Last Chemo!!!!!

It has been awhile since I have been able to blog for a few reasons...first, being that this 4Th and FINAL chemo was very different from the first three. I was sick with flu like symptoms for the past week and a half and McCauley and I have been staying with the Smedley Grandparents (hers not mine) since the chemo treatment.
The good news is that chemo is finally finished! I met with the radiation doctor, Dr. Mattar, on Monday. I did finally ask what type of cancer I had and it was triple negative breast cancer. This is a fairly new type of cancer that has only been around for the past 6-7 years. The only good news about this cancer is it does respond very well to chemotherapy for stage 1 and stage 2 cancer. It was the usual kind of cancer visit, if you have never been to a cancer type doctor visit before I will sum it up.
First, you are always weighed in(I never have lost ANY weight expect for right after McCauley's birth...of course my luck...), then you are asked a million questions about your life and previous health (mine always ends with "why did you get this cancer...must just be bad luck."), then you are told your percentages for how the treatment will work on your type of cancer (mine was 90% recovery rate from Dr. Metcalf and only 70% from Dr. Mattar...this made me immediately make a note to self to go along with Dr. Metcalf's percentage rate), then the doctor explains the treatment and its side effects. I told Dr. Matar that last summer, meaning summer of 2008, I knew something was wrong with my body. I felt achy all the time and tired. I went to my doctor and he pulled blood work, told me I was fine and sent me home. This summer when I found the cancer, on my own, it was like "oh finally, there it is, that was why I haven't been feeling well." She looked at me like I was crazy!
I will be having radiation for 6 weeks beginning sometime after Christmas, its not that they give Holidays off or anything, its that the doctors normally wait 4-6 weeks to begin radiation therapy after chemo. Radiation therapy side effects are mostly exhaustion and I will go 5 days a week for 15 minutes each day. The machine at the radiation center was brought to Lexington 8 years ago. It was the second of its kind in the whole world and one of the Doctors where I am going helped to create it. It is unique because it only radiates the area you want to treat instead of the old machines that radiated the entire body. The social worker who sits in on all visits with the patients asked me if I was fearful, anxious, scared, etc...and what was the worst part of having cancer....I told her "Its so TIME CONSUMING!!!". Some people have chemotherapy for 8 hours a day, EVERYDAY.
On the 1st of December I will have my PET scan to make sure the cancer is gone and I will receive the results the following day from Dr. Metcalf.
On a brighter note McCauley is now 2 months old! She had her six week visit on the 12Th and weighed 8lbs. 9 Oz's. She is now sleeping from about 10pm waking only once a night to eat and then waking up around 8am! She is much more alert and stays up most of the day.

Genetic Tests Results

Today I received the news about my genetic testing. Both of the BRCA tests were normal!!!! This is very good news and means I have less than a 4% chance of ovarian cancer, while "normal" people have about a 2% chance.

Round 3

A lot has happened since my last blog, beginning with my third and ALMOST final round of chemo. This chemo was a little bit harder on me and gave me flu like symptoms for three days. Lucky for me my parents live in town and kept McCauley for one whole night for me while I slept 13 hours straight! This was the greatest gift I have EVER been given, the gift of sleep!
McCauley turned one month old on Tuesday the 27th of October. She is much more bright eyed, stays up most of the day, and what I am most proud of are her fat rolls which are beginning to show on her little arms and legs. She will be ten pounds and sleeping through the night soon...I hope...right?
Halloween McCauley dressed first as a ghost in the morning, until she projectile vomited on that costume, and then later switched to a little horse rider. Maybe next year we will be able to just have one costume, it would be much more cost effective. We went to my parents house for Halloween and passed out candy for three hours. I took off my wig around 8:15pm thinking I wouldn't be back out on the porch when the doorbell rang. My mom had run down the street to visit neighbors and I answered the door, BALD, for two little skeleton boys....their faces were priceless...I told them "we don't have anymore candy, my mom carried it three doors down, go down there and get it"...they just stared and nodded. I didn't realize I was BALD until I closed the door, I guess I was the scariest thing they had seen all day.

