Quiet end of the week

I continued to take my medications as scheduled, I added in a Claritin daily per a recommendation of another blogger who said that seemed to help with the onset of the bone pain. I also have been taking Motrin 800 everyday , just in case, the bone pain tries to sneak through. The most pain I have had is a small achy back and a surge of warmth in my bigger bones on Wednesday evening while watching American Idol, but maybe that was just the Queen Tribute! The Steriod, Decadron, they give 3 days post infusion was done as of Wednesday and I definitely felt a dip in energy without that. It is suppose to be for Nausea, but it definitely gave me a bust of energy all day.

 So the other excitement on Wednesday was I got my hair cut in anticipation of it all falling out and trying to get myself use to it. This cut is actually shorter than what I had anticipated, but it is all going within the next few weeks, so what's the difference. I once did a test about what Hollywood star do you look like. It came up Annette Bening. I look even more like her now, well with Red hair. I like how she always just messes it up, so mess it up it will be!
I also went fun wig shopping on Thursday. Here is a nice long one to get everyone confused, I liked it, but it is alot of hair. I tried on pink and blue, but settled on this lavender wig. I will wear it when I am feeling wild and fun and free,
                                       so probably most every day! I will fit right in at the
                                                                   Lavender Festival

Oh, So I also had a PT appointment on Thursday, after the wig shopping. It is routine after Axillary Node Dissection to be referred to PT to learn exercises to help get your lymph draining the way it needs to drain. We had a great gal, she is one of very few in the Upstate New York area who does this education. She was great and reviewed all the exercises with me that I am suppose to do daily. They should take about 10-15 minutes a day, I think I can handle that. Apparently I am not suppose to carry anymore 80 lb. bags of cement mix up four flights of castle stairs, sorry Andy, you just lost your slave laborer! Good thing you got that crane, which I can operate with my right arm!

Thursday Evening I went and watched Rex play baseball, it was a great game, although cold and wet, and they all did a great job and won. Yeah, Lakers Modified Boys!

By Friday, I was actually a little tired, so after getting the kids off to school I decided it was time for my first nap. Toshie, was a great bed nurse and watched over me while I slept peacefully. It was very nice and I guess I see why people like this napping thing.


So now, my boys are off at another Boyscout camping trip down @ LourdesCamp and I had to Keep Calm and  Call my mother to come and stay with Ruby and I. We are back on the puzzle patrol. We finished the third one this morning, I'd post a picture, but in this case, it just doesn't capture the glory of it all.

Meals have started on the meal train and have been perfectly proportioned and nice size, not too much, we are little eaters! Don't worry about condiments, we have them. When I do get tired, it is usually right around dinner time, so the meals have been a God send, thank you all for being so thoughtful and doing this for me and the family! I live in the best town on earth and have the best family and friends ever!            Totally Grateful for you all!

Shots, Syringes, Weeds, & Kick Butt Entries

NEEDLES GOING IN

Went  in today, with my Momma, to get me Neulasta shot. This is a shot they give Subcutaneously (SQ/under the skin). The nurse and the literature on it says it burns going in so they try and inject it slowly so it is not so bothersome. Here I am getting that shot. It did not hurt. This is the shoot that is going to REV UP my bone marrow to create more WBC's to prevent infections and keep me going. The worst of this shot comes 4-5 days later in the form of intense bone pain in your larger bones. We'll see.

While we were at the ROC we ran into Dr. Lemke and she was gracious enough to write my parents a note saying I was dong chemo to get them their money back on some NASCAR race tickets. See I told you they were great parents, they chose me over a race!  Anyways, she also took a quick at the Seroma (fluid bubble) under my arm and suggested I go to the surgeons office and get it drained again, so she made an appointment and over I went to see the NP, Lisa, in the office.

NEEDLES DRAWING OUT

Here you can see the seroma under my arm, no it isn't a third boob, it is just fluid that built up again from the Lymph node dissection & no I am not scared, it was my mom's fisrt picture on the Iphone and she was as steady as she should have been, she got it by the second picture.  Below you can see how Lisa stuck a butterfly needle in and got out another 20cc's. Again, I did not feel a thing as it can be numb in that area for a good 3-6 months from the surgery.
                   
     

So, other than that, I took my nausea meds as prescribed and I have not had any all day. No headaches, no pain, no fatigue. I have been up since 6:30am doing what I normally do any other day. no lie!
So now I have nothing until next Monday when I have bloodwork back @ the ROC.

So, on to the newest submissions in the Kicking Cancer in the Butt Campaign: Photo 1 is the Onodaga Girls Ice Volleyball Team - That sounds very dangerous to me, but apparently these girls are good at it and just won the championship. A good bunch to have on my campaign & congrats girls!

Now these ladies in Photo 2 might need a disclaimer, this photo was sent @ 11pm at night, so they might have been drinking, it certainly seems there is a nice bar behind them. This is not against the rules and we all know that pictures are often better when you are drinking, so for you of those who are of age, carry on, Marie and the girls are kicking butt and it doesn't appear they fell or injured themselves either.

