Thursday, February 21, 2008

2/21/2008: Follow-Up

I honestly could not be happier today! Dad and I just came from my follow-up meeting with my oncologist, Dr. David Heyer. He is incredible and has worked with my surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Mason for many many years. I have such a great team of doctors at Reston Hospital really working in my best interest. They love me as though I am their daughter ... I can tell.

Dr. Heyer is so pleased at how well I am doing with my first chemotherapy treatment. My cold/sinus infection is clearing up and my strength is returning. My nurse Melanie ran up and hugged me when I walked in the door. Dr. Heyer shared with me some very exciting news!!! Apparently, last week there was a cancer convention where radiologists, surgeons and oncologists from all over the country gathered to discuss treatments, case studies and new techniques. They used ME as their case study. They basically pulled all my test results, images, etc. and work-shopped what to do with me. How cool is that!? They debated whether to do more biopsies, whether the mastectomy was necessary and even if I should be on the 5-year hormone treatment (which I could possibly not need once chemotherapy is done and they redo my tests). YAY!

Dr. Heyer expressed that he wants to fight one battle at a time because my course may change depending on how I respond to treatment. I was bombarding him with questions, obviously! So, for now we continue on the chemotherapy treatments every 3 weeks (ending May 30) with herceptin each week for a year. He said that the herceptin regimen may change, too. It could be anywhere from nine months to two years. Test results will give them more information to gage their treatment.

Once chemotherapy is done (May 30 ... can you tell that's my benchmark?), I redo my MRI and PETscan. That will determine if the treatment worked and killed the stupid cancer. Both Dr. Heyer and Dr. Mason are in agreement that I should still have the mastectomy. Within 3 to 4 weeks (no later) after my last treatment I will have a mastectomy with reconstruction at the same time. (I go to sleep with boobs and wake up with even better ones!) They don't want to wait too long for surgery because any microscopic cancer cells not killed through chemo may start growing again. Little bastards! The tissue and lymph nodes removed through the mastectomy will be dissected to determine whether there are any residual cells. Hopefully it will all be dead and gone!!! Within those 3 to 4 weeks after chemotherapy, I have to have my tests redone, meet with the surgeon and plastic surgeon, meet with a genetics specialist and start seeing the radiologist to set a radiation schedule. Whew ... lot's to do, but very exciting benchmarks, indeed. I need those goals in order to keep my sanity, or what's left of it, anyways.

Dr. Heyer said the genetics test will show if I carry the breast cancer gene. That will determine whether I am more likely to have cancer in the right breast down the road. This will answer the question, should I have a double mastectomy in June as a preventive measure or just a single? He believes it is highly unlikely that it will move to the right breast ... without the gene 1-2% chance and with the gene 10-15% chance. If I were to have breast cancer again, he feels that we would catch it soon enough (now that I will have testing every 3 months) that I could bypass chemo and just do radiation again. Obviously, we are thinking way down the road and dealing with a lot of "what ifs" ... but still VERY promising news none the less.

I really feel GREAT today and I am visualizing the medication killing my little insect-looking cancer cells (like Aunt Mary Ann told me to). My port has healed enough now that I have started working out again, which has proved to be a huge stress/anxiety reducer. The main thing to pray for now is that this regimen they have me on is doing its job and kicking this cancer's butt. Please keep the prayers coming, visualize my cancer being killed ... I still have a big fight ahead of me yet and I could use all your help.

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