Things have been a bit crazy around here... Not with the cancer stuff... Just regular 'ol life.
Cancer-wise? Chemo is completely over, yay!!! I had two more biopsies that came out negative... My port was removed last Friday, or as ! my tnbc sisters called it, de-port-tation lol Let me speak a little on that port removal... As some of you might know, the worst surgery/procedure I've had through all this, was the port placement... They don't put you to sleep... just shots of numbing stuff... you're in an uncomfortable position, with your head and face completely conceled so you keep germs of the area they are cutting into... It's hard to breath, hard to focus, hard to get through! So I was none to excited about the removal.
Overall, it was better then the implant. If only because of the fact that I knew what was ahead and made some adjustments to my arms and blue paper/plastic over my face... So the position wasn't as painful to hold for an hour or so, and I could see the wall through a little spot, which made me feel like I could breath a bit better... What a relief! But again, you're awake... so I tried not to, but I kept just focusing on what they were doing... "hm, that scapel cutting feels weird... now they are digging at the skin that's encapsuled the port... ouch that part isn't numb!"... the tug tug tug... pull pull pull... squeeze squeeze squeeze.... still no port... call a different Dr.... more cutting, more digging... "wow that port is wrap in a good little pocket of skin... oh don't worry ma'am, i just stabbed you with a blunt intrument, not the scapel"... lots of squeezing by this new Dr who seems to be teaching the other Dr's what they did wrong to begin with... He tells them so that they don't have to cut a bigger scar, they will just keep squeezing and pop that port out like a pimple! "there's going to be lots of bruising ma'am... you might want some pain killers by tonight"
Finally it's out! they rinse out the wound with saline... wow that's cold and painful! they tweezer out some chunks of flesh that "no longer have blood supply"... weird dude... so weird... then they sew me up... in three different layers! Nurse bandages me, gives me lots of spares, and sends me on my way! lol I walked out of there like it was a regular dr's appointment!
So, other then that, I had radiation simulation today... they marked me all up, put some semi permanent stickers on me and will see me on thursday for the tattoo mapping that will be a permanent reminder on my chest of radiation treatment. I'm going to feel all gangsta with my radiation tattoos =)
Radiation will be everyday, except Sundays... for about 46 days. So why do I have to have radiation? Isn't the tumor completely gone now? Well yes, it appears that it is (yay again!) I took my chichis off to confirm it would be... BUT given the size of the tumor, my BRCA1 dna mutation and the fact that it's triple negative cancer, radiation has a good chance of increasing my 10 year survival (in my case, meaning that the cancer won't show up somewhere else in my body, which triple negative likes to do) . So that's fine by me... anything that will stop a recurrance... I've heard of, and seen too many of my tnbc sister pass after recurrance... It appears that when/if it comes back, it's with a vengence like no other cancer I've experienced with my family.
So the ultimate goal is to do everything in my power to insure it doesn't come back. After radiation, I'm removing my overies and other womanly parts (my BRCA1 puts me at high risk for cancer in those places). And then I'm doing a study with a known diabetes medicine that for some reason has reduced recurrance in breast cancer patients. So they want to study if it will impact recurrance in those of us who take it who don't have diabetes. Here's hoping! Oh, I'm also taking part in a study while I'm on radiation... this study is to show whether there's a correlation between radiation skin reactions and ethnicity. I just think studies are neat, so why not? They needed more Hispanics in the study, so they were estatic that I agreed =) anything to help the cause!
Pray for a cure, Pray for further medical knowledge on Triple Negetive... Chemo doesn't work on us as well... and hormone treatment is out of the question... We need more research!
Thanks for reading!
