The Deets

Survived the night after my first chemo treatment thanks to some really tasty homemade chicken soup...thanks 'Line! Nothing eventful to report about chemo so far at all... that's a good thing :)

 Snacks and Sesame Street in bed with mommy last night. A special treat for both of us :)

Felt great today, just still worn out from the crazy week. Austin's been in heaven (actually tag J and I on to that too!) with Granny and Aunt Stinky (I give my family members such loving nick names!) visiting this week. My mom took Austin to her house for the weekend so I can get some more rest. Chanel made me some yummy lunch and snacks while I rested then we ran errands and finally headed back to the oncologist for an injection to boost my bone marrow production. These drs. appointments seem to be never ending!! I'm looking forward to an evening in a quiet house in my pj's watching all of my Bravo with Chanel and my bestie Maaya.

 Austin living it up in the country at Granny and Paw Paw Gene's house feeding the cows and walking around the dusty trails with Aunt Boogie (yup, another loving nickname!) haha.

So...wanted to fill you in if you're interested on the details of my diagnosis and treatment. Some of it is boring and sounds all fancy, and honestly, some of it is going to change throughout this process, so just to let you know our starting point here...

1.  I have stage IIb breast cancer (substage t1n2) which means my tumor is between 2 and 5 centimeters, metastases to movable ipsilateral nodes, No distant metastases

This means my tumor is almost 4 cm...yup grew nearly .5 cm in 10 days! Its' growing quickly which is why the surgeon pulled the plug on the mastectomy because he wasn't sure he could get clear margins by removing the tumor surgically at this size and after collaborating with me and the oncologist  our best option was treating the cancer first with chemo to shrink it up and control any further spreading. The cancer has moved to the lymph nodes that the infected breast drains to, but has not spread anywhere else in my body.

This all sounds ify, but we are thinking of it as I am in the beginning stages of breast cancer, I'm young and healthy and able to take on the recommended proven treatments for the form of breast cancer I have! That sounds a lot better :) WIN!

2.  My chemo treatment is AC + Taxol (plus an additional Neulasta shot the day after each AC session)

AC is one of the five most common types of chemotherapy given to women with breast cancer. It includes two drugs: doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan). The last drug: Paclitaxel (Taxol) is delivered after you've finished the AC

The "A" part both blocks DNA production in your cells, and also inhibits the enzymes responsible for repairing DNA. Cells can't live without DNA; thus when they're deprived of it, they die (in fact, some even kill themselves when their DNA is damaged). "A" can't distinguish between cancer cells and normal cells; but because cancer cells are dividing so rapidly, it has a greater negative effect on them than on your normal cells. The "C" part of this chemo combo stops cancer cells from replicating. As for "T," it slows or stops cell division, or keeps enzymes from making the proteins cells need in order to grow. So between all of these, you have some pretty powerful agents working to destroy those cancer cells.


Neulasta is a medicine used to stimulate the growth of "healthy" white blood cells in the bone marrow, once chemotherapy is given.  White blood cells help the body to fight infection. This is not a chemotherapy drug.

3. My schedule for treatments will be AC and Neulasta drugs 4 xs every other week (so every other week for the next 2 months) and then after that I start T drug every week for 12 weeks. So we are in it to win it for about the next 5 months!

Laugh for the day...again we missed the young moms with chemo day at the oncology treatment center today...Chanel almost sat on a pair of dentures someone left at the puzzle table on a Fight Cancer pamphlet. haha!

Will be posting hopefully nothing this weekend except some tired friends in pink on Sunday :)
http://www.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/AUS_AustinAffiliate?team_id=283439&pg=team&fr_id=3486