So lets get to this blog. On May 2nd I had my appointment with my Oncologist Dr. Wang. We talked about the rest of my treatment. May 28th is the LAST day of my CHEMO Cycle. What is a chemo cycle? Well I did SIX rounds of chemo. This is how I understood this chemo cycle. Jan 29th was day one of my first big chemo. Than that following next two Tuesday's are my small chemo which is my Herceptin only. So one round of chemo contained Big Chemo (all 3 meds), Small chemo, Small chemo. So I did six rounds of that. I hope I didn't confuse you. The 28th of this month is the LAST day of my 6th cycle, yahoo!!!!
So what happens next? Well I found out that I will be doing Herceptin indefinitely! After the 28th of May I will be returning every 3 weeks to get my dose of Herceptin. What is Herceptin? Well, this is the Chemo drug that targets the cancer cells! You can find more info about Herceptin just click on the word! I will take this medicine until my doctor tells me I don't need it any more. So my port better start acting right! I don't mind that I have to keep going back. Whatever is going to keep me healthy and here to stay. I will take it!
So, on top of having to go back every three weeks I get to take Tamoxifen every day. Tamoxifen is my hormone suppressant. So it blocks the hormones that my cancer likes to feed on.....ESTROGEN. This causes fun, fun, fun HOT FLASHES!! Dr. Wang wants me to be on this for a MINIMAL of 10 years. I start my Tamoxifen 3 weeks after the 28th! Let the good times roll! LOL!
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| My Tamoxifen gets mailed to me! |
On the 7th I had my appointment with the radiation doctor; Dr. Xu. So this is what she said. I will be doing a total of 28 radiation treatments with an additional 5 treatments to my scar. I will have to go EVERYDAY Monday-Friday! I will be in the office for 15-30min each day. So the parts of my body that will have radiation are my left chest wall, under my arm, my neck area and behind my sternum. Its a huge range but it needs to be done because my cancer spread to my lymph nodes We need to make sure that we kill all these little pesky bugs that are lingering around. I will be complete with my radiation Mid-August.
As for reconstruction surgery I really don't want to think about that. I know that will pretty much put me in panic mode. I do not like surgery and I am just scared because my recon is going to be more intense than I originally wanted it to be! I will have to wait SIX months after I am done with radiation before I can have the surgery. Reason being is to make sure that my tissue has healed from the radiation. Working with radiated tissue is a lot more complex than with normal tissue. This means that the spacers are going to probably be more painful than normal.
But this is the update to those two appointments. I also have an appointment for survivors :) I have to double check when that appointment is again.
So I have a question for you all. May 28, 2013 is my last day of my chemo cycle should I make a sign saying its my last chemo? What are your thoughts? I mean I will be going back every three week for Herceptin. So I would love to hear your thoughts. I want to tell you all more about the last two weeks but I don't want to have this blog post be so long! I will write another post later.
So in 18 more days I will be done with my six cycles! Woot Woot!! I can't wait!
