a runny nose and cough! Btw my last ct scan said that I was stable with no new tumours in my lungs or lymph nodes and the tumours in my liver in one quandrant they can't even see them anymore and another place they continue to shrink. My goal is to be dancing with NED (no evidence of disease), I even bought the t-shirt for that day!! So that's my story up until now I will continue to update as time goes on!
Sunday, 12 February 2012
It isn't over yet!
Fast forward to April 21st, 2011, the beast has returned! I had been back to work for almost 18 months working in a job I loved! Prior to my cancer diagnosis I had obtained a full time job in the MRI department, a job I despised, I had to work shifts and it just couldn't compare to the radiation department. So thanks to my good doctor and fate I was able to return to the radiation department, as a former cancer patient what better place to work than in a cancer centre. I not only had previous experience doing the job but now I also had first hand experience as to what our patients were experencing! So on to round two, it had started with a cough that wouldn't go away after a month! Not a good sign but I went to my family doctor anyway who ordered a chest xray which lead to a ct scan which lead to being diagnosed as stage 4. Numerous nodules in lungs and liver, not the best news in the world but as long as I didn't listen to the statistics I could still live for a lot of years to come! So I put on best game face, went back on sick leave and back to chemo, this time it was going to be taxol with herceptin. My doctor had figured enough time had passed I could try it again.
My daughter and me at chemo!!
So I did 6 rounds of the taxol, my ct scan showed that the chemo had shrunk the tumours in the lungs remarkably and there was shrinkage in the liver too so I continued with the herceptin alone as my doctor thought that anymore rounds of the taxol would be ineffective. So I decided to return to work as I knew I could work with the side effects of the herceptin, I started off wearing a wig due to the hair loss again but switched to scarves when I couldn't take the itchiness anymore. I felt like a poster child for breast cancer as of course the patients noticed but I was told I was an inpiration to them too so that was nice. As luck would have it the herceptin started to effect my heart function, she tried skipping a treatment and then tried a couple more but there wasn't much improvement my ejection fraction wasn't going above 40%, normal range was 50-75%. So my christmas present that year was I would be back to chemo starting in the new year and I was going to have to take another sick leave to once again deal with the side effects of the chemo....on to round 3!!
Fast forward to April 21st, 2011, the beast has returned! I had been back to work for almost 18 months working in a job I loved! Prior to my cancer diagnosis I had obtained a full time job in the MRI department, a job I despised, I had to work shifts and it just couldn't compare to the radiation department. So thanks to my good doctor and fate I was able to return to the radiation department, as a former cancer patient what better place to work than in a cancer centre. I not only had previous experience doing the job but now I also had first hand experience as to what our patients were experencing! So on to round two, it had started with a cough that wouldn't go away after a month! Not a good sign but I went to my family doctor anyway who ordered a chest xray which lead to a ct scan which lead to being diagnosed as stage 4. Numerous nodules in lungs and liver, not the best news in the world but as long as I didn't listen to the statistics I could still live for a lot of years to come! So I put on best game face, went back on sick leave and back to chemo, this time it was going to be taxol with herceptin. My doctor had figured enough time had passed I could try it again.
So I did 6 rounds of the taxol, my ct scan showed that the chemo had shrunk the tumours in the lungs remarkably and there was shrinkage in the liver too so I continued with the herceptin alone as my doctor thought that anymore rounds of the taxol would be ineffective. So I decided to return to work as I knew I could work with the side effects of the herceptin, I started off wearing a wig due to the hair loss again but switched to scarves when I couldn't take the itchiness anymore. I felt like a poster child for breast cancer as of course the patients noticed but I was told I was an inpiration to them too so that was nice. As luck would have it the herceptin started to effect my heart function, she tried skipping a treatment and then tried a couple more but there wasn't much improvement my ejection fraction wasn't going above 40%, normal range was 50-75%. So my christmas present that year was I would be back to chemo starting in the new year and I was going to have to take another sick leave to once again deal with the side effects of the chemo....on to round 3!!
My Story!
I was told I had cancer on Oct 9th, 2008. My son was turning 21 a few days later and what a great present I had to give him. Thankfully that weekend we still ended up celebrating and cancer was forgotten for at least one day. The next few weeks after that were filled with doctor's visits and scans of my entire body to make sure the cancer hadn't spread, which at that time it hadn't. I was told I had Her2 positive breast cancer, it wasn't hormonal, instead my body for some unknown reason was overexpressing the her2 protein and later in my treatment I was going to have a year of herceptin, a wonder drug used to keep my type of cancer at bay! Yeah right, best laid plans not in my book! I was also told my cancer was locally advanced , the tumour was large (8cm) so I was to do chemotherapy first to shrink it prior to surgery.
