The New Plan

Hi Team,

Today did my MRI and 2nd Consult w/ Oncologist.

MRI was fine, I actually had gotten some Valium for it since it's a very small narrow coffin you are put in with loud banging noises for a half hour, but I forgot to take it in my rush to get out the door by 8am. I was fine though - the male nurse who couldn't even figure out how to put the gurney bed hand rails down had to stab me a few times on both arms to finally give me a successful IV (here why don't you let me do that) lol. Then they put me face down with my boobs hanging down through an opening, scrunched me in the tiny tube then played the loud banging noises for a while. Results on Tuesday, stay tuned.

Meeting with the oncologist was very positive. We walked into his exam room with a full entourage~ Mom, Monika, Anthony and myself. I really did feel lucky to have so many people really want to hear the details and be a part of the decision making. I actually really like Dr. Liu my oncologist also. He knows all the recent literature and gave me and my entourage a great lesson and some big decisions to make today. Come to find out, my tumor is HER2 positive, which means it's slightly more aggressive, but hasn't spread yet. Although more aggressive might not sound good, it also means they know exactly what chemical will treat it, and since it has not spread yet, it's good news, but changes the treatment slightly. Now instead of doing 8 treatments every 2 weeks (ACx4, Tx4), I will be doing 6 treatments every 3 weeks (TCHx4). I am actually very glad for this because 3 week cycles give your white blood cells much more time to rejuvenate from the chemicals, TCH chemicals are less dangerous to your fertility and MUCH less dangerous to your heart. The 'A' in AC is known to cause some long term damage to your heart. With my family's strong history of heart disease, I wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

So the logistics work like this now: I have to start a steroid on Sunday, taking 2 pills 2x/day for 3 days - before, day of and day after chemo. I will start the TCH infusion at 1:30 on Monday and it will take about 3hrs. At that appointment they will give me all sorts of fun nausea meds to take home. I plan to take them all exactly as prescribed and not wait to get any nausea before I take them. (hopefully!) I will go back every 3 weeks for 6 times to get the same treatment, each time meeting with Doc Liu 2 days before, doing a complete blood work to test my blood cell count. Most likely after treatment (~4-5 weeks after the final infusion) they will do surgery. Depending on the size of the tumor, they may do radiation after that. I will have to go in to the office every 3 weeks for the next year to get an infusion of herceptin by itself (doesn't have same side effects as chemo). I will probably also be taking Tamoxifen for the next 5 years or so, but still haven't quite discussed that.

Mom and I (and SF branch of Team Amy) have a fun weekend planned while I still feel up to it - salsa dancing tonight, wine tasting tomorrow and just relaxing on Sunday.

Love,
Amy