So It Begins

Today we met with the Oncologist, Dr. Bowman.
We spent at least 90 minutes with him as he explained what is happening with the tumor, what other health issues there are, why he is suggesting the certain treatment, etc.

The tumor is approximately 10cm. (think tennis ball sized) and loves hormones. So the first step is to shrink it with chemotherapy. That will begin the week of Christmas (so far) and will be a weekly dose for a consecutive 12 weeks. At the end of that time we will begin another regimen of a different chemo drug for every 3 weeks for four treatments (approximately another 12 weeks). At that point we will do surgery to remove the tumor and affected lymph nodes. The reasoning behind doing the chemo first is to shrink the tumor to allow the surgeon to get enough margin tissue to allow for comfortable reconstruction. Otherwise too much tissue could involved.

After surgery we will consider radiation then hormone therapy.

Dr. Bowman was very detailed in reviewing all the side effects and challenges we will be facing in the next few weeks and month.

Next week I will have a port put into the right side of my chest under the skin for administering the chemotherapy. This keeps the possibility of infection much lower since it's under the skin and not exposed. Considering that on Sunday I had a return of the MRSA (staph) boils this seems like the right thing to do. I discovered a staph boil on my left elbow. MY ELBOW. Who gets a staph boil on their ELBOW!!!??? come on.

I left there with two pages of notes and a prescription for a "cranial prosthesis"
.... a wig. Isn't that hilarious? For a girlie girl who spent a lot of her childhood wishing she had very long hair and long fingernails and long eyelashes...now, at least for the next year, I'll just have to wear a very long wig.

Thank you so much for all of you who have kept us in your prayers and added me to temple prayer rolls, and church prayer trees. Thank you for your phone calls and letters and emails. Each one means so much.

So...it begins