Anniversary of a Tumor

Hi guys! March 14th marked the one-year anniversary since we got JL’s diagnosis of breast cancer. This year has been one hell of a ride and we are still on it. I wanted to update you all with the latest and greatest.

As I wrote in the last blog post practically a million years ago, I mentioned that JL would need to have her uterus and omentum removed, which she did. This surgery was very hard on her! I know many of you followed that chaos on Facebook and so forth but here is a recap…

JL had surgery on January 18 bright and early and came through easily and comfortably. She was in good spirits and feeling great and was sent home too soon after surgery (I think).  We got home, got her upstairs and she relaxed in bed until she felt sleepy and then napped. I came upstairs to check on her and help her to the restroom but in only a few steps she started to feel weak and I got her to sit on a stool that we have by the bed. She then went completely unconscious and was twitching. I screamed and yelled and stomped and kicked until I could finally get folks attention from downstairs… (i was holding her up and couldn’t let go) We called 911 and the paramedics came and took  JL to the hospital.

Apparently she had started to bleed internally. She was given 2 pints of blood and we stayed a couple of nights before returning home. She then lost the ability to pee on her own which required another visit to the ER. A catheter was placed and we stayed in the hospital again. We went home only to return with the same problem to the doctors office where they put in another catheter that she kept all weekend at home.

Once that was removed on the following Tuesday, she slowly started the real climb to recovery. She said that recovery from this surgery was worst than the double mastectomy/oophorectomy/tissue expander placement surgeries that she’d had all at once back in August.

Fast forward to the most recent news…

It was thought that JL would need some light chemo to top off all of her treatments primarily because they were surprised to find remaining cancer cells in lymph nodes and breast tissue even after her last chemo treatments. Our Medical Oncologist began to think maybe further treatment wasn’t necessary after all because JL had been treated by all standard measures and there really wasn’t anything left and she was sort of outside of what is  known. In other words, there are no studies or information that would say that more chemo would be helpful but also no info saying that more chemo would be unhelpful.

The doctor sent off her breast tissue for one extra text called a “mammaprint” or something to that effect. In a nutshell, is a genomic test that analyzes the activity of 70 genes and then calculates a recurrence score that is either low risk or high risk.

It was hoped that it would come back saying that JL was low risk for recurrence and then he would suggest no further treatments. But alas…

There are a lot of words on a few sheets of paper that are confusing at best but there is a big red arrow that says “High Risk”  for reoccurrence. #!%?$@!

So this past Wednesday, 1 year and 1 day after initial diagnosis, JL started another round of chemotherapy. This time she is having a Carboplatin infusion every 3 weeks for 6 treatments. The most common side effects are fatigue and weakness, nausea (she is on anti-nausea meds), tastebud changes, low white blood cell counts and hair loss. Less common effects could be poop problems, abdominal pain, mouth sores, nerve issues and a few other annoying things!

It was like old home week in the infusion center. The staff was of course thrilled in a bitter sweet sort of way to see JL’s face. Those ladies up there are amazing and JL was weirdly and twistedly, happy to see them also.

We will keep you posted.