Just Kidding...

so plans have changed. The good news is I am not having my left breast removed on Friday.
The bad news is I will still have surgery it’s just minor surgery so that I can get a “port” placed just below my right collarbone, for easy vessel access and I will start Chemo in a week. The doctors are hoping to shrink the tumor with Chemo and then have better chances of getting clear margins without cutting into muscle when I do have surgery sometime in October.

I have been way more anxious about Chemo then surgery so I’m a bit frazzled by the idea of going through it that much sooner. Plus I had a tentative plan for how I was going to manage this, and now that’s out the window.

So here’s the run down. They will start with Adriamycin and Rubex on July 15th and I will get 4 treatments one every 2 weeks. Usually they wait three weeks, but they don’t want to mess around and I’m young and energetic so they aren’t giving me as much recovery time in between treatments. I will feel very tired between days 3 and 5 after treatment, on Days 5-10 I will be most susceptible to infection and I might feel ok on days 11-14. I will lose my hair during the second treatment. So I have about 3 more weeks of shaving my legs and applying mascara. My hair will come back after the treatments are over. After that I will get Cytoxan once a week for 4 weeks.
So if I don’t get sick and have to be hospitalized or delay treatments because my blood counts are too low I should be done in 12 weeks. After that I will have surgery and then Radiation. In addition to Chemo I will be on a steroid that will help my body accept the Chemo, unfortunately it will also make my body ravishingly hungry. The nurse expects that I’ll gain 10 pounds.

During the weeks of Chemo I have been forbidden to do dishes, clean bathrooms, change diapers or eat fruits and vegetables that can’t be peeled. I’m also not allowed to go anywhere public. Except for three days before my next treatment… I think. This should be interesting considering technically I have 2 in diapers, although Dallin likes to take care of his himself…if only that weren’t messier. Right now cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms is almost a daily occurrence. The nurse didn’t seem too concerned with me having people over or going over to other peoples houses, as long as everyone involved is healthy.

Most days I’m able to stay pretty positive about this whole ordeal but I do have my low days. Yesterday was one of those days. Cameron had an evening meeting so I made the kids peanut butter sandwiches for dinner and then spent the evening typing on the computer and eating a candy bar. Maybe I won’t have to go through Chemo to gain 10 pounds.