Some Test Results In

I just received a call from my doctor this morning. She received the results of the biopsy on Friday. She says I have invasive ductal carcinoma, which is the most common form of breast cancer. The biopsy from Friday confirmed the cancer originated in the breast. The biopsy from Tuesday confirmed it traveled outside the area of origin into the lymph nodes. We did a PET scan this morning to determine if it has traveled through the lymph system to any other areas of the body. She feels we only have a 10% chance that it has traveled further and feels pretty good we are just dealing with the breast area and the lymph area underneath my armpit. They should have the PET scan results in two days. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

She also received the results from the receptor study and it is triple negative breast cancer, which means it came back negative for the estrogen, progesterone and HER2.

Next up is my first chemotherapy treatment which is this Thursday, July 16. I will be receiving treatments every other Thursday for the next four months (eight treatments total). I will work from home those Fridays following chemo to rest my body (as they say if you overdo it the day after chemo, you will pay for it the following day). I hope that means my bad days will fall on Saturday and Sunday, which sounds pretty typical.

For those of you that want more details, here is what I will be getting when I go to my chemo treatments:
1) First, they access my port, flush it out and take vitals.
2) Then they put in the primary bag of saline.
3) Next they give me an anti-nausea drug, followed by Decadron, which is a steroid and anti-nausea medicine.
4) The first chemo drug I receive is Adriamycin for 10-20 mins. This drug is to fight the cancer by stopping the growth of cancer cells in the body.
5) The second chemo drug is Cytoxin for 1 hour. It is also a drug which fights the cancer by stopping the growth of cancer cells in the body, causing the cancer to die.
6) The final thing they do to me is give me a shot for Neulasta, which is a drug that helps my bone marrow produce more white blood cells to help my body fight infection. This is to help me not become anemic.
7) Lastly, they flush the port, and send me home. All in all, this takes about 3 hours.

The only other test scheduled is for Monday, July 20 and it is an echocardiogram on my heart. My oncologist wants to get a baseline of my heart before the chemo starts to weaken it.

So, all we are waiting on now is the PET scan result and the genetics study, which should both be back this week. Thank you for all the prayers and let’s hope both of those come back with negative readings.