April 26 2011

Today, I had my first meeting with my oncologist, Dr. Singh at the Cedar Valley Cancer Center.
We went over the pathology report from surgery, which I knew most all of that info already.
He strongly recommended chemotherapy along with herceptin treatment, followed by hormonal therapy.
His recommended treatment today was AC (Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide) for four times, every other week (a total of 8 weeks on that drug combo) and then start Taxol and Herceptin every week for twelve weeks after that. Twenty weeks in total. He explains this is just in theory...it will depend on how my body responds to everything. In the beginning, I will need to do chemo and come back the next day for another shot. My plans are to do my chemo treatment on Thursdays and if I get sick, I have the weekend to recover. I want to be able to work at least monday-wednesday every week. I need to work as much as I can because any time that I am gone (because of treatment or expansions) will be unpaid time.
He told me that I would start to lose my hair between 1-3 weeks into the treatment. ( I had to ask this, of course)
This week I will need to have a PETscan to just look over cells in my body and to get an idea if there is any trace of cancer left in me anywhere. I also have to have an echo, just to check my heart to make sure it is strong and healthy...because some people have heart problems with the AC treatment.
Next week is Dan and my third anniversary. Crazy that its only been three years. We've been thru a lot in a short amount of time. Didnt think we would be dealing with one of us having cancer until we were gray and crippled. Anyway, we are taking the kids to the babysitter and just being alone for a day...I dont remember the last time we have had a day alone. Im kinda excited.
Wednesday, I travel to Des Moines for my second expansion.
Thursday, I have a 45 minute surgery to have my port placed. (This is to use for chemotherapy treatments, rather than having to be poked for IVs several times for each treatment.)
I also meet with Dr. Singh again next week.
I expect that I will begin treatment 2-3 weeks from now.