Think Pink- Becuase This Really Stinks :)

It’s October, breast cancer awareness month, and as one might expect this month hits a lot closer to home than ever before.  For those of you who make contributions, whether that be time or money, to the many cancer foundations I want you to know you are making a difference and my story is proof of that. Early on in my diagnosis I was told that had my particular breast occurred prior to 2004 my chances of reoccurrence would be high with a low survival rate.  However, with the advances in research and medications I am blessed with a positive prognosis, and for that I will be forever grateful to all of you.  As a reminder it is never too early or too late to start self-breast exams if you do not already perform them on a monthly already.  Below is a link that will show you how to perform a breast exam-  http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/types/self_exam/bse_steps

The day after my last chemo treatment of cycle 2 (each cycle is 3 chemo treatments, followed by a week off, then the next cycle begins), I received my Neulasta shot in my stomach.  The nurses jokingly call this the $20k shot because of its high cost. The purpose of this shot is to inject a man-made protein that stimulates bone marrow to produce white blood cells.  Those white blood cells boost immunities to protect me from infections since chemo reduces white blood cell count.  I spent my last ‘off week’ sick, and I have to say that this week was much better.  The only down side to this $20k shot is bone and joint pain, I have now validated that my high school athletics will demand payment in my 70s and 80s.  I felt like my body had aged about 60 years for about 3 days, making it painful to walk up and down the stairs and to lift myself up from the chair or ground.  I continue to gain weight and lose hair -the glamorous side effects of the many other drugs I take.  Andrew jokes that now I can experience how some men feel as they get older. 

I did go to the doctors last week because my port line was red and looked infected.  As a reminder, a port is a little object that is surgically installed right under the collar bone, and is connected by a catheter -I call it the ‘line’ because it sticks out of my skin to a nearby vein).  Despite the discomfort, I love my port because it protects my veins from scar tissue and makes it easy for clinicians to draw blood for labs and administer chemo.  When I had surgery to install my port, my surgeon told me that they couldn’t find a good vein in my chest, so they had to run the ‘line’ over my collar bone up to a vein in my neck(it is not common to have to install that way, but it was the best option).  That thin area of skin over my collar bone become irritated, so I went to the doctors to have it checked out.  Long story short I earned myself a new daily assignment of cleaning and applying prescription ointment  to the area and topping it off with a gauze strip twice a day.  The gauze strip on my neck is a pretty hot accessory  , and I love making stories up about bar fights and sun roofs when people ask what happened one the elevator at work.   Good news is I think it is starting to look better with the chance (if you are squeamish skip to the next paragraph) of the line coming through my skin lessening each day. If that happens they will just administer chemo through a vein until I can get into another surgery for new port placement- meaning  they will not have to stop treatment- yay! . 

My port sticks out of my skin!!-

 

This week I had my monthly meeting with my oncologist - as I always do at the end of each cycle.   She informed me that my body is still responding “very well” to the treatment and in regards to the tumor in my breast it continues to shrink.  Of course, I asked if there was a chance I could be ending my treatments sooner than expected, but that was answered with a smile and “that’s not typical procedure” – hey at least I tried.  

I am looking forward to the weekend to spend time with family before the start of cycle 3.  Again, I appreciate everyone’s support and encouragement through this process.  I am blessed to have such amazing friends and family.