Another chemo down!

Just a quick blog update for all of you on my progress over the past couple of days....

I now have chemo #7 under my belt...hooray! Everything went very smoothly.  I had it all scheduled as early as possible in the day because I had a big meeting at work that started at noon, so I was pretty distracted most of the time trying to keep things running as quickly as possible.  It worked, however...I made it to my meeting by 12:20! My oncologist seemed pleased with my progress over the past couple of weeks, saying that the tumor definitely felt softer and less defined.  He said everything is progressing exactly as he had hoped and that there are no changes to my treatment plan. I went to support group last night, work this morning, and had my neulasta shot late this afternoon, so although I'm pretty tired right now, I'm hoping that the rest of my side effects won't be too bad.  During the past two rounds, I've woken up very achy on Thursday morning, so I won't be surprised if that happens tomorrow. Luckily, it only lasts a day or two.

I also had an appointment this afternoon with my radiation oncologist, Dr. Edie Krueger.  I've really liked everyone whom I've worked with so far in this process, but I have to say that I think she might be my favorite doctor out of everyone.  She was incredibly nice, down-to-earth, and easy to talk to, and did a great job giving me the big picture of my cancer, as well as the rationale for radiation. She had really studied my case prior to my appointment, and based on that information, the questions she asked me, and the exam that she did, she said she feels very certain that my cancer is a "curable situation." Believe me, that was so very nice to hear! It sounds like the most difficult part of radiation will be the cosmetic issues (it can complicate reconstruction and it temporarily burns my skin) and the hassle factor (every day for 6 weeks at the hospital that is about 25 minutes from my house), but the increase in long-term survival rates in breast cancer patients who go through radiation is pretty dramatic.  She also explained to me how radiation works: it damages the DNA molecules in cells; the healthy cells repair themselves but tumor cells do not.  Although I will be having a mastectomy and my lymph nodes removed, there is still a chance that some cancerous cells are left behind; therefore, for someone with positive lymph nodes and a large tumor, they radiate the remaining skin, chest wall, and lymph node basins.  Makes perfect sense to me, and it was nice to have all of this explained to me in such an understandable way.  I won't do anything further with radiation until about 4 weeks or so after my surgery.

Anyway, off to try to rest a bit, although that's somewhat difficult with my crazy boys running around.  It sounds like they're having their own version of the winter Olympics going on downstairs right now....in fact, they just invited me down to do the limbo with them. No rest for the weary! I'll update once I get through the side effects of this round.