Some days that is what it feels like anyway…One step forward and two steps back. But any progress is in the right direction.
Chemotherapy. My surgeon had put in a referral to the chemotherapy office a few weeks ago. And I have been patiently waiting (some days not so patiently) to hear from them to get an appointment. There was one specific doctor that I was hoping to get. I did a little research on her and she got the most wonderful reviews from her patients. But sadly she was not accepting new patients. I talked to my surgeon and explained the situation to him and he just patted my hand and said “Wendy, don’t worry. I’ll talk to her and see what we can do.” I figured okay, this man hasn’t let me down yet so maybe he can work some magic. Fast forward to Tuesday, July 23rd, I’m sitting in the waiting room for another check-up with my surgeon when my cell phone starts to ring. It’s the chemotherapy office telling me they want to see me that day. AND, the appointment is with none other than the doctor I was hoping to get! HAPPY DAY! So I get called in for my turn with the surgeon and let him know that he is a miracle worker for getting me an appointment with the chemotherapist that I wanted. So on to the check-up…
It’s time for a second round of surgery. This one should be much simpler than the first one and should be just an out-patient procedure. I have two spots on my incision that need a little bit of help. The first spot in where a blood clot/hematoma had formed during my first surgery. My doctor wanted to see if mother nature would take care of it and it partially healed. Unfortunately there is some dead tissue that needs to be removed, hence what they call a revision. The second spot is where a minor infection has set in and so it needs to be cleaned up a bit. After this surgery which is scheduled for Wednesday, July 31st, I will probably need a little bit of healing time and then it will be time for chemo. For those of you who are visual creatures I have included a couple of updated, gross pictures for your viewing pleasure!
Hematoma
Infection Site
On to the appointment with the chemotherapist. She is everything I hoped she would be! She is kind, compassionate, caring and genuine. And I am so very grateful and thankful that she agreed to take me on as a patient. She explained everything to me so that it all (well mostly) made sense to me. She told me that I will be having 2 rounds of chemo. The first round will be 4 doses at 2 week intervals with a blood draw every week. The second round will be 12 doses at one week intervals with a blood draw every week as well. And that brings the grand total to 20 weeks of chemo or 5 months as long as everything goes as planned and there are no delays due to low blood levels. Then she got into statistics…
I hate math…
But here is the break down of what she said are my odds with this type of cancer. As a refresher I have Stage II, high grade, triple negative breast cancer with angiolymphatic invasions (fancy medical term for the cancer cells have gotten into my lymphatic system and circulatory system). Nasty stuff, as the only treatments for this are surgery and chemo. If I decided to only have the surgery and not do anything else, there would be a 50% to 60% cure rate. If I add chemo my cure rate goes to 70% to 80%. With this type of cancer there is a 20% to 30% chance that the cancer will not respond to the chemo and if that happens it will kill me. AWESOME! *said with as much sarcasm as I can muster* She said that we are going to hope that I will be in the 70% to 80% range. There is just no way to know right now what is going to happen. We just have to do the treatment and hope it works. =(
I hate gambling…
But me being, well, me…I’m going to do what I always do. I’m going to wake up every morning and I’m going to carry on. I’m going to smile, laugh, love, and live my life no matter how much time I have left in this physical body. I think I have a cross-stitch that I started years ago that I never finished and need to see if I can find it. If I recall correctly it said something like “Bloom where your are planted!” So that is what I’m going to do. Bloom where I’m planted! Maybe that is part of the lesson I’m supposed to learn in all this. Gardening is hard work if you want a garden to be proud of, but you need patience to see the resulting fruits of your labors. That’s where I am.
Hard work and patience…
Hugs to all of you!
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