Keep me company as I travel thru my journey facing breast cancer again.

Why would anyone want to read about someone else's problem when you have plenty of your own? Maybe one day a loved one, a friend, or you will be diagnosed with breast cancer. My blog might offer insite into cancer resources, thoughts, questions to ask, or guidance in helping you deal with this disease. These are my experiences and suggestions. Every breast cancer is different. If you are touched by breast cancer, be sure to consult your Dr. for direction in treatment.

I equate my blog to the emergency evacuation instruction the flight attendants do before you take off on an airplane. Nobody pays attention to them but when your plane is about to crash you think, "sh*t, why didn't I pay more attention to them? Which color cord do I pull first again?" We have so many things going on in our lives that one more thing to dwell on that doesn't apply to us right now may not be important but when it does, we wish we would have paid attention.

My blog is something you might read a couple times or maybe follow. Hopefully you gain some knowledge about breast cancer, in particular, Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC). It is the 2nd most common type of invasive breast cancer however it only accounts for approx. 10% of all invasive breast cancers. It is the silent breast cancer. It is generally not detected with a mammo but rather an ultrasound. Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC) is what I have been diagnosed with. My suggestion to every woman who is of mammo age insist on an ultrasound with your mammos.
UPDATE 3/2011
I have had my bilaterial mastectomy and I am recovering. ILC is a sneaky cancer as I said above. My various Dr.'s here and at UCSF confirmed the size of my tumor should be between 2.5cm-3.5cm with possibilty but not most likely, 7cm. After my surgery, my tumor was confirmed to be 11cm. My Dr.'s are very knowledgeable and are on top of things. This is simply the truth about ILC. I had mammos every 6 months, ultra sounds, and MRI's. With all of these, it was not picked up until 1/2011. The good news, if you can call it that, only 1 sentinel node out of 2 has micromastic findings and 5 aux. nodes were negative.

Be sure to start my adventure from the blog history on the right. I have tried to bold points to make it easier to extract the important information. If there is anything you get out of this blog, refer to my Dr.'s listed below if you know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer in the East Bay. These Dr.'s; Dr. Gottlieb, Dr. Wotowic, and Dr. Sherman are my 3 musketeers....all for 1 and 1 for all!

May 6, 2011

24 hours after 1st chemo

So. I'm 24 hours out from my first chemo infusion. I'm doing OK, well better then OK. I had my appt yesterday at 9:00am. I took a Ativan to relieve my anxiety...Frank drove me and I have to say the pill worked. His driving is the only time we fight and I was perfectly happy while he drove. The staff sat me down in the infusion center which had about 12 big Laz-O-Boy chairs. There were people in just about all the chairs. I had thought it was going to be weird seeing all this people just sitting enxt to each other but everybody just kinda minds their own business. Again, I was the youngest person in there. So they sat me down, and she removed the band aid that covered my port...I had place the numbing cream on it an hour before treatment time. She poked the needle into the port and set me up. My first cocktail (on Cinco deMayo mind you!) was for 2 different types of nausea drugs one after each other. The next item up was the Adriamycin It was bright red like Kol-aid, weird. Next up was the Cytoxin, which they administered more slowly. It all took about an hour and half.
Frank and I went to a local restaurant for lunch. I've been drinking alot of fluid. My first time that I urinated it was bright red. That was within 45 min of receiving the Andriamycin. Felt fine until about 4:30 then nausea came ever so slightly. Zofran time! Anyway you can read what I've done so far below. I have not followed all of Leni's advice. There were a few items that the oncologist strongly suggested I not take so I am being on the conservative side but everything else of hers I am following, drops, diet suggestions, teas, castor oil pack.
The big event when someone is on chemo is to make sure your body is getting ride of what your eating-you get what I'm getting at??? Prunes...need I say more, but I'm good, so far.


5/4/11 ambian-thank you for a great night's sleep
5/5/11 8:00am  ativan  (for anxiety)-thank you for making Frank's driving tolerable
9:00 am chemo
5/5/11 4:30pm zofran /slight nausea feeling. slight headache
6:00 trader Joe wheat thins 
7:00 pm nausea gone
7:10 drops, mouthwash, prunes, vit e drop tongue. 
7:30 dinner fish tacos-really you ask? Yep. there was a brief period of "that sounds good" 
7:45 sipping ginger tea
Tapioca pudding
9:11 Ativan. Special toothpaste, mouthwash 
Bathrm stop 3 times during the night

Friday May 5
No nausea. Chest slightly tight. Cough, slight headache (could have taken Tylenol)
6:45am Coffee, drops, granola , yogurt, blueberrys, probiotic pill,
 lemon water, 4 prunes
7:30 Emend pill
9:15am neulasta shot in arm. Staff asked questions-how you doing? 
10:15  spin bike 20 min
10:45 clariton d (to help with neulasta shot)
11:00 drops
Nausea 
 11:30 lunch traderjoes fruit/Israeli couscous salad. Added pinto beans. Munched 
on trader Joe honey wheat twist sticks. Seemed to do the trick for nausea.
I spend the day sipping on the lemon water, nettle, tea, water, and whatever else to reach my 3 quart status. So if I'm going to hit the wall, it's supposed to start tonight...we will wait and see.
Prune time...gotta go. Um that is to eat more prunes...
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