So with the support of my great husband, wonderful friends and family I had my first chemo on Oct. 25th. I was to get 4 doses of adrianmycin and cytoxan followed by 4 doses of taxol. All I can say is chemo is everything they say it is! I ended up having 3 days of hydration after my first dose due to the nausea and vomiting. Not only did I lose my hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, my toe nails fell off too! No more pedicures for me because they never did grow back normal. I was never so glad to be over the chemo but I couldn't get too excited, surgery was scheduled a month after my chemo was done!
Surgery I have to say was a piece of cake! My surgeon was the best, I had opted for a bilateral masectomy, immediate reconstruction unfortuntely wasn't an option, but that was ok I just didn't want to go through this again! At one point I did mourn my breasts, they weren't big but they did make my clothes look better and of course being bald and boobless does nothing for the self esteem!
Radiation was next, I was on the wrong side of the desk. I had worked in this department as a receptionist/booking clerk prior to this whole ordeal and now I was a patient! Didn't like this one bit except for I had Dr. McDreamy as my radiation oncologist, thanks to my lovely coworkers who arranged for me to get him. So I started a series of 25 radiation treatments along with my first few doses of herceptin. After my third dose of herceptin and my 23rd radiation treatment I ended up hosptialized with a suspected blood clot due to severe shortness of breath. I ended up finishing my radiation but my medical oncologist discontinued my herceptin and instead spent 3 months on blood thinners! Like I said best laid plans....
I was told I had cancer on Oct 9th, 2008. My son was turning 21 a few days later and what a great present I had to give him. Thankfully that weekend we still ended up celebrating and cancer was forgotten for at least one day. The next few weeks after that were filled with doctor's visits and scans of my entire body to make sure the cancer hadn't spread, which at that time it hadn't. I was told I had Her2 positive breast cancer, it wasn't hormonal, instead my body for some unknown reason was overexpressing the her2 protein and later in my treatment I was going to have a year of herceptin, a wonder drug used to keep my type of cancer at bay! Yeah right, best laid plans not in my book! I was also told my cancer was locally advanced , the tumour was large (8cm) so I was to do chemotherapy first to shrink it prior to surgery.
So with the support of my great husband, wonderful friends and family I had my first chemo on Oct. 25th. I was to get 4 doses of adrianmycin and cytoxan followed by 4 doses of taxol. All I can say is chemo is everything they say it is! I ended up having 3 days of hydration after my first dose due to the nausea and vomiting. Not only did I lose my hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, my toe nails fell off too! No more pedicures for me because they never did grow back normal. I was never so glad to be over the chemo but I couldn't get too excited, surgery was scheduled a month after my chemo was done!
Surgery I have to say was a piece of cake! My surgeon was the best, I had opted for a bilateral masectomy, immediate reconstruction unfortuntely wasn't an option, but that was ok I just didn't want to go through this again! At one point I did mourn my breasts, they weren't big but they did make my clothes look better and of course being bald and boobless does nothing for the self esteem!
Radiation was next, I was on the wrong side of the desk. I had worked in this department as a receptionist/booking clerk prior to this whole ordeal and now I was a patient! Didn't like this one bit except for I had Dr. McDreamy as my radiation oncologist, thanks to my lovely coworkers who arranged for me to get him. So I started a series of 25 radiation treatments along with my first few doses of herceptin. After my third dose of herceptin and my 23rd radiation treatment I ended up hosptialized with a suspected blood clot due to severe shortness of breath. I ended up finishing my radiation but my medical oncologist discontinued my herceptin and instead spent 3 months on blood thinners! Like I said best laid plans....
Saturday, 11 February 2012
My First Blog!
Well here goes nothing! Forgive me as this is my first time at this and I haven't quite got the layout how I want it yet, but stay tuned I'll get it eventually! I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to designing stuff even though that is not the field I work in. Ironically I work in a cancer centre as a booking clerk in the radiation therapy department. Great place to work especially if you are a cancer patient! When I was working (I'm off now due to chemotherapy) all I had to do is run up a few floors to my doctor's appointments or the lab or next door for my three month scans! Well that's it for now!
Well here goes nothing! Forgive me as this is my first time at this and I haven't quite got the layout how I want it yet, but stay tuned I'll get it eventually! I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to designing stuff even though that is not the field I work in. Ironically I work in a cancer centre as a booking clerk in the radiation therapy department. Great place to work especially if you are a cancer patient! When I was working (I'm off now due to chemotherapy) all I had to do is run up a few floors to my doctor's appointments or the lab or next door for my three month scans! Well that's it for now!
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