Step 4a: The first of 6 Chemo treatments...but first let me tell you about Glenda..

Well, its day 2 post-chemo. I really wanted to post yesterday but while the mind was almost there the body was certainly not.

When they tell you Chemo doesn't hurt they are right. If you discount getting the IV put in that is...which is only nasty if you look I find. And I don't look so its not so bad. And you know you're far gone when you have port envy LOL I was busy admiring everyone else's port, including my friend Glenda who came to visit with Lyle and I while I was getting my chemo. Anyway, you only get a port if your veins aren't good apparently, so that was the end of my port envy :-)

I think some of you may not know about Glenda. I met her through Lyle when he worked at Zedi. The November before the last one (sorry the math brain is off today!) and she had just landed a job with a new and much better employer. Fast forward 9 months, or June of last year and she contacted me as she knew I was seeking a new position with better benefits and pay, when she told me about my current position and to get my resume in asap. Anyhoo, her and I have become good friends over the time I've known her.

The real irony in this is that just shortly after I had noticed my lump, but before I got in touch with the Dr (idiot that I am!), she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And so, once she told me, then I got my butt in gear. She has a different type of breast cancer, it is very aggressive and she was lucky to get in the clinical trial for Avastin. Avastin was in the news in the past couple of weeks here in Alberta as the AB gov't finally approved it for use in colo-rectal cancer.

I call Glenda my tour guide, and I have promised to get her a 'safari' hat so everyone will know she is my tour guide and mentor during this crappy dance. She is a step ahead of me in the dance, her last chemo treatment is at the end of this month and in late April she will begin radiation therapy. If you have a moment please say a prayer on behalf of Glenda as well.

It was great to have her at Chemo for support I must say. We get different drugs, but we both have a slightly wacked sense of humour so we laughed and joked. Lyle even had to join in with us so I guess it was contagious.

Anyway, I guess I should get back to the chemo stuff. The one thing I found different was that I thought the 3 drugs would be in one bag, no way....one at a time! Anyway, they give you an anit-nausea drug first, that took 20-30 minutes I guess. The next one was the E in FEC, Epirubicin. Now most of you know I have developed a huge fondness for red over the past 4 or 5 years but that may be about to end! This is one nasty drug and is bright red in colour! It looks nasty and it is nasty but I guess it does the trick. The E took about 30 minutes or so, and then they did the 5-FU push, which is the F in FEC. I am sure you know what jokes I was cracking when the nurse told me she was doing the FU push now! Very appropriately named if you ask me, which of course no one has. :-) The last drug was the C in FEC which name completely escapes me. Since it was going on for 1:30 pm and I had been there since 11 am I was getting antsy to get the heck out of there. So of course this one and the 'flush' seemed like it took forever. I could hardly wait to leave, I just wanted to go home by now.

We stopped to eat on the way home, which was a good thing. Then a quick stop at Sobey's and home by 4:30pm. I was starting to feel 'weird' and very cold. So I got settled in with my blanket and had a short nap. When I woke up I was still feeling weird, actually weirder if that is possible. I declined to eat supper, just didn't feel right and kept drinking water and water and water. It is a good thing I like water as it is necessary to up your intake considerably during the course of chemo...and none of those caffeinated bevy's either. So I have a acquired a large stock of decaf teas, but I am still having my coffee in the morning...

Anyway I went to bed very early, right after Project Runway Canada ( which is a discussion for another day, contact me privately if you wish to discuss this LOL). At 9:30 I was racing for the bathroom, I was so sick to my stomach! And that continued all nite. Thank God Janna was up at 10:30 as I called the triage nurse at the Cross because I had been sick three times by that point and could not think what I should do. Anyway, Janna and Milo ran into Leduc for some Gravol (and not the by mouth type!) and that did settle things down somewhat. Even my Sgritty Kat knew I wasn't well, she stuck to me like glue, all nite and most of yesterday as well.

Yesterday was hugely nasty, but the nausea abated as the day went along. I was really glad I had grabbed that fruit cup at Sobey's on the way home. And Jello will be made the day of chemo next time! I managed to get some rice down last nite and today I am feeling alot better. I hope this continues.

Sorry for the length of this post, but I really wanted to tell you about Glenda. And I will attempt to update this blog on a fairly regular basis! Hopefully next time my sense of humour will have returned along with my appetite!

Step 3, Meet your Oncologist!

Well, this week I got to meet my Oncologist. Dr Joy (yes, that really is his name!) is a very nice man and I felt very positive when I left. City Colleen was with me and her extraordinary note taking has been immensely helpful. And she has volunteered to attend Chemo Class with me today!

There are not words appropriate enough to express my gratitude to Colleen and indeed everyone who calls, visits, sends cards/emails. I am in awe of all of you and I appreciate your communications!

My treatment plan goes as follows:
Chemotherapy:
3 treatments once every 3 weeks of a cocktail called FEC (should by yuck! LOL) for a total of 9 weels.
3 treatments once every 3 weeks of a drug called Taxotere for another total of 9 weeks.

Tamoxifen 1/day for the next 5 years.

Radiation therapy: 5 days a week for 5 weeks.

Well, at least now I know what I'm doing for my summer vacation!
I start Chemotherapy on St Patricks Day, so I am going to consider that a lucky day to start. I am part Irish after all. And if I turn green I'll be appropriately coloured for the day :-)

I also have started counselling. I think this will help me to deal with the many changes that are going to be happening as well as help me plan for the future. I am thinking this may not be a good time to buy life insurance ?

