Wednesday, November 15 – Check up and a walk

Wednesday was check up day with Dr. Sikaria.  Of course I was awake much earlier than normal.  It was going to be a nap day for sure!  We planned to go to my appointment then go take a walk at Disneyland.  Dr. Sikaria is very pleased with the progress of my chemo treatments and how Blink is responding to them.

Blink is no longer physically measurable.  This means Blink is so soft now that with manual manipulation we can no longer find any defined edges to Blink, and the soft, rubbery area we can feel is much smaller.  Blink is still tender to manipulation, so feeling me up does leave me a bit sore, but I am good with that!

She said there should not be any issues with still planning on a lumpectomy, and only sentinel node dissection at this point.  There has been no indication of lymph node involvement, she cannot feel any changes in the lymph nodes around my right breast and nothing showed up on the initial MRI.  When Hubby asked about the time between MRI and initial treatment, could it have spread then, Dr. Sikaria said because of how well Blink is reacting to the chemotherapy, any possibility of spread beyond the breast at this point is highly unlikely.

I will still need to undergo radiation treatment after surgery.  Still no getting out of that one.  She said it would most likely be 5 to 6 weeks of radiation treatment; 5 days a week.

She also had us scheduled for the next round of chemo school since I only have one more treatment under phase 1.  Next phase will be weekly, with Taxol and Carboplatin.  Carboplatin is a new drug in the breast cancer arena, and if I really had a big objection to it, Dr. Sikaria said she would cut it.  I told her I am willing to try any new drug that gives me any type of edge on my triple negative cancer.  I need all the help I can get.  She agreed.  Her treatment plan also corresponds with all I have read on websites and Dr. Loves book.

She is worried that I am having problems with peripheral neuropathy already though, she said Taxol and Carboplatin will be worse.  I had to explain to her it’s not painful, and currently it fades as I get closer to my next cycle.  It’s more annoying than anything.  She suggested I add some B6 to my vitamin/drug regime.  We will have to go look for some to supplement what I already take in my current multi-B sublingual.  She was good with leaving it at this but wants to keep an eye on the neuropathy.  We may need to change up my infusion schedule and may even have to drop the Carboplatin.  I hope I can tolerate the drugs well enough, it’s kind of scary to me to not do everything I can to beat Blink and rid myself of it with all the ammo I can muster.

First cycle of phase 2 will begin the day after my birthday, then it will be moved to every Wednesday.  Hubby is hoping this will give me enough recovery time to have good Sundays for family dinner nights.

All my next infusions have been scheduled and my last one is currently set for February 21, 2018.  This means I need to reach out to my oncology and plastic surgeon around January 10th to start the surgery process.  My times for infusion have been changed too, I now will be going in the afternoons, since these new infusions will not take quite as long.

I don’t know why this unsettled me, it was very strange to have a feeling of wrongness just because my infusion cycle is changing.  For the most part I’ve not had problems with someone “moving my cheese”, but this really unsettled me.  When Hubby was asking me how I felt, I wasn’t sure how I felt.  Unsettled.  A little fear of the unknown, fear that I will not tolerate the new drugs and more changes will need to be made.  Afraid that at the end of this it will be anti-climatic and I will be left with waiting for the next “shoe” to drop.  I will continue to have annual mammograms (maybe every 6 months), and I will have 6 month check ups with Dr. Sikaria once my current active treatments are over.  I should be glad and looking forward to this, but there is that tiny little bubble of grey fear that just sits in the corner of my gut waiting for it’s chance to pounce.  Not going to let it win.

I also asked Dr. Sikaria about the 130+ new gene variants that have been announced to be linked to Breast Cancer and what this means to me and my kids.  She said, she had read up on that when the announcement was made and it should not change anything for me based on my current genetic work up.  The significance of those finds is so minuscule compared to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene variants that it should not change my treatment plan currently and because I was negative for both the major and other minor variants already known, the darling daughter will need to start having Mammograms at 42, the recommended 10 years prior to my diagnosis age.  But our current risk factors do not change with the new information.

After we were done with my check up and being scheduled for all the infusions for the 12 weeks, chemo school and my next check up with Dr. Sikaria in a month, we headed out to Disneyland.

We only had one agenda, eat lunch at Rancho del Zocalo since we have only been there once in the over 20 years we have been pass holders, and walk.  I was able to taste most of what we ate and then we walked.  I had to stop a few times as my feet were bothering me.  I am still retaining some water from the steroids administered during chemo infusion, and the shoes I chose to to wear didn’t go well with the swelling.  It exasperated the minor neuropathy I have in my feet. I did sleep on the way to the park, and after we left, I pretty much slept the whole way home as well.  I was in bed early too, as my day exhausted me.

 

 

 

 

 

Life is being OK with naps