It's that time again.....CHEMO time!
Tuesday, November 1st - Yea, I got Nurse Tonya again. I'm so glad she's my nurse today. It's such a good feeling to see a familiar face. I don't get so nervous since I know what to expect with her.
Wednesday, November 2nd - Here comes the hot flashes. HOT, COLD, HOT, COLD. Oh I hate it. Now the the cooler weather is here, I get cold. So I put my fall attire on (long sleeves and pants). Then all of the sudden I get a hot flash so I’m pulling my sleeves up and throwing off my wig or hat. Then all of the sudden I'm cold again. So I snuggle under a blanket. Then I'm incredibly hot so I throw off the blankets Any air feels good then I get cold again and the covers come back on. It goes on and on. I swear I’m really experiencing menopause. It’s driving me nuts. The doc did say that would be a symptom. Whether it continues after chemo is unknown to the doctors since I am still kind of young.
A new symptom I’m experiencing is numbness in my toes. I assume this is normal. In the beginning of my Taxol treatment, the nurses said one side effect would be numbness in my fingertips which happened. I have a hard time grabbing things especially my credit card out of my wallet. Well now, it’s the tips of my toes. Feels like they are asleep all the time. Like a tingly feeling. Humm….
A new symptom I’m experiencing is numbness in my toes. I assume this is normal. In the beginning of my Taxol treatment, the nurses said one side effect would be numbness in my fingertips which happened. I have a hard time grabbing things especially my credit card out of my wallet. Well now, it’s the tips of my toes. Feels like they are asleep all the time. Like a tingly feeling. Humm….
Last but not least. We can’t forget to mention how awesome it is to loose my taste buds. I can’t taste anything and I’m eating in hopes of tasting something. Water even tastes yucky. Candy too. Crazy huh?
Thursday, Nov 3rd - For some reason I’m really tired today. Not sure if the hot flashes and the bathroom breaks all through out the night last night that caused me to be tired today or if it’s the fact that I now have 9 full treatments in me. I have 3 more to go and I can’t wait. So today was a long day at work but I was functioning. Unlike previous chemo treatments in the very beginning where I was a zombie, I can actually hold a conversation. I just didn’t have the energy today to be fun silly Jen. Hopefully I’ll snap out of it. Cody is turning 4 tomorrow so I've got to snap out of the sleepy zone. I have to be photo ready. Ha-ha!
Friday, Nov 4th - Met with the surgeon today. Such a great day so....
Friday, Nov 4th - Met with the surgeon today. Such a great day so....
DARE I SAY.... COMPLETE REMISSION !!! 
So excited about today. I finally met with my surgeon and good news!!!! My lump is gone. Completely gone! I'm in what the doc called "COMPLETE REMISSION".
Internet definition: A period of time during which symptoms of a disease are reduced (partial) or undetectable (complete). In the case of breast cancer, remission means that tests and imaging do not show evidence of the cancer, and that a doctor cannot see signs of the cancer during a clinical exam.
So my MRI is showing no mass and my surgeon said from the exam he performed everything felt "normal". So I'm happy but hesitant to believe it. All these months of chemo and it's gone? It's almost to good to be true. While at his office, he said something that kind of puzzled me. He said for a woman with triple negative cancer this is very good news. Triple negative? What's triple negative? I don't remember the oncologist talking about that but then again, with all that crying going on, and all the information we took in on one visit, who knows what I heard and if I did hear it, I certainly don't remember it. Also with Chemo brain, it's easy to forget things as well. So wondering what it was I had to check the internet.
Internet def: Your pathology report may say that the breast cancer cells tested negative for estrogen receptors (ER-), progesterone receptors (PR-), and HER2 (HER2-). Testing negative for all three means the cancer is triple-negative. These negative results mean that the growth of the cancer is not supported by the hormones estrogen and progesterone, nor by the presence of too many HER2 receptors. Therefore, triple-negative breast cancer does not respond to hormonal therapy (such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors) or therapies that target HER2 receptors, such as Herceptin (chemical name: trastuzumab). However, other medicines can be used to treat triple-negative breast cancer.