And I plan to start work on my long delayed thesis.

I will keep everyone posted via this blog so stay tuned. I am not promising weekly posts, but I will try to post at least once every two weeks.

See you soon...

Step 1b, Lymph Nodes....gone

Well, February 23 was not very far off. I needed to go to my place in Leduc and get a 'few' more things. Silly me, I was thinking my recovery would be as quick as from the first surgery.

I opted for day surgery, I really did not want to spend another sleepless nite in a hospital and am really glad I made that choice. At least the bed here is comfortable :-)

The second surgery took its toll. I am still not fully recovered, but am feeling much stronger this week (March 9 on). The path report on the second surgery indicated that there were a couple of lymph nodes showing cancer so my 'chemo free' dream died in a rather spectacular crash. It had actually died when I found out I needed the second surgery but I held on to some remnants, well, you have to think positive don't you?

At least I felt better once that damn drain was removed. And finally had some stamina to knit again, which has been excellent physiotherapy in my opinion. Much more productive than squeezing a soft ball or wall walking, but hey, thats just my thoughts!

Step 1, the Surgery

Well, February 10 arrived. Yes, I was scared spitless, but thank goodness I was booked to be there early in the morning (7 am) so there was not a lot of day to spend stewing about it.

I don't remember a lot about that day, just that I got through it. A full mastectomy is not a ton of fun, but was certainly better than knee surgery LOL I was pretty sore, and really not happy about the drains, but hey, I can do this! And an appointment was set for the following Wednesday to remove the drains, so the next day I went home.

Recovering in Calmar was good, I had Mr Milo to assist me with his gurgles and beginning smiles. He is such a contented baby, and it was also good to spend time with Janna.

Wednesday, February 18 finally arrived. I was so looking forward to seeing those drains unattached to me that I really didn't care what was involved in removing them. Turns out there isn't much involved to their removal so its a good thing I didn't waste an energy worrying about that :-) The surgeon said that everything was looking good, although the path report wasn't back yet, but the lymph nodes (2) that had been removed had looked clear in the OR.

So I was 'cured' ....well thought so. Late that afternoon I received the call that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes and I was booked for more surgery on Monday, February 23. This was not good news, nor was the news that the MRI had been bang on about the size of the tumor. 10cm???? Good grief, where on earth was I hiding that!!!!

Step 1 was officially over, step 1b was about to begin....

The first dance step...

Sorry to be breaking this up, but I thought if I wrote in steps it is easier to read...or not, depending on your viewpoint.

The surgeon appointment was less than one week after that initial telling of the diagnosis. I didn't really know what to expect but off I went. Two days before the surgeon appointment I recieved a call from his office telling me I was scheduled for an MRI the following day. I went on my own to this appointment, they were only taking pictures right? Turns out there is a mass in the left breast too.!!! Yippee! NOT!! So another biopsy is going to be required.


Thankfully, Lyle came with me for the next day to the surgeon's appointment. His rememberance is much better than mine. The surgeon discussed the results of the biopsy and the treatment plans. The biopsy and ultrasound were indicating that the tumor (lobular carcinoma) was approximately 2.5 cm in size. Ok, that isn't really that big. But he wanted to wait to see the results of the second biopsy, which was moved up to that afternoon. The good thing about that was I wasn't going to have to stew about it for another 5 days, it would be over with. Thankfully, the second biopsy was negative.

The following week I was back to see the surgeon. The MRI causes alot of confusion regarding tumor size, now there is a possibility it is as large as 10 cm, but of course I wasn't really listening to this, just the fact that my surgery was scheduled for February 10, the following Tuesday.

At this point I have to say I have the best employer. There has never been a hesitation about allowing me time off for all those pre-surgery Dr appointments/tests and the sick leave program is also very good. So thank you!

In the meantime, on Monday I had a test scheduled called 'Sentinel Node Imaging' and then my Pre-Op Screening. A full day indeed. And then the next day, the surgery.....

The dance begins....

Well, here we are in March. My how time flies when you're not having fun! I am starting this blog so I can stop with the depressing emails. This way, you can check out what is going on with me when its a good time for you, or if you want to.
Also, I especially want to thank everyone who is praying or sending positive thoughts. You are what get me through each and every day. Your support is very much appreciated and I can't tell you how much it means to me.


Anyhoo, the story so far....

I had found a lump in October, and of course assumed it was the usual cyst formation. I did go see the Dr and get a referral for a mammogram at the beginning of November. No appointments available until January 15! Oh well, it is just a cyst. And besides I don't have a huge amount of time to think about this.



By the end of November I realized that this likely was no cyst but in typical Jody fashion didn't really get past that thought. Certainly didn't give a moment's thought to what might have to happen if it wasn't.



Mammogram day loomed closer and I began to panic. Jodi thought I was being too pessismistic, but if you know something is not right with your body you really need to pay attention to it. Well, on the day,the mammogram failed to pick up the mass, it was found on the ultrasound. So anyone who is reading this should make sure they ask for the ultrasound as well, just a suggestion. Since being diagnosed this is something I've heard from several others, so its not just me.



They did a biopsy that day and that began likely the longest 10 days of this year so far! Finally, on January 23 I had a call from my GP that the results were in. I went to see him and heard him say (barely I might add) what I had known for a while. He was so upset, I have seen this Dr for a number of years although not so often in the past 10 years, but he knows my Mom and my sister so we definitly have a long standing relationship. He had booked me in with a surgeon that he felt was the best to be had in Edmonton. And so the dance began....