The rest of my plan....

I thank you for all the congratulatory wishes after my last round of chemo.  It indeed was my last round of the intense portion of my chemotherapy and I am very happy to be through that.  I have very mixed feelings about celebrating though, as I still have a long road ahead of me.  I have had a busy week this week and last going for tests and Dr.'s appointments getting ready to start radiation and continue with the Herceptin treatment.  I had a CT scan last week and there they tattooed my breast in three places to mark the place that they will align the radiation beams every time.  They mark you with a huge red X in the places that they want to tattoo you.  Then they use a little pin poker thing that has black permanent ink in it and poke it through the skin in the middle of the X.  I can only see one of the tattoos, apparently you can't really see them but the radiation people can.  Maybe they are glow in the dark!

Me having the scan

The MUGA scan machine

I also had a MUGA scan on Tuesday which was to re-test my heart function.  The Herceptin decreases your heart function, so they took a baseline MUGA before I started chemo and then I have to have one every 4 months to ensure that my heart is functioning the same as when I started.  It is a multi-part test that includes injecting me with a solution that attaches to the red blood cells (45mins), then taking out some of that blood and then mixing it with some other solution (5mins) and then having the scan itself.  That big block thing beside me gets moved to three different positions (10mins each) and takes moving images of my heart.  They accessed everything through my port a cath (the injections and blood draws.) It took almost three hours!

 

Today I will go for my first round of Herceptin, which is the drug that specifically targets my HER2 cancer cells, if any, that are floating around in my body.  Remember, all this treatment is called prophylactic (preventative) so there is no guarantee it will work to keep cancer away and there was no guarantee that I even needed to complete this treatment.  I have put all my eggs in the basket that tells me to do "whatever I have to" to ensure that I never get cancer again!  The doctors tell me that I should just breeze through this Herceptin treatment, pretty much with no symptoms.  I hope they are right! 

I will start radiation on Monday April 8.  I am not really nervous about radiation, I do hope that there is not much affect on me and I can carry on as normal.  I have been told it will make me quite tired/fatigued.  They will do 20-33 rounds of radiation.  I had a CT scan on this last Tuesday and based on that Dr. Sally Smith will determine how much radiation I am going to need.  She originally thought 28 rounds, then said 28+5boosters, and then on my last visit she said she thinks I can get away with 16+4boosters, so we will see.

They will run the Herceptin every 21 days and the radiation will continue through my Herceptin treatment.  It is called a dual modality treatment.  I hope I'm still standing at the end of April!

I have been really behind on my blog writing, I have been having one of those times when I think, "who really wants to read about what I do in my day?"  Apparently people love to know your business and I am enjoying writing so I will get back on track and write more often.
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