                  KEEP THEM COMING              

                                                                                                                                                                                  

WEED PARTY - I know you are probably thinking I mean this type of weed party(pic. to right), but we know all those parties were held on 4.20.12, so since we missed that date, I am talking about something different. I started weeding in my back yard four days after my second surgery, it was a beautiful day and I was being gentle for my incisions, well my neighbor, Chuck, ratted on me to Andy and told me NO MORE WEEDING. But I always do the weeding and I like doing it. So, Ellen said, we should have a weeding party and finish the rest of the weeding for you. Rex mows, but hasn't learned the fine art of weeding, anyways, if you would like to weeding that looks more like this, let Ellen know, she is coordinating it and taking it out of my hands, very reluctantly. You may have to have a guard at each door so I don't come out to help. Ellen's email is edpdmp@gmail.com. 

Fill her up!

Chemo 
Day 
One. 


Snow, school delay and then closure, kids snug in bed for a snow day in April, REALLY, & I have to drag my butt out of bed for toxic medications, COOL.

                                Got here and had blood drawn and vital signs done. 


Then I came back into the infusion area and got cubicle 3, I have always liked three for a number. 



I got Nicki for my nurse, she just transferred down to Oncology, but she is doing a great job. 


Got myself some Ativan upon arrival. This is an anti-anxiety drug they are saying is for nausea, I give it to my patients to calm them down, so I don't know it they heard rumors about me being rowdy and were trying to knock me down, but it didn't work! for the nausea yes, but I was as rowdy as ever.      
                           
Sometimes when cancer is expecting you to kick it's butt, you have to hit it with a Charlie's Angel move with  the TV clicker! Never did turn the TV on we were so busy with all the pictures.

Then Nicki had to access my port. I had put some numbing cream on it at home. She cleaned and sterilized the are, hence what looks to be a lovely shawl in the first picture. Then she just stuck the needle it. It didn't hurt, just some pressure, she asked if I wanted a mask so I didn't have to see her insert the needle, I gave my mask to Andy, she made me turn my head away, I wanted to watch. 
Once the needle is in the port they test to make sure we have access into the vein;  you basically pull syringe back and see if there is a blood return, which there was, FABULOUS!  
                

            

                                                                                                                                                                                   

              

AN NOW THAT THE PORT  ISACCESSED, ONTO THE DRUGS         

                                   

                                              WHY YES SIR I AM!
                                                                                                                            

I got Decadron & Aloxi, these are meds to help with the nausea the chemo causes, she ran these as a quick drip. Once those were done she did an IV push of the Adriamycin over a 15-20 min time. Big Nurse teaching point here, this med comes out the same color it goes in, so don't panic your first trip to the pottie                                                                  

                                                      

Once that is it, the Cytoxan gets hung and is dripped in for an hour. I was busy doing emails and didn't get a picture of that, sorry.  Throughout both the meds, I didn't feel any burning or strange sensations in my body. My trick of distracting my mind with other things served me well.

And then a special friend arrived to see me. Her name is Mini-Me. She was born last year at our group family trip to Otter Creek and she makes only rare and special visits, here the two of us are shooting the S@#t, as Andy was hard at work.

           

                                          

       AS A WISE MAN ONCE SAID........                                                                                                                                               

Mild headache and nausea, nothing I can't tolerate and far better than my worst hangover, it is all in how you look at it people! 

Choo - Choo - The Meal Train has arrived at the station

Helen has notified me that the Meal Train is up and running.
I created a link to our Meal Train page on the top right of the blog page.
It is simple to use, my Mom figured it out and didn't even need my help, in fact she is already signing up so you better get on there fast before she takes all of them.





It is true when they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, in my case it is a big, strong tree filled with lots of love & an overwhelming need to take care of me. Look at how cute my Momma is. This was just a few years ago when she first met my Dad (47 yrs.) She is striking the same pose I did in the hospital!

Having a great day today with Andy, Ruby, and Tosh, very laid back and relaxed. Rex is on his way back from the Adirondacks now, he was up helping a friend with his Boyscout Eagle Project. We have some soup on the way, my twin neice and nephew are on the way for a visit, and we'll finish the evening off with a massage from Maria and a glass of champagne.

This breast cancer, the second time around, isn't so bad yet, apparently it knows who it is up against!

Meetings with the Dynamic Duo

So we met with our Dynamic Duo of Dr. Kort (Breast Surgeon) & Dr. Lemke (Oncologist) @ Upstate Medical University Hospital yesterday morning. This is how I see them because they are Super Heroes in my book. Not only are they both very skilled, knowledgeable, & respected leaders in their fields, but they are funny, warm, and spend enormous amounts of time with us educating us on all this stuff that is happening very fast. Thank you ladies!

So, Dr. Kort was first. I wasn't suppose to see her until next week, but I missed her and I had a growing golf ball under my left armpit that was becoming uncomfortable. As she removed some lymph nodes last week, there was some fluid build up that wasn't draining properly, so she had to go in there and get it today with her handy dandy syringe. Andy did not watch and would not take a picture, so the picture is a likeness to the syringe. I didn't feel a thing as there is numbness there still. She got out 30cc's of serous fluid that looks just like the picture. a big relief.

