Second chemo down . . . two to go

Sorry to keep anyone hanging by not updating my blog sooner. I had my second chemo treatment on Monday, November 10th and here it is five days later. I'm not sick, just more fatigued this time, so I was waiting until I had more of my mental faculties before I posted again. Not sure if the brain cells have returned quite yet, but I'm forging ahead anyway. :~) (By the way, "chemo brain" is real, I'm here to tell you.) Chemo treatment #2 was similar to the first, only this time my husband and I were only at Swedish Hospital for six hours instead of twelve. Still sounds like a long time, but they went pretty quickly, really.

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Miracles and healing

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about healing and medicine. I regularly pray that God will use my medical caregivers and the drugs they are giving me as a means of my cure. I know that many people--myself included--think of chemotherapy as something against nature, something that is poison, to be sure. I’ve had people try to talk me out of chemo, to send me off for alternative treatment. And while I do believe that cancer is a malfunction of my immune system and that I need to do whatever I can to rectify whatever set it in motion in the first place, I also know that there are many people walking around today who have been cured from cancer by conventional means. In fact, I read a book called Cancer: 50 Essential Things To Do by an author who had cancer and was not given a good prognosis. He eventually beat cancer and then set about to find out what cancer survivors have in common.

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Chemo . . . one week later

I thought I should give another update since a few people have mentioned checking my blog and wondered how things are going one week after chemo. The answer is . . . I feel almost "normal." Well, there are some side effects still lingering and more on the horizon (hair loss, for example), but overall, I am completely surprised and grateful that I feel as good as I do. My husband and I went back to Swedish Hospital for a follow-up appointment today and we were only there about an hour! Woo hoo! I had my blood counts done and met with Dr. E., the oncologist.

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Chemo treatment Number One

On Monday, October 20th, I had my first chemo treatment. To begin the day, my husband and I left our house in Mount Vernon at 6:00 a.m. in order to beat the morning rush hour traffic. We arrived at Swedish Hospital in Seattle shortly before 8:00 a.m. Because of the seriousness of our trip, we were both a little grumpy and snapping at each other in the car, so we spent a lot of time riding in silence. I think the scariness was getting to us a little. I had an 8:30 appointment to have my port-a-cath accessed (the nurse used lidocaine-- no pain!). From there, I went to the nuclear medicine department to have a heart scan.

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Ready to cross the rope bridge

Okay, I admit it. I've been avoiding my blog. There's so much on my mind lately, so much to say, that I feel overwhelmed with the time and commitment it would take to share it all. Things happen during the week and I'll think, "I should write about that on my blog." But so much piles up so quickly that I couldn't possibly share it all. So, I'll just get to the point. I had my second surgery for breast cancer last Monday, October 6th. This time, I wasn't nearly as freaked about it because I had a good idea of what was going to happen and since no lymph nodes were going to be taken, it was even a little easier. The difference the second time is that I had a port-a-cath inserted in my upper chest area, left side. It left me a little bruised and tender for a few days, but it's not so bad. It just feels a little weird having it there.

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Time to get the show on the road

I'm writing this on the eve of my second surgery for breast cancer. Tomorrow I will rise at 5:30 a.m. to shower and prepare for my trip to the hospital. When I went through this two months ago, I would have never imagined that 8 weeks later, I'd be doing the same thing again! Well, it won't be exactly the same. I am having a "re-excision " surgery where more breast tissue will be taken out. I had clean margins the first time, but the margins were too slim, leaving me with a higher risk of recurrence. This time, I told the surgeon to take as much as he wanted and I don't care what it looks like! I know that he probably hears this a lot from women. I read that a common response upon first being diagnosed with breast cancer is, "Just cut it off!" And I was no exception. The thing is, when it gets down to it and you are faced with the actual surgery, mastectomy is pretty darn scary. I think it's an easier decision if you have a large tumor or if the cancer has already spread. You're willing to do whatever.

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Meeting the female oncologist

On Tuesday, my husband and I drove to Swedish Hospital in Seattle to meet with a female oncologist, Dr. E., for a second opinion. In a weird way, I was really looking forward to the appointment. I suppose it's because I felt disillusioned with the male oncologist in my hometown and I was hoping for someone I could really click with. I wasn't disappointed. Dr. E. seemed very gentle and thoughtful. Talking to her was like talking to a sister. She did an exam, which the male oncologist didn't do, so that surprised me (in a pleasant way, since I felt she was being very thorough). She explained a few more things to me that Dr. J. (the male oncologist) didn’t go into, but basically ended up making the same recommendation for chemo treatment as he did (although she did give me an option, but it wouldn’t yield as high a prevention result, so I passed it up).

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