My first visit today was with Dr. Coplin, one of the oncologists at the St. Louis Breast Cancer Institute. I'll be starting chemo on May 14 with four cycles of a chemo treatment called AC. AC is made up of two chemo drugs--Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide. They prevent any possible remaining cancer cells from dividing and growing and can eventually cause the cancer cells to shrink and die.
The four cycles will run every other week for 2-2 1/2 hours each. On day 16 after I start chemo, I will lose my hair. And as much as I was dreading this part, I'm really OK with it now. At least I think I am. We'll probably go look at wigs this week.
Once the AC is over, I'll start weekly treatments of Paclitaxel. The whole course of treatment will take approximately five months.
After Dr. Coplin, we met with Dr. Radford. She checked my incisions and took out my drains. Such a relief not having those bags stuck on me.
I came home, put on a regular bra and added my fake pad to the left. Funny, now the left side looks better than the right!
Tomorrow, we meet with Dr. Beat the radiation oncologist. Dr. Coplin doesn't believe that I need radiation, but Dr. Radford does. We'll see tomorrow what Dr. Beat says.
Friday I'm doing a CAT scan and bone scan to make triple sure there's not any cancer elsewhere.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Sue Sassmann's fight against breast cancer.
About Me
- Sue Sassmann
- A day after my 38th birthday, I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. As a wife and mother of three beautiful daughters, I never imaged my life would take this path.
Behind the Scenes
Background for what's going on now...I was diagnosed on Friday, March 28, 2008 with breast cancer—infiltrating ductal carcinoma (also called invasive ductal carcinoma). Atypical cells–cells that, for an unknown reason, mutated as they grew–have collected in the ducts in the breast. At some point, these atypical cells broke through the duct wall, and started moving into the surrounding tissue. This is when the cancer crossed the line from DCIS–ductal carcinoma in situ–to invasive (infiltrating) ductal carcinoma–IDC. It’s the most common type of breast cancer.
I am ER (estrogen receptor) and PR (progesterone receptor) positive and HER2 negative. All that basically means is that my prognosis is good and I’ll respond well to treatment. Blood work and chest x-ray are clear!
After the MRI, it was determined that the right side is clear, but they found another spot on the left closer to the breast bone. Because I’m opting for the mastectomy on the left, they don’t have to test it, they’ll just remove it.
Surgery was April 28 and the results of the surgery weren't as good as we had hoped. The surgery and the mastectomy went alright, however they found cancer cells in the lymph gland nearest the cancer. Dr. Radford took out the remaining lymph glands on the left side. We are looking at aggressive chemo in hopes of killing any remaining cancer cells and reconstruction looks like it'll be in three months or so.
I am ER (estrogen receptor) and PR (progesterone receptor) positive and HER2 negative. All that basically means is that my prognosis is good and I’ll respond well to treatment. Blood work and chest x-ray are clear!
After the MRI, it was determined that the right side is clear, but they found another spot on the left closer to the breast bone. Because I’m opting for the mastectomy on the left, they don’t have to test it, they’ll just remove it.
Surgery was April 28 and the results of the surgery weren't as good as we had hoped. The surgery and the mastectomy went alright, however they found cancer cells in the lymph gland nearest the cancer. Dr. Radford took out the remaining lymph glands on the left side. We are looking at aggressive chemo in hopes of killing any remaining cancer cells and reconstruction looks like it'll be in three months or so.
1 comment:
Sue, you crack me up. Your last post was SO hard to read (I'm now in love with Scott...what an amazing guy you have) and this one has me laughing (left one looks better...). I'm so in awe of your grace through all this.
-Michelle
Post a Comment