9/17/2022
This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind. 8 of the past 10 days were spent at the doctors office if you include last weeks visits. These last few rounds of chemo seem to be coming very slowly and from what we are told this is very normal that things are just in a waiting pattern each week depending on how my body is responding.
· Monday: We went to Dr. Vandermolen for a check up on my blood and he wanted to get a pulse of how I was feeling after the 3 days of IV fluids I had received the days prior. The blood results came back and Dr. Vandermolen was not happy with my hemoglobin again, along with my white blood count and my platelets, so he put a hold on my infusion for the week. To help my white blood count, I was given a short acting white blood booster injection to help reduce any chance of infection/sickness.
· Tuesday: Since my hemoglobin was low from Monday’s visit (7.4 and ideal is 8 in order to resume treatment) I had a 2nd blood transfusion at Hoag. Luckily this time it was about a 5 hour process vs the previous 8 hour process. After the blood transfusion, I was feeling better, had more energy and my heart rate had started to normalize a bit more. It was nice to have the same nurse I had the last time, Sherry, who was the one who is also triple negative and had just finished treatments in April. She took great care of me and made sure that everything moved at a much faster pace than the previous appointment.
· Wednesday: The day started at 8am with a virtual call with a therapist. I’ve been getting very anxious (for obvious reasons) and wanted to talk to someone that wasn’t connected to ‘cancer’ since I just want to learn how to manage my emotions and get through these last few rounds. It was a productive call, we concluded that I’ll start meeting with her for the next 6 months every week, to help me manage all of these feelings I have about treatment and my diagnosis. You don’t realize you need someone to help you through these things that is outside of your circle until they point out the things you don’t want to accept, like the fact that I don’t know how to personally deal with hardship, which is where I’m at in this journey – I don’t know how to mentally get through the fears and anxiety of what’s to come each week with treatment. Next up was an appointment with Dr. Guerra, my breast surgeon, who we haven’t seen since April. The appointment with Dr. Guerra was insightful but overwhelming.
o She confirmed that I will have a double mastectomy, which we already assumed was going to happen based on my diagnosis, but she solidified that this is the best route to reduce the reoccurrence of cancer forming.
o The surgery, assuming my treatments resume in the next week, will take place sometime between November 1 – November 15.
o It’s a 4 hour surgery assuming everything goes smoothly and she is hoping since I have chosen to have reconstructive surgery that we can get a plastic surgeon to come in and do their portion at the same time, but that is still TBD.
o Recovery has gotten a lot better over time and the hardest part will be not lifting my arms and not using my arms to get out of bed, off the couch, etc.
o Upon examination of me, she felt no tumor – which is GREAT news and what we knew was happening but nice to hear it again.
· Thursday: Back to Dr. Vandermolen we went for another check of my blood. My hemoglobin was much better, close to 10.5, and of course my white blood count had improved since the shot given on Monday, but my platelets still were low. So treatment was and still is on hold until our next visit on Monday, where hopefully they will have boosted enough on their own to get my treatments back on schedule, but only time will tell.
We have a 3 day break from any doctors appointment, which is NICE to say the least. My side effects this past week have just been some exhaustion where I’ve taken naps throughout the day and gone to bed early, followed by a bit of nausea and vomiting, but not nearly as much as the prior week. I’ve started to decorate the house for Halloween to keep my find focused on something else and its fun to see cute décor in our home now that we’ve remodeled – I’m excited for the holidays more than ever this year, for various reasons. All in all, those are the updates for the week – it’s been a lot and exhausting to go to the doctors so many days in a row, Chris and I both can’t wait until there is a possible normal week again of say maybe just 1 doctors visit….none is probably not going to be for a while, we assume.
Hope everyone enjoys the weekend. We are going to take it easy this weekend and spend time at my parents house tomorrow for dinner.
Monday I have my Keytruda (immunotherapy) infusion and another visit with Dr. Vandermolen to see how my platelets are, so we’ll be sure to keep everyone posted soon and, so please keep your fingers crossed my numbers are good for chemo to resume.
All my love,
Lauren
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