Chaos before Chemo...

Hi guys~

It's official, chemotherapy is in our plan. Our meeting with Dr. Londer and nurse Jean went well this morning. It was a bit overwhelming the wealth of information we received, but after reviewing our notes I think we have a good handle on what we're signing up for.

Monday mom will have another general checkup and surgery preop appointment with her primary doctor. Then next Wednesday she will have a 'metaport' placed. As Andrea already explained, it's a type of IV, but more permanent and sits right under the skin under her collar bone. The port will be accessed with a needle whenever it needs to be used and that way medications can be given and blood can be drawn through it.

The protocol we will follow is the 'TC Regimen'. Mom will be administered two different chemotherapy medications, Taxotere and Cytoxan. She will also take a steroid, Dexamethasone, for a few days around chemo to help prevent fluid overload and nausea.

Next Thursday, October 1st, will be our first of four rounds of chemotherapy. She'll have it once every three weeks. The treatments, including lab draws, doctor visits, etc. last between 4-5 hours. The day following chemo she will have to go back to clinic to have a small injection called Neulasta, that helps stimulate white blood cells to grow.

Other side effects from treatment are weight gain, bone pain, insomnia, fatigue and hair loss. We won't know how severe mom's side effects will be, we'll just have to wait and see and then tackle them as we go. Hair loss is inevitable however, so today after the doctor appointment we went and got a really cute wig! It looks great, actually very natural!

Mom will also have to take extra precaution not to get sick during chemotherapy. This means all of us around her have to be careful too. She got a flu shot today and I picked up some extra hand sanitizer! We'll have to be very diligent with keeping the house as germ free as possible, avoid crowds and especially anyone who's ill or not feeling well.

We've got lots to do these next several days to get as prepared as possible for what's to come. Mom will mostly be pretty fatigued and not feeling well for the first week after chemo. Then she'll hopefully feel ok during week #2 and 'good' week #3 before the cycle starts over again. If all things go as planned our last chemo treatment will be December 3rd and we'll be done and feeling good by Christmas! Then after the first of the year we'll move along to radiation.

That's the scoop for now- we're happy we can get the ball rolling soon and be closer to putting this cancer thing behind us. Like Grandma Marie said, this is our journey- and we are ready to go!