My Cancer Journey

Craig and I had our two teen granddaughters stay with us for one week, and the four of us were on a day trip when my General Practitioner called and told me about the results from the biopsy. The call came much sooner than I anticipated. I had been open with our children about the potential of cancer and left it up to them if they wanted to tell their children (then ages less than one to 20) or not. They all told their children. This made it easier when my doctor called as it was not a complete surprise for the girls that were visiting. It can be difficult to decide if it is better to tell children or not, but I am a firm believer in not keeping those kinds of secrets. It will come out eventually, and there might be hard feelings then.  Here are my granddaughters’ thoughts from that day (I am Farmor) -  E: “When my Farmor answered the phone and stopped in her tracks, I knew it was bad news. My sister and I stopped a little ahead, trying not to eavesdrop. We walked into the res...

Nausea   Nausea is something most people associate with chemo, and I did have some. I don’t know if mine was less severe, or if I was able to handle it better because I had done research and controlled it.   The first couple of days after an infusion I was not concerned about feeling sick, as they gave me a pre-med that included a heavy-duty anti-nausea medication.    As soon as I knew I would go through chemotherapy I bought a ReliefBand from the internet. I had heard stories from some who had been nauseous from chemo, as well as those who have motion sickness. They all said ReliefBand helped keep the nausea away.   It is a strange thing - looks like a watch, and you put it on your wrist with the watch part on the inside of the wrist. It comes with a gel that helps conduct the electricity through your skin. The gel is not cheap, so when it is gone you can use aloe vera gel instead.   You rub a small amount of the gel on the inside of your wrist where you w...

Chemo brain is very real. It is very frustrating. You feel like you are going crazy or are senile. Because it is something that others notice more than the person having it, I asked Craig to tell me what he noticed. The regular font is what he said, and the italics are my comments. It seemed her thoughts had to traverse through mud and bog filled passageways delaying her words and movements.   This is very close to how you feel. My brain truly felt like I was working my way through a fog that did not seem to end. It took me a long time to get a point across, and there were many pauses while I tried to think of words, or even what I wanted to say. It was the same when asking questions or conversing. I could see her mind engaged yet responses and their formulation took more time. A time or two, her mind seemed to freeze up momentarily before taking on a thought or task.   My husband was very patient. It was very difficult to string sentences together, and words did not come to m...

After I finished the chemo and Herceptin infusions on December 28, 2023, the plan was to continue treatments of only Herceptin every three weeks until mid-September 2024. That was so much better than the chemotherapy. The side effects from only Herceptin are so much easier to handle.   I had the first Herceptin only infusion on January 19. Not only are the side effects easier, but the infusions themselves do not take as long. As with all IV treatments, the first session is always slower so that your body will be able to handle it better. The medical staff also wants you to stay for a while afterwards to monitor you.   After the first treatment the infusions only take thirty minutes. That is not only nice time wise, but you are also less sore where the needle is inserted because not as many drugs have been going through you. This was all good. At least for a few weeks. When I saw my oncologist in preparation for the third Herceptin only infusion on February 29, she confirmed th...

I received radiation treatments Monday through Friday for four weeks. The first one was on Wednesday, March 20. After the second treatment on Thursday, my skin felt like I had a bad sunburn. It happened faster than I had thought it would, and I was concerned.    My skin had gotten drier with age, and even more so because of the chemotherapy. The days before radiation I had been rushed and not put lotion on. I asked the radiation oncologist if that could be the reason for my skin to burn so quickly, and he said that was very likely. So, if you need radiation, make sure your skin is not too dry, but do not have lotion on the affected area when going in for treatment.   After applying lotion on the area, it felt better. I got into a routine -  When I got up in the morning, I slathered lotion on the area that would be treated. Before leaving for the hospital, I showered to make sure all the lotion was gone from my breast and armpit. When I got to the hospital at 1:15pm, ...

On Thursday, February 22, I had a consultation with the radiation oncologist to discuss what to expect for the radiation treatments. Then Thursday, March 7, I went for radiation set-up. This was done in a different room from where the actual radiation is done. There they made sure I was positioned correctly on the couch (the hard table you lie on during the treatments) so that the treatments would work on the correct area each time. The technicians do this by creating a personal “pillow” for you to keep you from moving your upper body during the treatments. During this appointment they created a mold for this headrest.   They were able to make it a little elevated, and I was also allowed to keep my head sideways, so my vertigo would not get triggered. It helped, and I did not have any vertigo attacks during any of the treatments.   One technician tattooed three small dots on my midsection - one on my left side, one on the right, and one halfway between the two. They were posit...

Friday, February 9, the surgeon placed a magseed next to the largest tumor. It is helpful for tumors like mine, that you cannot feel when palpating the breast. It is 5mm (less than .2 inches) and made of surgical grade stainless steel. The doctor places it with a needle after he numbs the area where he will insert the needle. When it is time for the lumpectomy, the surgeon then uses a special probe that makes different sounds depending on how close the surgeon is to the magseed. He uses this together with a sonogram machine to make sure he can also see where the tumor is.   Wednesday, February 14, I was not allowed to eat any solid foods after 9:30pm as I was going to be completely under for this surgery. No liquids after 7:30am on Thursday. I had to be at the hospital two hours prior to the surgery. Sitting around doing nothing is not easy for me, but Craig was there to entertain me :)   The nurse was able to access my port so that I did not need a needle in my arm when they ...