One More To Go!!

Monday, April 14: Only one more to go!! I will have my last chemo treatment on wednesday. I am so glad because I haven't felt as good towards the end. I don't know if they are sort of building up in my system but I definately have not felt as good. I get tired easier and am more achy. I have had some tingling and numbness in my hands. My red blood and white blood cells are great though. I saw the doctor last wed. and we discussed the next course of treatment. I will stay on herceptin for 9 more months and I will take that intraveneously once every three weeks. I have to count that out on a calendar to see how that is going to play out for Christmas! I will begin radiation here shortly. I will go for 6 weeks, five days a week. I takes about 15 minutes from what I hear. I got my results back form the genetic testing. They were the brca 1 and 2 gene that they can test for to see if you carry a gene that makes you more at risk for breast cancer and can be passed to your children. I tested negative, which I really expected since there is none in my family. I did discuss with my oncologist about having a double mastectomy to reduce risk for a recurrence and she said that medically it would not. She did bring up the option of having my ovaries removed. Since I am hormone positive, removing the ovaries would stop the production of estrogen and I could be put on a newer drug instead of tamoxefen. Tamoxefen is given for 5 years to hormone positive cancers and it is for premenopausal women. A new drug, arimedex, is the same type of drug but for postmenapausal women. It is a slightly better drug with fewer side effects. It is a new drug that I think has been used only in the past few years. So I may think about this. I had read about it so I know that it is being done. I have gone organic on a lot of my foods. I also think that it is important with Allison as well. My oncologist said that years ago she would have "poo-pooed" the idea that the injecting of growth hormones had anything to do with breast cancer but now she said that they are really looking into it and how it is affecting our children. It is more expensive but it is becoming more popular and I have found things like milk, butter and ground beef at walmart superstore. We just had a Whole Foods open a block from the house. They are really expensive but you can pick and choose and find some things that aren't so bad. Thay have their own brands so I found that butter and a few other things are cheaper. I have to watch my estrogen intake and I can't eat things like soy that your body turns into estrogen. So I thought if I can't eat soy then what about all the estrogen they are injecting in the meat!! My surgeon made the comment that it was our meats that was the cause of a lot of these breast cancers. So I just feel like it is better to be safe than sorry. That is all I know right now! I am waiting to get my appointment with the radiologist to begin treatment. I know that it will not start for another 2 weeks probably. I will check back in with you then!