Tuesday 16 October 2012

Treatment suggestions

So what did the oncologist say? She said a lot but here are the highlights.  Firstly the hormone testing came back, estrogen came back 1+ (on a scale of 0-3), so that means the tumour is slightly affected by estrogen.  Progesterone came back a 0 so not a factor but the HER2 came back 3+. HER2 is a gene we all have but sometimes it is "over-expressed" and that leads to aggressive growth of the cancer.
The oncology team has suggested that I do 6 rounds of chemo therapy one every three weeks my cocktail will be Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin.  The Herceptin will be administered every three weeks for a year.  Radiation will begin four weeks after chemo ends and that will be five days a week for five weeks.  They have also suggested that I take an estrogen blocker for five years.  All I can say is this is going to suck...

Well, that being said I'm experiencing my first set back in my treatment course (though it hasn't really started) this week.  Yesterday as I was sitting waiting to have my IVAD or port surgically installed and I received a phone call informing me I need to go back into surgery on Thursday they've decided the margins aren't big enough for there liking.  So I go under the knife, again.  Then I will have to heal, again! hopefully then we can get on with this treatment.  Ugh.
By this weekend I'm going to be rather unhappy because the girl who HATES needles/scalpels anything of the sort will have been poked and sliced far too many times for her liking all in one week. Also will have an injury on the right and left sides of my upper torso so that should make sleeping and general living interesting.
So here's to next week being a more agreeable one!

1 comment:

  1. I miss you and hope ou are doing well. Love and Hugs. -Lori

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