Sleeping Beauty

According to all of the doctors and patients that Em talked to, her symptoms should have started today. Being the over achiever she is, Em got started yesterday! One of her medications gave her a raging headache and the steroids in the Chemo cocktail kept her up all night on Thursday. She feels dizzy and sick and just generally crummy. She had a follow up appointment on Friday for a booster shot (to help keep those white blood cells going strong) and for IV fluids. The doc prescribed Lorazepam to help her sleep after hearing about her insomnia. Whoa - did that work! In the past 24 hours, she has slept all but approximately 2 hours. She managed to get up to have a bite to eat a couple of times, but only manages to stay up for 30 minutes or so before she is back to bed. She says that she feels much better laying down - the nausea isn't as bad - so she is taking a lesson from Rip Van Winkle and plans to sleep the next 4 months away. More power to you, Em! Sweet dreams.....

It begins

Chemo day has finally arrived. As promised, here is a photo of Em's new haircut. This was taken as her first chemo treatment was administered. Doesn't she look comfortable and surprisingly happy? Her first comment to me was that chemo wasn't as scary as she thought and she was feeling a little weird, but not bad. Apparently she felt a little bit dizzy and tired but has experienced no nausea yet. Her doctor has prescribed five, yes FIVE, different anti-nausea medications to be taken at different times during the chemo cycle. Supposedly the unpleasant side effects start a couple of days after the chemo treatment and only last a day or two. I'll let you know if that holds true.

Em had quite the busy day today. She started the morning at the nutritionist, who gave her some great tips on how to deal with her treatment. During chemo she will be a walking free radical and she shouldn't try to counteract it with any antioxidants for the first three days after a treatment. Doesn't that seem counter-intuitive? They say she should just let the chemo do its job and once it is over, THEN she can work on building her immune system back up. After that, she had her 2 hour treatment, then she went back to the breast surgeon to get her stitches out. She got the best news of the day at her last appointment. The genetic testing came back negative, which means she does NOT carry the genetic marker for breast and ovarian cancer. Three cheers for good genes! So, her cancer has no medical explanation thus far and that gives her renewed optimism that she can recover from this and move on.

I know the next question on all of our minds is about her hair. Most of the doctors and patients agree that the hair loss happens on day 17 (3 days after the second treatment.) One of the really amazing services that the hospital provides is a little store called "transitions" which specializes in gear for their breast cancer patients. They stock lots of hats and scarves and give each patient one free wig. Em looked so good in two of the wigs that the salesperson gave them both to her for free. One looks like her current haircut and the other is very similar to "Dancing with the Stars" champion Cheryl Burke's cute hairdo. Plus, she looks darn cute in all of her new hats. :)

One treatment down, seven to go!

Psyche!

Emily spent the majority of today at the hospital, though no chemo treatment was administered. Apparently there are rules about the time frame between surgery and first radiation or chemo treatment. If you don't get your first treatment within 30 days of surgery, you have to re-do all of your preliminary tests, like blood work and chest x-rays and such. They scheduled Em's appointment on day 33 (none of us knew about the 30 day rule) so her day was filled with all of the old tests and none of the new treatment. She has to go back tomorrow for a couple more tests and then has a surgical procedure on Thursday to insert the "port" that they will use to administer the chemo drugs and that needs a little time to heal. Her doc is off work for Christmas (of course) so they have bumped her first chemo until Thursday the 27th. She gets to enjoy Christmas without any chemo side effects! We are thankful for that little blessing. :)

She did take a little time this afternoon to get a fun new haircut, just because it is a time to experiment with her hair without the fear of making a bad long term decision. It is a cute short bob with bangs! I haven't seen her with hair this short since she was in Junior High. Perhaps she will let me take a photo to post the next time I see her.

Merry Christmas to all! We will be back after the holiday with another update.

Chemical Warfare

It's official. Chemotherapy is the next course of action in Emily's treatment.

Starting next Tuesday, December 18th, Em will be doing a bi-weekly 2 hour chemotherapy appointment. There are a total of 8 treatments over 4 months. After that, she will begin her 6 week course of radiation. I guess they do the chemo first for a couple of reasons. First, since her cancer was so aggressive, they want to get the chemo going right away. Second, the radiation will seem like a walk in the park after the chemo. For you scientists and medical professionals out there, she will be on a combination of these drugs - Adriamycin, Cytoxan and Taxane (AC-T). Unfortunately, this is one of the combinations that does lead to hair loss. So, bald will be beautiful in 2008!

It looks like she will be going on disability for the next 4 months so she doesn't have to worry about work on top of her health problems. Luckily her company offers that as an option. Her doctors did tell her she could work a "part time flexible schedule with low expectations" but there is no such thing in her profession. Her boss laughed and said that would be an attractive offer to any employer. :) Disability it is!

Thanks for taking the time to keep up on the blog. We appreciate all of your support!

Another appointment

Emily is healing nicely and back to work this week. She had her first appointment with the radiation oncologist yesterday. As has been the case with most of her appointments, they didn't tell her much. Before the radiation guy can make any decisions he has to talk to the medical oncologist and they decide together what the course of treatment will be. In Em's case, she couldn't get in to see the medical guy until December 12th. So why would they schedule the radiation guy before that? Who knows! Other than confirming that she is on for 6 weeks of radiation at some point, he wasn't able to tell her much more. We will be back with more info on the 12th!