AND he's British.... So that's cool. I like hearing him talk so maybe I ask a lot of dumb questions, but he's patient with me! That's a plus!
My appointment was at 2. I was there for over 3 hours. Here I am patiently waiting.
We discussed everything. I had a physical with the PA-- I really like her, and then the Doctor came in.
He said with the location and size of my tumor that the smartest method of treatment would be to do both chemotherapy and radiation. One chemotherapy treatment every other week for four months, then 2-4 weeks of radiation (1 treatment each day, 5 days a week.)
I'll have a scan halfway through my chemo treatments to see how it's going. He said if there is no trace of cancer then I wouldn't have to do radiation! That'd be cool.
The risks- Just having a cancer makes my risks a little higher to get another cancer. With radiation, my risk for breast cancer and heart disease increases. If I opt out of radiation (some people do) and do extra chemo, the chances increase of this cancer coming back. So I'm just a walking cancer risk at this point! haha.
We talked about when. We could start as early as Thursday or Friday (That's 2-3 days from now!) as long as I had an Echo done on my heart because some of the Cancer meds can affect your heart.
So Friday seemed like a good day to start. We scheduled my first chemo treatment for then. If I wanted to stay on a Friday schedule, I'd have to come in twice each week because my doc is only in office on Tuesdays. He wants to see me every other time I come in. I'll start this Friday, then move to Tuesdays so I can have less driving and appointments.
We talked to him about having more children in the future and he said the odds are pretty good- but no guarantees. We could harvest eggs, store them, do invitro.... $$$$super expensive and it would take 3-4 more weeks for that process. We could do the birth control shot each month which would temporary "freeze" everything-- which helps your chances a bit, is covered by insurance and we could do that today.
So that's what we did. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate needles?
In the past weeks I'm pretty sure I've been poked 20+ times.
Kinda funny, when we went in to get this shot, I was joking "So, do I just pull down my pants and you poke me in the bum?" and they totally were serious and said "yeah. Give us a minute."
What???? I was totally joking about the poking in the bum part! Surely there are medical advances where they could just prick my finger or something. I started to freak out, especially because they were holding up the needle and flicking it right in front of my face. They kept telling me to relax--- yeah, you're about to poke me in the bum with a really long needle lady! Brett told me "Just do it for our future family!" How could I refuse that.
We then went over my Cancer binder with my new RN bff Karissa. It has all the info to all the chemo drugs I'll be given, reactions, my schedule, what to do when this happens, etc. It also has everyone's contact info, including how to get in touch with her 24/7. My treatment is called ABVD -
Well, here goes nothing!
We discussed everything. I had a physical with the PA-- I really like her, and then the Doctor came in.
He said with the location and size of my tumor that the smartest method of treatment would be to do both chemotherapy and radiation. One chemotherapy treatment every other week for four months, then 2-4 weeks of radiation (1 treatment each day, 5 days a week.)
I'll have a scan halfway through my chemo treatments to see how it's going. He said if there is no trace of cancer then I wouldn't have to do radiation! That'd be cool.
The risks- Just having a cancer makes my risks a little higher to get another cancer. With radiation, my risk for breast cancer and heart disease increases. If I opt out of radiation (some people do) and do extra chemo, the chances increase of this cancer coming back. So I'm just a walking cancer risk at this point! haha.
We talked about when. We could start as early as Thursday or Friday (That's 2-3 days from now!) as long as I had an Echo done on my heart because some of the Cancer meds can affect your heart.
So Friday seemed like a good day to start. We scheduled my first chemo treatment for then. If I wanted to stay on a Friday schedule, I'd have to come in twice each week because my doc is only in office on Tuesdays. He wants to see me every other time I come in. I'll start this Friday, then move to Tuesdays so I can have less driving and appointments.
We talked to him about having more children in the future and he said the odds are pretty good- but no guarantees. We could harvest eggs, store them, do invitro.... $$$$super expensive and it would take 3-4 more weeks for that process. We could do the birth control shot each month which would temporary "freeze" everything-- which helps your chances a bit, is covered by insurance and we could do that today.
So that's what we did. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate needles?
In the past weeks I'm pretty sure I've been poked 20+ times.
Kinda funny, when we went in to get this shot, I was joking "So, do I just pull down my pants and you poke me in the bum?" and they totally were serious and said "yeah. Give us a minute."
What???? I was totally joking about the poking in the bum part! Surely there are medical advances where they could just prick my finger or something. I started to freak out, especially because they were holding up the needle and flicking it right in front of my face. They kept telling me to relax--- yeah, you're about to poke me in the bum with a really long needle lady! Brett told me "Just do it for our future family!" How could I refuse that.
We then went over my Cancer binder with my new RN bff Karissa. It has all the info to all the chemo drugs I'll be given, reactions, my schedule, what to do when this happens, etc. It also has everyone's contact info, including how to get in touch with her 24/7. My treatment is called ABVD -
- (A)driamycin -- "Red Devil" --it looks just like red kool-aid- Causes hair loss and turns your pee red
- (B)leomycin ---changes in skin, fingernails, and mouth sores
- (V)inblastine- Causes hair loss too, weakness, upset stomach
- (D)acarbazine - upset stomach , hair loss
And they all cause drowsiness and weakness.
Well, here goes nothing!
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