Today was the first oncologist appointment (getting to know you, getting to know all about you….)
- My Care coordinator picked a good match. We both like her.
- Her assessment of the treatment plan matched the consulting Oncologist’s recommendations and reasons why
- Ready, set, here we go…. (First star to the right and straight on till morning!)
My Oncologist’s name is Swati Sikaria. She is a Hematology and Medical Oncology Specialist. She is taking a very hands-on approach to my treatment. Not only will I be going to the same office for all my treatments, but she has me coming back in for a physical checkup every few weeks in between… (That is a whole lot of driving to the other side of the hill.)
She is placing me in early Stage IIA for my cancer, the main reason for Stage II – size.
She is starting me on chemo first; then we move to lumpectomy (or bye-bye babies if genetic test results come back with bad news). We will go from there for the next steps.
Chemo cocktails (Dr. Sikaria already confirmed; these are not the fun 5 o’clock cocktails) will be done in two parts.
Part 1:
Adriamycin & Cyclophosphamide every 2 weeks for 4 cycles (total of 8 weeks)
She said this will most likely kick my ass for about 4 to 5 days, then I will start to feel better. There is the possibility of working part-time during this cycle, but in speaking with the patient advocate who handles all the disability stuff, variable leave sounded complicated. My company is willing to work with me on this. Tomorrow, we will sit down and put together a tentative plan and go from there once this actually starts, and we see how I react.
Part 2:
Taxol & Carboplatin (which is a new drug in the chemo arsenal, and she is willing to fight the HMO if they don’t approve it. It is tough on triple negative cancers like mine.) This will be administered weekly for 12 weeks. Adding the Carboplatin will kick my butt on day 1 and maybe day 2, but I will recover quickly, and I can work from home, but I cannot go into the office when I do this.
This all starts Tuesday, 10/10, at 9am sharp.
But wait, there’s more… (and you don’t even have to cover shipping and handling charges)
- We get to have Chemo Training…. (they teach me the best way to puke and Robert the best way to hold the bucket?) That is this Friday at 1 pm.
- I am being scheduled for a port—yeah, another battle scar! (And fewer needle holes!)
- I am being scheduled for Genetic Testing (as hinted above) – it has to be approved by the Insurance company; if that fails, we will be doing this anyway and paying for it out of our own pocket. It’s important. It will be a full genetic markup, not just the breast cancer genes.
- I will be given a self-injectable of Nulasta to take after every chemo session to keep me healthy during all these designer drugs I’ll be doing meant to kill me, oh, wait, I mean the cancer.
- And the bad news – genetic testing results take about three weeks… If I come back positive for any cancer indicators, all three kids will then need to be tested as well.
That is all the new news for today. You can all go back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Life is preparing for battle