Thursday, April 28, 2022

Not much going on this week other than Lauren having a MUGA Scan to look at the hearts function and overall efficiency of her cardiovascular system.  The purpose of this scan is to make sure the heart and cardiovascular system will be able to handle the stress of chemotherapy.

 

As quoted from verywellhealth.com, “A MUGA scan—the acronym for multiple gated acquisition scan—is a noninvasive, nuclear medicine test used to examine the ventricles (lower chambers) of the heart. It uses gamma rays and a radioactive tracer to create a computerized image of the heart as it beats. A MUGA scan is particularly useful for evaluating the overall ability of the heart to pump blood.”  

 

The process started with Lauren having some of her blood drawn, then the technician mixed some sort of radioactive serum into the vial and then injected it back into her bloodstream.  According to Lauren, she did not feel any side effects of the procedure and luckily the extraction, mixing and injecting the blood back into her system took all of 15 minutes.  

 

The machine that does the MUGA scan is similar to that of an MRI machine but at a much smaller size and definitely not as noisy.  Below is a comparison of a typical MRI machine versus a MUGA Scan machine.

MRI Machine

 

MUGA Scan Machine

At the end of the process, Lauren was able to see pictures of her heart and video of it pumping.  Pretty spectacular!  The technician stated that her heart is very healthy and there is nothing to be concerned about.  All in all, great news, but nothing we didn’t know already.

 

Today, Thursday the 28^th will be Lauren’s last day of her long and beautiful hair for a little while.  She will be going to her hair stylist Friday morning to shorten her hair in preparation of chemotherapy.  The hope is that her hair is long enough to donate it to Locks of Love.  They are an organization that, “… provides custom-made hair prosthetics to disadvantaged children up to the age of 21 who have suffered hair loss as a result of medical conditions, such as alopecia, burn trauma, and cancer treatment.”

 

All in all, a mellow week which is a nice change of pace and gets us ready for the coming months.  Overall, our spirits are as positive as they can be.  This process is exhausting and overwhelming to say the least, but we know that the end results will come with time, patience, positivity and a lot of love.  

 

Best, 

Chris

While Chris was in the military, this was his Soldier's Creed.  This is the mindset he asked me to live by, however I rewrote it as a Cancer Patient, read the Army version and read my version.  I got this!

Soldier's Creed

I am an American Solider.

I am a Warrior and member of a team.

I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.

I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America, in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

Lauren's Creed

I am a Cancer Patient.

I am a warrior and member of multiple teams: marriage, family and work.

I serve my husband, my family, my friends and all those I encouter.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never let my strength go.

I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, willing to learn and adapt to whatever comes my way.

I will always maintain my pride, trusting the process, the doctors and myself.

I am hopeful, strong and confident.

I stand ready to fight, accept change and destroy the cancer cells in my body.

I am the guardian of my life and my husband, family and friends are here to walk alongside me and lift me up, both physically and mentally.

I am a Cancer Patient.

XO,

Lauren

Meeting with the oncologist on 4-22-2022

Hello again.

Update #2 for Lauren. 

 

Today was a much better day for us.  Yesterday was a total brain draining moment meeting with the first oncologist.  In the first few minutes of the meeting, I wasn’t sure how it was going to end, but things did turn around and it got better.  The amount of information given to us was information overload, but we did have a general understanding of scope of the treatment plan.  I won’t get into details of the previous oncologist’s plan as it was similar to the oncologist we met today.

 

Today we met with Dr. Vandermolen, an oncologist with Keck Medicine of USC & Hoag Family Cancer Institute.  The meeting went exceptionally well and we immediately knew we wanted him to treat Lauren.  Dr. Vandermolen spent a great deal of time discussing the treatment plan, what to expect, and the overall success rate in curing Lauren of breast cancer.  As I had mentioned in my previous text, although Lauren’s cancer is considered aggressive, that type of cancer is more receptive to chemotherapy and immunotherapy, which is great news.

 

Starting next week, Lauren will have a MUGA Scan which will monitor her cardiovascular system to ensure it can handle the large doses of medicine being introduced into her body.  Next will be a PET test which will do a full body scan to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else, although Dr. Vandermolen seems confident it has not.  Following the PET test, Lauren will have a port (catheter) medically placed near her collarbone where the medicine and blood tests will be given from.

 

Starting the week of 5/9, Lauren will begin her regiment of chemotherapy one dose every 2 weeks for 4 sessions, followed by one dose every week for 12 sessions for a total of 5 months.  Surgery to be done 1 month after chemotherapy is complete.  Immunotherapy will continue for a complete year following chemotherapy.  

 

Lauren understands she will lose her hair, but I told her we can both embrace our baldness as husband and wife.  To help lessen the blow of hair loss, Lauren will be seeing her hair stylist next Friday to dramatically shorten her hair and is planning to donate it to Locks of Love.  I also told her that at least I won’t’ have to call the plumber while it’s falling out. =-)

 

Please continue to send all your thoughts and love to Lauren and me.  We are truly blessed and humbled for everything everyone has helped us with so far.

Meeting with breast surgeon on 4-15-2022

Hi All,

Wanted to give everyone an update as to what is going on, bear with me as I’m trying to give some high-level medical cliff notes.  

 

According to Lauren’s pathology from her biopsy and MRI report, it was confirmed that she has Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.  Doctors grade cancer in 3 metrics on a scale of 1 to 3 where 3 is the most severe.  The metrics are 1). Glandular/Tubular Differentiation 2). Nuclear Pleomorphism & 3). Mitotic Rate (cell division).  Lauren’s grade was 3 of 3 on every scale meaning it’s the most severe kind.  Although it’s not the news we wanted to hear, there is a silver lining to it which I will get to later.

 

The surgeon that we met with today indicated that Lauren will have to go through chemotherapy for about 12 – 15 weeks.  The actual start date of chemo will be dependent on the oncologist after they review the MRI and the pathology report from the biopsy, along with the genetic test that was conducted today, but it could be very soon.  During chemo, they will monitor the tumor to see if it has shrunk before attempting a lumpectomy or mastectomy.  Going back to Lauren’s cancer grade, the higher the number, the likelihood of chemo shrinking or the cancer being killed off is much greater than if she had a lower grade.

 

Again, I can’t thank everyone enough all the support you all have given to us during this, and I ask you to continue to give Lauren positive moral support.  We are truly humbled.