Dr. Kort reviewed the pathology from the lymph node dissection, which you all know yielded one positive node. Andy asked what that met. Basically this picture is a healthy node. Picture this total encompassed with cancer cells in the center and some of those cancer cells starting to pop through the perimeter, that is what my positive node looked like. In Dr. Kort's words, "very funky"

Next it was over to the ROC (Regional Oncology Center) located  in Upstate Hospital to see Dr. Lemke. She reviewed in detail, for Andy, the scores of the BRACA test and the ONCOTYPE test. Andy can explain all the diagrams she gave us if you are interested, I will not be covering it here, but the important thing, as I told you in the last post, is my cancer is not genetic and I am intermediate high risk for re-occurance and will benefit from chemo therapy to get that re-occurance rate down. So, onto what Chemotherapy is going to look like.

The first four treatments will be a combonation of Adriamycin and Cytoxan. I will be at the ROC for a half day for these treatments. I will get these every other weeks, so this course of 4 will take 8 weeks. Dr. Lemke gave us a day by day picture of worse case scenerio side effects for each day, so we know what we could expect to see/experience, but my thought is anything is better than the worst, so it'll be manageable. I go back the day after the treatment for a shot of Neulasta which is a medicine that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells(WBC) so I am ready to go for the next treatment. I get bloodwork a week after the treatment to see where my counts are.
The 2nd round of four treatments(or the 5th - 8th) are a medicine called Taxol. I will again get this treatment one full day every other week. These take longer due to the solution they are mixed in and need to go in slower. Again I would go back a week later for bloodwork. So, if all goes well chemo would be done on July 30th because I am starting this MONDAY!

Radiation will follow for 5-6 weeks after chemo is done.

So, everybody has been asking how they can help. Helen, my neighbor, has started a meal train.Once she is done setting it up, I will post the link here so you can access it if you would like to do a meal, Andy isn't a great cook, so I am counting on all of you to keep me well fed.

Also, there are some others of you that have come up with some creative ways to keep me going. My friend, Angie Angus, is in the midst of moving to Texas and felt bad she wouldn't be here for me so she sent out an email to her entire address book asking people to join her in an email support campaign for me, apparently it is called Kicking Cancer's Butt taken from my and Andy's picture on this blog.

I have started to receive pictures and emails from people I know alittle bit, but not well, people I know, but who I hadn't had a chance to tell, and people who I don't know at all as a result of Angie's idea. I love it! Thank you to Angie and all her friends for your support and encouragement, it fuels me even more than you know.          Here are the Bunko girls  

and here is Mr. Major's 6th grade Language Arts Class.  

I'd like to up the ante in this campaign. I love watching Ellen and all her contests, so I am starting a contest to see who can send in the most creative Kicking Cancer's Butt picture. I will choose and I will come up with a fabulous prize, to be announced at a later date.

Will let you know how Chemo goes on Monday. Andy is going to go and make sure they are treating me like the Queen that I am. Sherie

Results in a FLASH

So my strategy worked, I told you all I wouldn't know anything for 2 weeks and no one asked and here I am with results in 5 days! Yes, as you can tell from the image, we have a little of both, positive and negative results.
1. the BRACA test, the one that shows whether my cancer is one that is hereditary, was NEGATIVE! this is good for Ruby and my sister and it is good for me in that I am no more likely to get Uterine Cancer than anyone else.
2. the ONCOTYPE test, the genetic one that measures 21 genes to see the liklihood of reoccurance & whether one would benefit from chemotherapy also came back. They catagorize the findings into catagories. 18 and under is low reoccurance & low benefit of chemo. 18-31 is intermediate risk, and 31 and above is high risk of reoccurance, but benefit from Chemo. My score was 30!  Of course it was. If I was on the fence about doing Chemo, this would have pushed me over, but since I was already going commando on this cancer, it just justifies my aggressiveness.
3. the Lymph Nodes - Dr. Kort got 4 lymph nodes last week during surgery. She thought one didn't look good and pathology confirmed today that she was right, one was positive for invasive cancer, so again, if I was on fence about chemo, this would push me over, but all it does for us is confirm we were on the right track deciding to be aggressive.

So, next we have more meetings. I will have a follow up with Dr. Kort, the Surgeon,  & Dr. Lemke, the Oncologist, this Friday morning. I feel really good and I am moving around well from surgery last week.

Pic. # 1 - The port is  a bit weird and sticks out more than I would like, but I am sure I will get use to it.

Pic. # 2 - The Axillary incisions are clean and clear and bruising is coming through, so they look really gross, but are fine. She didn't put in a drain, which I have had in the past, and it seems there may be some fluid build up as I hear a "swooshing" noise when I shake my boobie, but she can just stick a needle in there and drain it out on Friday if it doesn't reabsorb on its own.

Thank you  to all my friends and family who brought me food, puzzles, and showered me with attention. I know my castle isn't done yet, but I felt like the Queen this past weekend. 

So, a few normal days  until we get the Chemo schedule and plan. Until then, 

Sherie