Genetic Testing

Well this past week has been very busy. I had my 2nd chemo on the 6th of October, which actually went better than my first treatment. I had barely any side effects except being exhausted.
McCauley had her two week check up and she is doing wonderfully. She now weighs 5 pounds 13 ounces!She just eats and eats and eats....
I had the genetic testing done on Tuesday. I had to first go in and be counseled about my family history and then give three viles of blood. The lady counseling me had to wear a mask because of flu,so it made it kinda hard to understand her but I did get a few percentages out of her. It turns out that i have less than a 15% chance of carrying the cancer genes, which is good news for McCauley and the rest of the family. I will find out those results within 3 weeks.
In other news my hair is almost completely gone. I had John shave and trim it as much as he could. My little scalp is so tender where I lost the hair he had to do it slowly. We took pictures along the way...I looked like Kate Gosselin for awhile and then I looked like Ben Stiller from the movie Tropic Thunder (the part where he is in the play if anyone has seen it). I walk around most of the time bald except for a small area that John left in a "bowl cut" on the tip top of my head. My hair will just stand up on end if I move it because it is falling out. When my mom first saw me instead of the shock of my hair being 98% missing she said "oh my, why is your hair so dark? You aren't blonde. I don't even recognize you."

McCauley Carlyle Mulholland

McCauley Carlyle is here! It has almost been a week since McCauley arrived. She weighed 5 pounds 4 ozs. As you can tell the chemo did not effect her hair whatsoever. She is just a tiny tot, but she is eating like a ten pounder! We have already visited the pediatricians for her first sucessful checkup.
Tomorrow will be my second chemo session. I met with Dr. Metcalf today and he still only wants to do 4 chemo treatments total followed by radiation. Next tuesday I am having the genetic testing done and then we will go from there.

Steroids in the buttocks...

John and I headed over to Central Baptist Hospital this morning at 7 AM for our first steroid shot for baby McCauley, this is so that her lungs will get an extra boost before the birth on Tuesday. They had to admit me to the hospital, monitor the baby, take my blood, make sure the white blood cell count was high enough (it was high enough!) and then give me the steroid shot. It was a WONDERFUL experience to say the least...only took 2 hours...
On a side note, my hair has slowly been coming out this week. I haven't washed it or combed it in a few days (I just stick a headband it and go), so we will see if it survives til Tuesday. The good news is that the chemo is in there doing its thing!
John and I are prepared for baby...I think everything has been put together and washed, etc! Bart, the black lab, is barely hanging in there...pray for him...he is so afraid of the swing, cradle, bobby, rocking chair and the list goes on...
The schedule for tomorrow is a steroid shot again at 7 AM and then check in for labor at 9 PM.

Skinny Bobble Head

Well, I have not been updating my blog as I should because the horse sales have been keeping me extra busy. I have met with the high risk pregnancy doctors and McCauley got the final "OK" to be delivered on the 29Th. I had my last ultrasound last Tuesday and she weighed a whopping 4 pounds 12 ounces which places her in the 30% percentile for babies this far along. My mom kept telling the ultrasound tech that McCauley looked "really skinny" (oh and her "head looked big...like a bobble head on such a skinny body"). I guess we haven't seen a really skinny person in our family in so long she was shocked or something.
My hair is still on my head as of today.It was supposed to fall sometime between days 10-14 after the first chemo. I keep telling John that bald and pregnant just aren't going to go together so maybe it will hang on til next week.
I did finally purchase a wig. Yea!! I took it to Mickeys and they are dying it to match my hair color this week and cutting it!

Chemo One- one down three to go!

Today was my first chemotherapy. It is a little creepy that's for sure. I sat in a room with five other people while I received my treatments. First I was given antibiotics for nausea and then the two chemo treatments. One that they call the "RED DEVIL" has to be put in slowly because if my vein were to blow it would permanently scar my skin. The nurse was shocked that I watched as she put it into my arm so closely, but I was secretly telling the "RED DEVIL" to go and do its thing!People can get so comfortable during chemo, its amazing. The woman to my right snored the whole time she was there. I was having a small panic attack and she just snored on and on. The whole treatment took about 3 1/2 hours.

McCauley's a Libra!

So today John and I talked with Dr. Ashmun, my OBGYN, and the date is now set for McCauley to finally join us on the outside. She will be born on September 29Th, after a couple of steroid shots to make her lungs extra strong. Kinda a cool birthday...9/29/2009. Lots of good 2's and 9's in there. She will join her Great Grandmother Peggy and her Aunt Megan in the Libra sign.
I had my heart scan done this morning over at Saint Joe's and I am now ready for chemo next Tuesday. No more doctors this week!

The Prescription

The prescription for what cancer I had was finally given to me today from Dr. Metcalfe. We had a great visit with him today at Saint Josephs. I will be starting chemotherapy on Tuesday September 8th. I will be given chemo four times at three week intervals and yes my hair will fall out. All hair on my body will fall out. I will be a naked chihuahua for a few months. This should mean that if according to schedule I will be finished around my birthday. Then the doctors wait about a month, or in my case for me to come back from Naples at Christmas and then I will be given radiation therapy. The chemo and radiation dynamic duo will make it less than 10% likely that this cancer will ever return.
Tomorrow, I am going in for a heart ultrasound. One of the chemo medicines you can't take if you have heart problems so they want to check my heart and make sure I am good to go.
My next project is wig shopping. My hair will start falling out about 10 days after my first treatment so I need to find a cool do ASAP.

