Where in the heck have we been?

This last round of chemo treatment hit me pretty darn hard. Again, soooo thankful that this was my last and final round!! My counts were knocked down which left me vulnerable again to infection and anemic with low energy, but slowly and surely I'm regaining strength and energy :)

Some updates on treatment plans...
1. Had my CT simulation scan last week to prep my radiation markings and positioning for treatment. I have red bullseye marks all over my abdomen. Pretty funny looking.
2. Have my CT scan practice round tomorrow to make sure all of the markings are positioned correctly and we are good to go for my 28 round radiation treatment
3. If all systems are 'a go' tomorrow, I will start my 28 treatments Thursday...every M-F for 28 days...eek! Sounds exhausting! Hopefully radiation treatments will be much less eventful for us. They are fatiguing as your body is broken down and rebuilding day after day, but it's only a local area, not systemic breakdown as chemo is, so the side effects should be less daunting. Most people slide by with feeling a bit tired and some skin irritation.
4. The last pathology results on the tumor removed from my breast came back very very slightly ER+. The results were really small and still makes the cancer I had considered triple negative (notice I said HAD...yes, I no longer HAVE cancer. I HAD cancer! yay!), but it is possible that I may benefit from a maintenance drug that people with ER+ breast cancer take called Tamoxifin...I will most likely be starting this drug following radiation for the next 10 years. Here's some info on hormone therapy for breast cancers. Yes folks, menopause. For the next 10 years. Beats cancer (I hope!!). haha.
5. Some other exciting news is that although the tumor came back Her-2 not amplified, the breast cancer center requested some additional more thorough testing that would tell us if the tumor had just a slight reception for that hormone...and it did! The very very most teeny tiny amount it could have, but there was still that teeny tiny bit. Yay! Why is this exciting? Because it is the first step in possibly getting me into an interesting vaccine trial. There are still more steps in qualifying for this trial, so I won't get into this too much, but here's a little info if you're interested. I will be taking another trip out to the breast cancer center to see the specialist and her team running the trial soon. Will keep you posted.

So lucky me...the risks of recurring cancer for people with triple negative cancer are highest in the first 5 years. The vaccine trial is in advanced stages and has hopeful results for many triple negative breast cancer patients with slight Her-2+ showings that this type of cancer has not had maintenance treatment for ever before. On the flip side, breast cancers that do show hormone receptive qualities (like ER+), are more likely to recur after a 5 year period. Tamoxifin has promising results in keeping these persons cancer free. I'm riding the line on both sides here and hopefully adding both of these to my maintenance regimen following radiation will help to keep this dang cancer at bay. Either way, the next phase of this journey is going to be working really dang hard to live my life without worrying too much about that and staying out of Dr. Jim's office too often making him cop a feel on lefty. haha.

Jonathon had some exciting news you can read about here and here...that guy really never ceases to amaze us with the random crazy happenings and people he gets himself involved with...he's headed to the Belmont race this weekend to hopefully witness his first Triple Crown winner! Still not sure how I feel about being compared to having the strength and courage of a thoroughbred, but apparently, there's a likeness there that Jonathon reflects on often. $10,000 doesn't hurt in helping me to consider the similarities either :)

WIN the DAY (Zenyatta style)
Love
Jenn