chemo

We saw the oncologist May 10th when we saw Kronowitz. She is Dr. Green and from Beaumont! She went to Kelly (we went to BCP). The other doctor in the room with us just kept looking at us like What ARE y'all talking about?! We kinda hit it off as her first name is Marjorie too and that there weren't many of us around. Sadly, I told her I went by JoAn and not Marjorie. She said that was OK, she'd call me Marjorie anyway! lol

Anyway, Dr. Green explained the chemo and also said she was going to move up some tests that Dr. Ross had for me. She told me that they had seen the spot on my hip and lung. Graland said WHAT? We knew about the hip and already had that looked at, but not the lung! She said she wasn't concerned about it as ALL my testing has come back beautiful (her words) and that normally it isn't a spot, but just scarring from an illness way back. What WAS unsettling though was how she spoke about cure rate. If the cancer stays put, I am curable, but if it is metastisized to the lung, for instance, it is uncurable. I didn't like that at all. :( So, we will have that looked at this Friday, April 18th. PRAY!!!!!

Back to chemo. Zach is graduating on May 25th and school lets out that week. I AM getting stronger and able to use my arm more and more and getting better stamina. I exercise all the time. I told them I'd like to recover from the tummy surgery and breast surgery a bit before starting chemo and they agreed. So I will start on May 29th, just 3 days before my 41st birthday!

I will do FAC, which stands for f-something, a-something, c-something. It is there standard of care routine. Chemo will be for 6 months, then a pill for the next 5 years. The FAC will be 1 dose (about 3 hours to take) every 3 weeks. I take the dose, the first week will be OK, the second you kinda go downhill, and the third you recover and then the next you get to start all over again! I will have 4 courses of this, which will be 3 months worth. Then I'll be on something else (need to look it up), which I'll be able to take on Saturdays. She said it isn't bad at all. Will make me tire after a while of it, but it shouldn't be too bad. This will be for the 2nd 3 months. So looking at it, the first 3 months are mostly during summer!! YES!! Of course I may be wearing a wig when I come back to school, but that's ok! And I shouldn't miss much for chemo during the school year, only oncologist appointments which are every 2 or 3 weeks on a Tuesday, I think she said.

Speaking of wigs...the day before I went home, Graland took me downstairs to get my hair washed!! Mmmmmmmm I had BARELY, by seconds, been rolled in when another lady came in behind me complaining she'd been trying to get here all day. The salon lady said I was her last appointment for the day and she wasn't taking anyone else today. I just squeaked in...couldn't believe it!

Anyway, got my hair washed and as I talked with her I told her I'd never been in the shop and wanted to know more about it. One thing she said was things were free. The hair washing and getting your hair cut were free. Cutting down to bald when I need that, will be free. But more importantly, your first wig once you start balding will be free! Isn't that nice? I have one picked out and wished I had it with me, but of course, I'm not balding at the moment! But it is first come, first serve. So, I just hope it's still there when I come back! (Which I kinda assume will be 2 weeks after my first dose...)

Speaking of..I told the lady giving me chemo info not to tell me anything bad because I'll believe it (Dr. Seigal there). She was really nice and told me everything would be just mild and shouldn't be bad. Don't know if she was lying or not and I will not be reading the material. She did tell me side effects but said they'd all be mild and most women have no side effects at all. I take this to mean the hair too, so we'll see how we do! :) Positive in!!!