More Stuff…

We went for just a post chemo-post surgery follow up with the Medical Oncologist (MO) yesterday. He wrote a script for  Arimidex that JL will need to take for the next 10 years. 10 years! Since JL has ER PR positive cancer, estrogen is the enemy and Arimidex is an aromatase inhibitor; it is designed to snap remaining estrogen from the body. Her ovaries are gone but apparently estrogen is produced in other places as well such as the adrenal glands.

Side effects can by achy joints, vag dryness, bone density loss and weight gain. Good times! She will be doing a bone density scan soon to get a baseline reading and then again in a year to evaluate. It is also really important for her to supplement with Vit D and Calcium.

Because the MO saw in her pathology report from her Axillary Dissection that out of the 8 nodes removed, 2 still had cancer cells and because there was still part of the tumor in her breast at the time of mastectomy, he felt like she should have an oral chemo for 6 weeks to be safe. Since the latest about the  fallopian tube, when we thought she might have to do chemo post hysterectomy, it is now a certainty. Fortunately she will not have to do 2 different chemos…the carboplatin for the tubes will also serve the needs of chemo for the breast area that the MO is recommending.

On the blog we’ve been addressing all of the news we’ve been collecting but haven’t really updated on JL’s actual recovery. She is definitely healing but struggling with a constant pain in her chest and under her left arm where the lymph nodes were removed. She has limited range of motion in that arm and and she feels that axilliary dissection was worse than the mastectomies. She starts physical therapy tomorrow morning.

Her expanders have been filled twice and we have one more expansion that should put JL at her pre-mastectomy size. That appointment is next week. The pain she is feeling in her chest is likely related to these expanders. They are a stiffer plastic and they are stitched in place and she thinks she can actually feel the pull of those stitches. They are not like the malleable  “natural” feeling silicone implants that will be her permanent implants after all is said and done. The part that is the hardest is there is no way to know when it will be all ‘said and done’. There is still radiation, hysterectomy and chemo to be done first.

We have a breast CT scan scheduled on Wednesday morning of next week. The radiation oncologist (RO) will use this scan to decide where to give the radiation and she will probably get small tattoos to use as guides when positioning her for her treatments. We were hoping to actually start the radiation next week; we didn’t realize there would be other prep appointments first.

The psychosocial part of all JL has been lambasted with has definitely taken it’s toll and the support from professionals in that area has been sorely lacking as we’ve gone through this process. In the beginning there was a gentle nudge to “join a support group” but there really should be more out there. It should be standard of care. We have found our own way thank goodness and JL is seeing a professional now who is wonderful, supporting and lifting. We will probably write more regarding this but for now, know that we are moving along the path towards healing. Sometimes it gets messy but even still, JL has more positivity through this than most people have on an average day!