Thursday, July 4, 2019

Treatments 2 & 3- Loosing my hair, no wigs for this mama!

Hello world!

I'm back after a rough treatment 2!

Not sure why treatment two was so difficult on my body, but I'm glad that's behind me, and I had treatment three on Friday June 28th. So far, I'm doing a little better than treatment two on June 14th.

The Saturday and Sunday after treatment two, I was loosing a ton of hair. It was decided to let Eric run crazy with the scissors and shaver.  Although I won't show all the photos (gotta keep some things private), I will share a few photos with you.


Here is a shot of all the hair I lost on Sunday June 15th after I brushed my hair that morning.




Here is a full head shot of my thinning hair. I probably could have made it another week, but I was tired of finding my hair absolutely everywhere!



Decided to show a photo of my old head scar from when I had my brain tumor removed in 2007. It actually looks pretty good.  My neurosurgeon (Dr. Change @ Stanford) did a fabulous job and saved my life!  I will be forever thankful for his knowledge, skill, and kindness.




So, I had decided on wearing a wig after shaving my head, but that just didn't work! My dad always said I had a weird shaped head and well I guess he was right!  After having it on for about 1 hour I thought my head was going to explode! It reminded me of that old bra commercial where the girls are holding their bra's out the window yelling, "This bra doesn't fit! And I'm not wearing it any more!".  I did that with my wig!!!  Off it came, and I started wearing scarves and hats instead.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Aggressive Triple Negative Breast Cancer? Well darn!

I had a big year planned for Eric and myself for 2019.  In September of 2018 I had my left knee replace (a necessary evil after my crazy accident several years ago when I broke both my legs including my left patella), and was planning on leaving this beautiful valley for some traveling adventure in our Jayco travel trailer. Perhaps 1-2 years, while returning each summer to visit our sweet little granddaughter Savannah and her parents.

With my amazing husband having CTE of the brain (traumatic brain injury) which has cause him a little early on-set dementia and constant migraine, I felt like this would be a perfect time to take him on a journey to see some of the beautiful sights of our fabulous nation here in the USA! He had already kicked an inherited liver disease which almost took his life, as well as several back and neck fusions. After finding out his migraine was a result of too many concussions and his brain was experiencing atrophy, I really wanted to do something special for him. There are so many places in our beautiful country that he's never gotten to see or experience as well as all the family we both have spread out in so many states; so a plan was hatched to sell our home and become nomads with a basic plan.

Well, another set back come along. We found out that Eric's body had rejected all of his back fusions and they all needed to be replaced. This was going to be some major surgery and it was! On April 30th Eric was admitted to St. Mark Hospital in Salt Lake City and had what was called an ALIF and a PLIF. To put this in layman's terms; They went in through his back and removed all the old hardware. Then they flipped him over and had to go in through the abdomen and move all his internal organs, vena cava, aorta, and put in new hardware. Finally, flipping him over and again open his back to finish putting in more new hardware, It was a 7 hour surgery, and his recovery in the hospital was a long one. After spending 5 days at the hospital Eric was transferred to Maple Springs rehabilitation center here in Logan, where he stayed for several weeks.

During our preparation for Eric's surgery was when I received my news about my cancer.  On April 4th 2019 Eric noticed a tumor as I was getting out of the shower. It was quite a shock because It wasn't there or should I say visually noticeable a few days earlier (while paying attention to myself in the mirror). I immediately called my physician that morning and got in for a mammogram and ultrasound on Monday April 8th. It was there that I was diagnosed with two large tumors (one in my left breast and one in the lymph node under my arm). On April 17th I had biopsy's done which confirmed my diagnosis of Breast Cancer.

On April 23rd I had an appointment with a surgeon who had all of my biopsy information. This is where I found out my diagnosis of Aggressive Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Dr Marshall explained to me that my tumors were to big to operate on and felt they needed to hit me hard and quick with Chemotherapy. He said it should shrink my tumors enough for him to operate on with out having to do too much damage (which I will explain later). Dr. Marshall laid out a plan of things he was going to recommend and told me if I didn't hear back from the departments included on this plan he wanted me to call him the following week. He was/is my biggest advocate.

In the following weeks I had a CT of the Thorax (to check my lungs, spleen, and other vital organs), left knee xray's (to see why my knee replacement is feeling worse), a full body scan (to see if the cancer had spread to my bones), and an Echo (to check my heart and make sure I can handle getting a port for the Chemo).

The first week of May I met with the Oncologist who went over the treatment plan. My husband was still recovering from surgery, so my sweet daughter Haleigh went with me. It was a long appointment full of overwhelming information, and it was so nice to have my daughter with me to take notes and ask questions.

After the fiasco I had with Logan doctors back in 2001 with my brain tumor (which I will talk about in a later post), I decided to get a second opinion in Salt Lake at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Once again, my amazing daughter accompanied me to this appointment where there were 2 doctors, 1 pharmacist, 1 RN, and 1 MA all in attendance. They were extremely thorough and very informative. They had even sent for my pathology samples and had their own pathology department read them. They basically had the same diagnosis and treatment plan as Logan, but with just a few little differences. They found that the tumor in my breast had 10% estrogen receptor, which is very weak and doesn't really change the Triple Negative Diagnosis. They also identified on the Thorax CT scan what they believe to be a third tumor beginning to grow.

With the hardship it would make on my family trying to get me to Salt Lake for my Chemo treatments, we decided I would go ahead and proceed with treatment at the new and improved Gossner Cancer Center in Logan and will use the Huntsman Center as a back up if needed.

On May 20th Dr. Marshall inserted my port for Chemotherapy. This surgery went smoothly, with the exception of upset stomach from the antibiotic given in my IV.

My first Chemo treatment was set for Friday May 31st.