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