She lives!!
Hi guys, I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I've written, it's been a pretty challenging few months. It's hard to describe just how much chemo drains you, the fatigue is very real. The good news is I'm finished now. As you can see from my picture, I've lost all my hair but, overall, I tolerated it pretty well. The best news is that my tumor shrank from 7cm when we started down to 4cm when we were done. They removed it yesterday. I had some bumps along the way, I developed blood clots in my left arm and had to start on a blood thinner, Xarelto. I also had a course of antibiotics for a bacterial infection that caused a pretty nasty red rash on both my arms. They look much better now.
Prior to my surgery I had to have electronic location markers placed in my left breast. That's so my surgeon, Dr. Saving, knew where the tumor was for making the incision. The doc at Women's and Children ended up placing three markers.
The first two weren't so bad. She numbed my breast then placed the two markers using the ultrasound wand.
Then they took me for a mammogram to check placement and she decided she wanted to add an additional marker. They had to re-numb my breast then tighten it in place on the mammogram machine. That hurt worse than placing the marker!
I had to be at Audubon hospital at 8:30am yesterday. She had the two surgeries scheduled one right after the other. I have two incision lines, one under my arm where she took a lymph node to biopsy and the four inch one on my breast from the Lumpectomy. She closed them both with interior dissolvable stitches and surgical glue. Thankfully, I didn't have to have drains placed and I got to go home same day.
They'll start the Immuno therapy drugs, Perjeta and Herceptin, back up in August but they plan to wait six weeks to start my radiation treatments to give me a chance to heal. My body scans have been clear so far, no metastasis. I've had two full body scans with contrast. If my lymph node biopsy comes back okay I'll be cancer free. If it doesn't, we'll deal with that, too.
Now that they aren't giving me the weekly dexamethasone infusions prior to my chemo my lupus has been going bonkers. I've been having really bad pain and stiffness. It's made it hard to walk. The Celebrex I've been on wasn't really touching it. My regular doc stopped it yesterday and put me on Voltarin twice a day. I'm getting both the oral med and the topical gel. I can already tell a difference, my pain levels are much better today so, yay! I have an appointment to see her on the 27th.
Now that the surgery is behind me I've got to concentrate on getting stuff sold. I'm really hoping for a good window to be more productive as I heal. I need it. Bills keep cropping up and eating up our money to live on. We're staying pretty broke all of the time.
No matter what though, I know how lucky I am. I responded well to the chemo, I was able to get a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy, there's no sign of any metastasis so far. Plus, I'm surrounded by family and friends every step of the way. I've just got to keep my head up and continue plowing my way through.
*hugs*
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Prior to my surgery I had to have electronic location markers placed in my left breast. That's so my surgeon, Dr. Saving, knew where the tumor was for making the incision. The doc at Women's and Children ended up placing three markers.
The first two weren't so bad. She numbed my breast then placed the two markers using the ultrasound wand.
Then they took me for a mammogram to check placement and she decided she wanted to add an additional marker. They had to re-numb my breast then tighten it in place on the mammogram machine. That hurt worse than placing the marker!
I had to be at Audubon hospital at 8:30am yesterday. She had the two surgeries scheduled one right after the other. I have two incision lines, one under my arm where she took a lymph node to biopsy and the four inch one on my breast from the Lumpectomy. She closed them both with interior dissolvable stitches and surgical glue. Thankfully, I didn't have to have drains placed and I got to go home same day.
They'll start the Immuno therapy drugs, Perjeta and Herceptin, back up in August but they plan to wait six weeks to start my radiation treatments to give me a chance to heal. My body scans have been clear so far, no metastasis. I've had two full body scans with contrast. If my lymph node biopsy comes back okay I'll be cancer free. If it doesn't, we'll deal with that, too.
Now that they aren't giving me the weekly dexamethasone infusions prior to my chemo my lupus has been going bonkers. I've been having really bad pain and stiffness. It's made it hard to walk. The Celebrex I've been on wasn't really touching it. My regular doc stopped it yesterday and put me on Voltarin twice a day. I'm getting both the oral med and the topical gel. I can already tell a difference, my pain levels are much better today so, yay! I have an appointment to see her on the 27th.
Now that the surgery is behind me I've got to concentrate on getting stuff sold. I'm really hoping for a good window to be more productive as I heal. I need it. Bills keep cropping up and eating up our money to live on. We're staying pretty broke all of the time.
No matter what though, I know how lucky I am. I responded well to the chemo, I was able to get a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy, there's no sign of any metastasis so far. Plus, I'm surrounded by family and friends every step of the way. I've just got to keep my head up and continue plowing my way through.
*hugs*
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (