My Cancer Journey

The night after the port was placed on September 13, it was difficult to get comfortable while lying down. The incisions were tender, and because of my vertigo I could not lie on my back. Despite this I felt okay the next day. At least until the premeds I took to prepare for the chemotherapy got into my system. Because of the side effects of the chemo, I needed to take steroids, Dexamethasone, the day before, day of, and day after the treatments. This helps prevent nausea and vomiting as well as reduce inflammation. There are side effects from this as well, but will write about the side effects I had from all the drugs in a later post. My oncologist prescribed a bottle of 4mg pills, and wanted me to take two pills, 8mg, in the mornings, and two in the afternoons. She made sure I knew the pills could cause sleeplessness, so I should not take them too late in the day. I am not used to take a lot of pills, so did not realize that 3pm was too late for the afternoon dose. The drug made me j...

A port, short for portacath or subcutaneous (under the skin) port, is a small reservoir that is attached to a catheter, a thin, soft, flexible tube. It is implanted under the skin to allow easy access to veins. They don’t have to find a good vein, because they know the port feeds directly into one. The needle goes through the skin into the port, and the drug goes through the catheter into the vein. It makes it much easier to administer drugs or take blood samples.  When you have cancer they test your blood very frequently to make sure you are okay. Some need chemo infusions every week for twelve weeks, some, like me, get them every three weeks for eighteen weeks. For some of us the infusions don’t end after the chemo. I will be given Herceptin infusions for a total of one year. This will hopefully prevent the cancer from coming back.  Some choose not to have a port placed, but to get a new IV in the arm each time they get an infusion. Sometimes it is difficult to find a vein t...

With the original treatment plan I was supposed to receive infusions of Taxol and Herceptin once per week for 12 weeks after the lumpectomy. Because there were two tumors that measured larger than 2 centimeters, my oncologist suggested a more aggressive treatment plan when I saw her on September 11. My heart sunk. Although I suspected this was going to happen because of the results from the MRI, it was not what I wanted to hear. It was difficult to focus on what the doctor said after that. This is why it is so important to bring someone with you to your appointments. Maybe one of you will remember what was said.  I don’t know that Craig was able to pay more attention than I was, but my wonderful oncologist has a practice of writing down all the important information so I can look at it when I am ready. That is one of the many things I like about my doctor. Now, rather than removing the tumors first and then have chemotherapy, I would begin with the treatments in order to shri...