Cold Cap Therapy

So today did not go as planned. My oncologist, Dr. Metcalf, was sick today. He has rescheduled my appointment for Monday at 2pm.
I did some research today however and there is some amazing new stuff out there for chemotherapy patients. I found this website which is very interesting:
http://penguincoldcaps.co.nz/public/default.php?page=1
These people have developed a cap that you wear only while you get your chemo treatments and up to 80% of the people that wear one DO NOT lose their hair. The cap has to remain at a certain cold temperature which keeps the drugs from affecting your hair follicles. The patient has to have a certain type of cancer and it will only work on a certain list of chemo drugs but its still nice that some people are coming up with ways for people not to lose their hair.

Treatments

Well, John Henry and I just walked out of Central Baptist Hospital. We have two pieces of good news. One, McCauley has a birthday...probably October 7th depending on blood work and if my white cells are high enough to deliver. Two, my cancer is curable.
I had stage 2A cancer. The tumor ended up being about 2cm. It was an aggressive form of cancer and will not respond to hormones. I will be starting chemotherapy soon and radiation after that. I meet with Dr. Metcalf, the oncologist on friday to find out when all of my treatments can begin.

Surgery Day aka Christmas Day

Yesterday was surgery day at Central Baptist Hospital. I called this day Christmas Day because I couldn't wait for it to get here. It was very exciting. I went in to be prepped for surgery and Dr.Tate wastes NO TIME. Within 10 minutes he had already stuck me with three large needles (no anesthetic!) to inject the dye into my lymph nodes. This allowed the dye to spread around my lymph nodes in time for surgery so he could see if there were cancer cells present. I was scheduled for a 10 am surgery. As I looked up on the way into the surgery room it was 9:59 and 58 seconds.
My mom and John heard from Dr. Tate less than 40 minutes later. The surgery was quick and successful. The cancer was NOT in my lymph nodes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I repeat NOT in my lymph nodes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I left the hosiptal in less than an hour, after some careful monitoring of McCauley's heartbeat. I am scheduled to see Dr. Tate next wednesday and by then they will know what type of cancer I had and if I need any further treaments.
Meanwhile flowers have been arriving, clothes for McCauley, and such great cards!!! Thank you everyone. They are all so uplifting and beautiful! Tonight I am going to move all of the flowers out of the bedroom. John snored all night however! I think he was allergic!

The Master Plan

Well, after meeting with every doctor in town, including our next door neighbor and John's old next door neighbor(see what I mean...EVERY doctor in town!), we now have a master plan. Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I will be having a lumpectomy with Dr. Tate at Central Baptist Hospital. The goal after tomorrow is for me to be cancer free! We will know immediately if it has spread into the lymph nodes but will have to wait about 5 days to know what type of cancer it is, and if further treatment is needed.
My OBGYN believes the cancer cells were probably there and pregnancy made them grow faster which brought the cancer to my attention. If that is the case we will be patting McCauley on the back for sure when she arrives.
Some good news today was that I had an ultrasound and McCauley is doing wonderfully. She is exactly where she is supposed to be at 3 pounds. She even smiled for us on ultrasound and I think she looks EXACTLY like John Henry! This worries some people but we don't believe she will be as hairy as John. Hopefully!

The Size of "THE LUMP"

So, I wanted to show everyone the size of "the lump" that we have been talking and talking and talking and thinking and thinking about for the past 4 days NONSTOP. If you will look closely at these pictures you will see "the lump" really deserves no more of anyone's time except if you are shrinking it with your mind or something...then please continue. The lump is exactly one centimeter or the size of a marble.

Day One

Today is the first day on "our" road to recovery for breast cancer. "Our" consisting of me, even though in all other proper English sentences, I would never begin with myself. I do however have the lump that is soon to be removed and then shot by the 12 gauge. More on that later. "Our" also includes John Henry, loving husband, baby McCauley Carlyle, who is still currently incubating and The Bart, a junior sized black lab.
Today will consist of bathing. I am a little sore from having a bebopsey ( Is this how you spell it Megan? From My BIG fat Greek Wedding?) on Wednesday so that might be a small challenge in itself. My first doctors appointment is at 11:45 with, "the cancer doctor", Dr. Monty Metcalf. Then hopefully off to lunch with everyone before meeting with the sugeon Dr. Tate. We are getting two surgeons opinions today, Dr. Tate and Dr. Stewart.
Day one is offically beginning now...