I actually found a website dedicated to triple negative breast cancer (http://www.tnbcfoundation.org) that I will refer to more but with the limited research I've done and I say limited because I really didn't like what I read. Triple negative seems to be an aggressive cancer that seems to come back (reoccur) more often than the other forms of breast cancer and potentially reoccur in areas other than the breast. Humm? That a little nerve wracking but then again that study was published in 2007 and anything can change in 4 years. The surgeon and oncologist did say that I will be closely monitored for the next 5 years so I will stay as positive as possible, take care of myself and make sure that I stay on top of this by actively communicating with my doctors and taking every single test they order. My long term goal is to be cured....if there is such a word in the cancer world.
I'm still going to have surgery (December 14th) even though there is nothing there. The surgeon will take a small sample of where the lump was and have it tested. Hopefully it will be cancer free so I can move on to radiation and get this over with once and for all.
Sorry about the definitions above. I'm still learning more about my cancer as I go through all this. Ignorance is bliss but knowledge is power.
Off to chemo in 6 hours. Today's appointment is at 1pm and I'll be with Mom and Wendy today.
Thanks again for all your continued support.
Lots of love, Jen
So excited about today. I finally met with my surgeon and good news!!!! My lump is gone. Completely gone! I'm in what the doc called "COMPLETE REMISSION".
Internet definition: A period of time during which symptoms of a disease are reduced (partial) or undetectable (complete). In the case of breast cancer, remission means that tests and imaging do not show evidence of the cancer, and that a doctor cannot see signs of the cancer during a clinical exam.
So my MRI is showing no mass and my surgeon said from the exam he performed everything felt "normal". So I'm happy but hesitant to believe it. All these months of chemo and it's gone? It's almost to good to be true. While at his office, he said something that kind of puzzled me. He said for a woman with triple negative cancer this is very good news. Triple negative? What's triple negative? I don't remember the oncologist talking about that but then again, with all that crying going on, and all the information we took in on one visit, who knows what I heard and if I did hear it, I certainly don't remember it. Also with Chemo brain, it's easy to forget things as well. So wondering what it was I had to check the internet.
Internet def: Your pathology report may say that the breast cancer cells tested negative for estrogen receptors (ER-), progesterone receptors (PR-), and HER2 (HER2-). Testing negative for all three means the cancer is triple-negative. These negative results mean that the growth of the cancer is not supported by the hormones estrogen and progesterone, nor by the presence of too many HER2 receptors. Therefore, triple-negative breast cancer does not respond to hormonal therapy (such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors) or therapies that target HER2 receptors, such as Herceptin (chemical name: trastuzumab). However, other medicines can be used to treat triple-negative breast cancer.
I actually found a website dedicated to triple negative breast cancer (http://www.tnbcfoundation.org) that I will refer to more but with the limited research I've done and I say limited because I really didn't like what I read. Triple negative seems to be an aggressive cancer that seems to come back (reoccur) more often than the other forms of breast cancer and potentially reoccur in areas other than the breast. Humm? That a little nerve wracking but then again that study was published in 2007 and anything can change in 4 years. The surgeon and oncologist did say that I will be closely monitored for the next 5 years so I will stay as positive as possible, take care of myself and make sure that I stay on top of this by actively communicating with my doctors and taking every single test they order. My long term goal is to be cured....if there is such a word in the cancer world.
I'm still going to have surgery (December 14th) even though there is nothing there. The surgeon will take a small sample of where the lump was and have it tested. Hopefully it will be cancer free so I can move on to radiation and get this over with once and for all.
Sorry about the definitions above. I'm still learning more about my cancer as I go through all this. Ignorance is bliss but knowledge is power.
Off to chemo in 6 hours. Today's appointment is at 1pm and I'll be with Mom and Wendy today.
Thanks again for all your continued support.
Lots of love, Jen
My favorite.... Nurse Tonya
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