What’s after Chemo?
Hey shawties,
I am writing from the infusion room while receiving Round #5! Woo! We have secured a chair next to the window today for the first time. It has a wonderful view of a Jack in the Box and -get this- a funeral home! Lmao! That should be against the rules.
My blood work this morning shows that all of my counts are in the right spot and my weight has remained steady through all of this, which is all good news! However, with the end of this shit show approaching in three weeks with Round #6 on May 11th, new questions of the unknown have started to arise. Of course this lack of understanding/information is not something I like, so I have pestered all the nurses and Doctor’s for as much advance information as possible. Here is what I know…
Surgery will be on June 6th.
I have chosen to receive a double mastectomy with implant reconstruction. At the time of surgery the two questionable lymph nodes will be removed as well. They are still technically “benign” however no one can explain why they still show up on scans or why their inflammation has not gone done. So those boys will just be removed for peace of mind.
Plan A is to have a singular surgery to get this all done. My breast surgeon, Dr. Kent, will remove all of the cancer and then “high five” my plastic surgeon, Dr. LeBlanc, halfway through and trade places. However, there is a (small) chance reconstruction would be delayed to another surgery. This would be a decision made during surgery for a number of reasons: if my blood supply is too low, if the preliminary pathology shows residual cancer they weren’t expecting, or if my lymph nodes look sus/they end up taking more than just the original two.
In these cases I would receive a 3 week reprieve to make a new plan and heal up a bit. If all goes well this won’t happen and I will spend 6-8 weeks after surgery recovering & eventually starting physical therapy.
The next steps for treatment taken after surgery also rely on pathology, which will be completed 3-5 days following surgery. (Talk about a wait, oh my lord.) Pathology will determine if I have had a “complete response” (Yay!) or a “partial response” (Jail for this!). It has been explained to me that there are essentially two paths I could take based on this designation.
The game plan was delivered on the note above but here it is explained…
Path 1: A “complete response” would result in receiving continued immunotherapy. I receive these drugs before each chemo round already, but this immunotherapy would be used to finally build my immune system back to “normal.” I was told this would be received about once every three weeks for a good while.
Path 2: A “partial response” really means “SHIT, this is not what we had expected!” In this case I would receive more chemo but it would be a “diet” chemo once every three weeks. This treatment would not have as harsh side effects because it would be attached to an antibody. It is used more as a preventative treatment to ensure that there is not a rogue cancer cell that escaped surgery & hid somewhere in my body that could cause a reoccurrence.
But wait, “what about radiation?” you may be saying. Well, much to my surprise this was a hot topic of conversation between all of my doctors, so much so that they presented my case at a tumor conference to get some opinions. The decision was made to not give me radiation if 1. both node biopsies turned up benign (which they have and 2. if I have no node complications in surgery. So add this to the list of things we won’t know until we know, but I am being optimistic!
Regardless of whether I have a complete or partial response, I will undergo some form of hormone therapy and visit or receive oral treatment once every three months for the next 5 years. Since my cancer feeds off of hormones that are produced as a result of my cycle, it is important to kind of keep that whole situation shut down for a bit. I am currently in medically induced menopause (since January) and this would just be a continuation and tailored version of that. The above note shows a multiple choice of three options depending on how aggressive we would like to be. In cases of people who have the same cancer, but are older than me, this is usually when the decision is made to go ahead and remove your lady system altogether.
However, obviously that is not something that I will do/consider and is a large part of the reason I chose to do fertility preservation at the beginning of all of this. It’s weird to think that people my age are starting to have children with intention, and I am still trying to get over the phase children = bad. Lol! It is a phase I had to get over quickly, because here I am now making decisions pretty regularly to ensure I at least have an opportunity in the future for the children = good phase. Haha!
As far as monitoring goes post chemo, surgery, & treatment, I have been told that I will need a full body checkup once every year for the next 5. I have learned that year 5 post-treatment is a huge milestone and is when everyone starts to relax if everything looks good.
So, what is the tea from the halfway chemo scans?
Good question, they look fab!
The newest image is on the left and the original image is on the right!
The tumor looks “deflated” and is down from 3-4 cm to about 2ish cm! These are all great signs that I am responding well to the chemo. The tumor has not been able to be detected through a physical exam since after the first round of chemo which is wonderful! However, even being a STEM girly I had somehow rationalized that meant that all of the cancer was gone. It was not fun being brought back to Earth with the halfway scans, but is 100% something to still celebrate. I think my mind just got the best of me.
In the meantime I have kept busy with friends, work, and I got to attend Puttin’ on the Pink yesterday! I ran into one of my doctors and nurse navigators at the fashion show fundraiser used to raise money for breast cancer and a mobile health unit used for screening! It was a wonderful distraction and excuse to dress up + celebrate with the family. Head over to the Scrapbook to check out the photos!
Well, I will have to wrap up this post here! I just started my first cold cap of the day and it is a bit hard to concentrate with a -32 degree Celsius hat on. Lol!
More good things to come soon!
TaTa for now,
Mags ;)
P.S. I have circled back to review this post (4/30) and realize there are several spelling, grammar, and other little errors scattered throughout. I thought it would be interesting to leave them in there to show just how much “Chemo Brain” is a real thing! At the time of posting I truly believed the writing was perfect. Haha!
