Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Chemo 7 and follow-up

Chemo #7 went off without a hitch. I felt nauseous after the pre-meds so they gave me Ativan and then it was night night time for Cristal. The next few days I spent in Atlanta for the Young Survival Coalition's Conference. I have had the same symptoms as the past few times... achiness, neuropathy, fatigue. My red and white blood cell counts are still low.

At my check-up, my oncologist ordered a couple of scans. First there was the CT Scan of my head. There is a chance of metastasis to the brain with Triple Negative breast cancer (that means that the cancer cells decide to take a family trip up to my brain, like what they see and permanently move in). Mine came back all clear. They didn't tell me whether they had found any grey matter in that head of mine though... hm...

Then there was the ever comprehensive (and ever expensive) MRI. The basic conclusion from the MRI was that the chemo worked (wasn't it supposed to?). They compared my previous scans to the current ones and the tumor had shrunk substantially. There were a few spots that still "lit up" on the screen.

So now I'm planning my surgery and reconstruction. I'm planning on a bi-lateral mastectomy (the suckers tried to kill me, chop 'em off!). It'll be about a month after the end of chemo. I'm still looking at reconstruction options.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update Cristal! We're praying for you and hoping all continues to go well. KICK BUTT!!!

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  2. Awesome!!!! We need to plan a boat cruise one weekend to celebrate. How about the weekend of 26/27. Let me know.

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  3. love you niece baldy! thanks soooo much for my new CD - i play it allll the time, especially through my chemo treatments, which last about 3 hours. so, good lookin out and hookin me up :)
    hugs and miss you
    aunt semicolon

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  4. Hey Cristal! Just checking in to say I'm thinking of you. Jane DeLue

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  5. Hello, Cristal. Thanks so much for sharing your amazing attitude and supporting Face the Sun. We posted a link to your blog on our website. Rock on!

    Carla Parker, facethesunmovie.com

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