After seeing my oncologist my head was spinning. They sat me down for hours and explained EVERYthing. I'm doing neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which for the rest of us means chemotherapy before surgery. Then I will have surgery, and then radiation. Why chemo first, you ask? Since I am young, my cells are dividing pretty quickly which means that the chemo will be more effective. The chemotherapy works by stopping quickly dividing cells, which is why hair loss ends up being a side effect. Speaking of side effects, the oncology nurses explained the many many side effects that I will be dealing with as I go through this. They also gave me a fistful of prescriptions to get filled to manage the nausea.
The next steps are to get a PET Scan to see if the cancer has metastasized, and to get an Echocardiogram to see if my heart can handle the treatments
My chemotherapy drugs of choice:
Adriamycin and Cytoxen (for four treatments, two weeks apart)
Taxotere (for four treatments, two weeks apart)
My anti-nausea drugs of choice:
Emend, Phenergan, Zofran, Decadron, Ativan (optional)
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Hey chickie, it's Tara Ruttley here. Joe D. sent me this link and told me about how you're doing. You can rock this out with a positive attitude, and you're so young and strong! (Besides, I think you look good with the green wig ;) ). You probably already know you just gotta plow through and try to realize what you're supposed to learn from this all. Cry when you need to then get tough when you need to. I'll be keeping up with your blog and cheering you on! By the way, if you want to know what I'm up to these days: www.spacemamasjournal.blogspot.com
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