Rough Year Ahead but Well Worth It!

I had a very busy week this week. Went to see Dr. Hantel, Naperville Oncologist on Monday 12-12-11. Vicki took me shopping for new clothes and got several outfits for the holiday season and beyond. Julie took me to get my 2 bottom wisdom teeth pulled on Friday in Oswego as that was the only opening they had for the remainder of 2011. Laura & Adam went out and got me an Oberweis chocolate milk shake which I enjoyed 10 spoonfuls then didn't enjoy it coming back up on me. Ron was out of town Thur-Sat evening. I had to suffer with my teeth without him as I was getting sick most of that Friday evening. Saturday I was much better and able to keep soup down. Today my teeth hurt but very tolerable. On Wed, my one wisdom tooth that was bothering me since October, cracked. So the oral surgeon had to fit me in before Jan. The doctors didn't want the teeth pulled before my mastectomy surgeries, so now was the best time. Could I fit any thing else into my healing time.

Dr. Hantel did NOT have very good news for me. My treatment will be as follows: Starting Jan 4th, I start chemo with the drugs Taxol and Herceptin for 12 weeks once a week thru a port they will have to insert the end of Dec. Then for 9 months, I will continue with Herceptin every 3 weeks til the end of the year. For 5 years following these treatments, I will get hormone therapy in a pill form. These treatments will be done at Edwards Naperville Cancer Center.

The chemo should be tolerable with a long list of side effects. The herceptin's side effect is mainly heart problems which I will be getting an echo cardiogram every 2-3 months and monitored closely. Once I discontinue taking the drugs, the side effects will go away and won't be lasting problems.

Dr. Hantel said that my pathology results were very rare (as I already knew I was SPECIAL) with estrogen & progesterone positive and the HER2 positive with a high over expressed number of 5. He said that this year maybe 4 patients in 350 had triple positive bio-markers. My HER2 positive meant that the cancer cells were dividing 5 times rather than dividing twice. This is one of the reasons the cancer grew sooo fast and so much with 50% of my breast cancerous in 10 months. He wants to block any further cells that had escaped through the bloodstream from dividing & multipling. The ability of chemotherapy to kill cancer cells depends on its ability to halt cell division. If the cells are unable to divide, they die. Chemo is most effective at killing cells that are rapidly dividing. Chemo doesn't know the difference between cancer cells and normal cells. The normal cells will grow back and be healthy but resulting in low blood counts, mouth sores, nausea, hair loss, etc during the process. I am amazed to think that Taxol/Herceptin will be able to shine their light into all the dark corners where the possible cancer cells might be lurking.

It will be a rough 2012 ahead but my odds will be well worth it. Right now they are saying that I have a 20% chance that some kind of cancer will pop up in the next 5 years. But if I follow their treatment plan of chemo, herceptin, and hormone therapy, I will have a 98.5% chance that I would be free and clear for 5 years. Those are better odds than being on the pill. I can live with those odds as I feel it will be well worth it to see our children get married and have children of their own.

So I told Ron that 12-12-12 I should be almost done with treatments...so I am marking that day as a close to graduation day and hoping there will be no interruption of treatments, such as sickness, white blood counts low etc. I will NOT be able to be around anyone that is sick or on the verge of sickness. PLEASE keep that in mind before visiting.

We are thanking God for all the women who have undergone studies/trials before me that resulted in the researchers/doctors to find these drugs (taxol & herceptin) and that they exist for me and others. The doctors are able to tell me ahead of time what to look for and follow up on and have drugs to help me bear through the treatments. All because of these women. I admire the women who went before me and fought a long hard battle and lost and for those that continue to fight. I know I am not alone in this fight and that there are sooo many others that have it much much worse than me. I am so thankful that I found the lumps when I did. It could have been a much different situation down the line.

Ron said he may want to see me as a blond. Any thoughts???

Thanks for the meals and cards. They have been a godsend. In January Ron will start traveling again, so check in on me. Thankfully, Lauren and Scott have really stepped up their visiting schedules. It gets lonely now that it is the two of us.

I hope you all have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas. God Bless you and your families.

Love, Joan