August 18, 2010

Well, we now know what we have ahead of us. Let’s just say I’ll be glad when winter is over!

We had a great consultation with my oncologist, Dr. Martin Blumenreich (old photo, left; add a few years and more facial hair and you have the current Dr. B) in Waconia. He reminds me of Lenny (for those of you who know my dear old friend who used to work in the workshop of our building, and moved with the Treasure Chest folks to Shakopee last spring), except that he has a German accent. He was very thorough and clear about what my situation is, how they plan to treat it, what the risks are, what the side effects are, and what they can do to try to mitigate those risks and side effects. While we had some questions going into the consultation, we had none left when he was finished.

The first thing we’re addressing is that I have a mild infection at the breast incision site. Not serious; nothing a week’s worth of amoxicillin won’t cure.

I’ll be starting chemotherapy on Monday, August 23. The chemo treatment involves going in every two weeks for a 2-hour intravenous treatment. Each chemo treatment is followed 24 hours later by an injection. That’s because the chemo not only kills cancer cells, but it has other effects as well, including causing my bones to cease production of white blood cells. For this reason, infections are a risk during chemotherapy. While there is a storehouse of white cells now, these can get used up during the process, and no more get produced until the treatment regimen is over. The injection somehow helps in the production of white cells. (I think I got that right.)

Anyway, this first round of chemo will involve two drugs, and the bi-weekly 2-hour treatments will last for 8 weeks. According to Dr. B, this will be the roughest part of my ongoing treatment. Side effects are fatigue, nausea, loss or change in taste or appetite, etc. for one day, three days, a week – we don’t know yet; everyone is different. Roughly three to four weeks into the treatment, I’ll lose my hair – all of it, eyelashes, eyebrows, everything. We’re debating about scarves, a wig or au naturale (my husband is not in favor of the latter). We have the treatments scheduled for every other Monday at 2:30 pm. I picked Mondays because they’re usually the slowest day of the week at the shop, and this way I’ll at least get to be at the shop until 2:00 that day before having to go in. Whether I’ll be up to coming to the shop the next day remains to be seen. Some of this is still a mystery.

After that will be another 8 weeks of chemo using a third drug only. Apparently this one will be easier for my body to handle, but I thought he said these would be 4-hour treatments (can’t remember everything). Then after that will be six weeks of daily radiation and anti-estrogen hormone therapy. These daily appointments will take 10 minutes – 9 of which will be positioning the machinery for a 1 minute zap. So all of this should be completed by mid-January, giving me a month to get ready for Valentine’s Day!!

I may need some of my friends to help from time to time. Some are already volunteering for driving duty. Al will be with me for the first chemo treatment, but after that it really doesn’t make sense for him to take off work to sit and watch me read or work on the laptop or whatever for a couple of hours. So I thought if I could get a ride to the lab, he could pick me up on his way home from work. Also, I may be too tired 24 hours later to drive myself in for my injection. Then there’s the issue of the shop. I still haven’t decided what to do about that. I may just close for half days from time to time. I know many of you offered to take a “training course” on my POS system so you could help ring up sales, but honestly, business is EXTREMELY slow during the week. And by the weekend, when it’s busier, I should be fine to come in. Meals on treatment day would be extremely welcome – at least for Al. I don’t know exactly what will taste good to me; the doctor said I might find myself loathing old favorites and craving things I otherwise wouldn’t touch. But I don’t see myself cooking that night.

Here’s the kicker that I learned. When my hair starts to grow back, it’s possible it will be a different texture (more straight or more curly), or even a different color (darker, lighter, or maybe gray!), but it’s likely it will be thicker than it was before! THICKER!! How is that possible! I have so much hair right now, when I get it cut Sheri has to thin it by, like, 30% just so I can dry it in a reasonable amount of time.

As it stands right now, my first couple of treatments are as follows:

•  Monday, August 23 Chemo 2:30-4:30 PM
• Tuesday, August 24 Injection 4:15 PM
• Wednesday, Sept 8* Chemo, Dr. appt 11:30 AM–2:30 PM
• Thursday, Sept 9* Injection 2:30 PM
• Monday, Sept 20 Chemo 2:30-4:30 PM
• Tuesday, Sept 21 Injection 4:15 PM

 *This is because Monday is Labor Day, so that week will get screwed up a little. Otherwise, the Monday/Tuesday schedule should continue all the way to the end of November with the possible exception that, if I heard correctly, starting in mid-October, the treatments might have to start at 12:30.

Anyway, that’s where we stand right now. Maybe next week I’ll be able to give everyone a first-hand education on what chemo feels like and what I’m doing to handle it. I know my kids feel bad about my having to go through with this. And, of course, if it were my choice, I’d pass on this adventure. But, as I learned long ago, I’m not in control anyway - of anything, except my attitude. So we’ll go through this as best we can. Ever since I found out this news, I have never felt, “Woe is me. Why did this have to happen to me?” Instead, I feel as though there is some reason I was chosen to do this. God intended for me to go through this trial. And some good will come from it – maybe for me, maybe for someone else. But this is the task I’ve been selected to carry out.

“God, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that, together, You and I can’t handle.”