Treatment Taxol/Herceptin 6 of 12

October 21, 2014 Treatment Taxol/Herceptin 6 of 12

Yeah!  I made it to my halfway point of my taxol treatment.  Its hard to believe that 4 months have gone by already.  I had a little rough week emotionally, but have made it through.  My friend Jessie Micke came down to take me to my treatment.  It was really great to catch up with her.  The treatment went well, my legs felt a little bit more weak this time around.  It was extremely nice that Jessie stayed and helped get the kids supper, homework, baths, and ready for bed.  Thank you so much for your help!

On Thursday, Andy and I met with my surgeon Dr. Bartos.  He was also extremely pleased with the response my MRI had shown to the chemo treatment.  We are still planning on a double mastectomy towards the end of December.  Dr. Bartos explained a little bit about what to expect with the surgery itself, hospital stay, drain tubes, and the weeks after surgery.   I have a meeting with the plastic surgeon this week.

Treatment Taxol/Herceptin 5 of 12

10/14/2014 Treatment Taxol/Herceptin 5 of 12

So some exciting news as this weeks treatment came around was that the chemo is working!  The Doctor was very pleased when we seen him which was great.  My toe is a little bit sore and they actually just put me on an anti fungal antibiotic for that, plus still continuing on my other one.  Sometimes its hard to keep all the medication straight, what I'm supposed to take, when, etc.

My Godmother Jean came down to take me to my treatment and stayed for a couple of days.  The treatment itself went good, and the days following too.  I'm not really sick to my stomach with this chemo cocktail, but feel pretty fatigue.  It was extremely nice to have an extra set of hands helping with food, cleaning, laundry, and the kids.  THANK YOU JEAN!

I also want to share that my hair is growing back!  Did you hear that!  It's growing:)  You can see it just a little bit.  Last week I kept asking Andy if he thought it was coming in, and of course he said "Well sure, maybe".  Even though I don't think he believed me.  But this week you can see it for sure!  Clara might have me beat, but I'm going to catch up to her:)

Lastly, I want to thank everyone that still thinks about me and what our family is going through.  It amazes me that I still get cards in the mail, emails, and text messages checking on how I am doing.  Thank you!  

Healing Quilt made by April Heindl

Thanks!

Mid MRI Results

10/13/2014 Mid Treatment MRI Results

So Andy came with me and we met with Doctor Hake today.  He is very pleased with the MRI results.  I asked him twice to explain again what he saw on the MRI.  So here's Andy's explanation:
Sheila's MRI showed good enhancement, meaning there is more flowage of blood and water in her breast.  Secondly, there was no discrete areas of tumor.  Before she started, Dr. Hake said her whole breast lit up, and had a lot of small discrete stared areas (dense tumors).  Now, while the tumor is still there, it is decreasing in size and density.  It was more of a darker shading, than dark with all kinds of small sharp stars.

So in layman's terms the tumors are busting up and the chemo is doing its job.  Some good news!

I asked many different questions today when I met with Doctor Hake.   One was how long after chemo will I wait before having surgery?  He said about 3 weeks after.  Which right now would fall December 23rd.  He did say that we could push it back to the next week because of Christmas.  However, I need to meet with my breast surgeon and reconstruction surgeon soon so we can get that scheduled.  I may have the option to have reconstruction done right away, but again will have to wait until I actually meet with the surgeon's.  I still will be having radiation.

Unfortunately I have come down with a cold.  I have a sore throat, but the strep culture they did today came back negative.  So good news there because that means I can still get treatment tomorrow.  I also have infection in my big toe that needed to be punctured and drained.  So now I'm on antibiotics and soaking it, and will hope for it to clear up without needing anything else.

I've learned that what I may have planned to do in a day can change just like that with Doctor's appointments and treatment.

Treatment Taxol/Herceptin 4 of 12

October 7, 2014 Treatment 4 of 12

I was very excited to have my dad come down and take me to my treatment this week.  I wanted him to meet all the great people that are working with me.  I also was glad that my counts were high enough for me to have my treatment.

So we headed to Subway to get my usual Spicy Italian and then to the clinic.  They hooked me up and started with all the pre-meds.  I spelled my last name and stated my birthday a zillion times.  While we waited for the pre-meds to get through my system Dad and I talked about a bunch of stuff.  We usually don't have that much time that the two of us just hang out together.  It was so nice!  Dad helped me fill out my Power of Attorney for Health Care and now have that on file.  We put on the movie Something about Mary, got as comfortable as we could, and then it was nap time.  The bet was out on who would be sleeping first, dad or me.  Well the verdict...Dad:)  He was snoring a little bit, but I wasn't to far behind.  Not sure if either of us watched much of the movie.

After treatment we headed back to the house around 3 and I took a pretty long nap, don't think I got up until around 5.  Andy brought the kids home and I took it easy.  Dad helped get supper ready for the kids, homework done, and get them ready for bed.  We watched a pretty stupid movie on TV that night.  I think I finally fell asleep close to midnight.  

Dad stayed over to help on Wednesday with Graysen and Clara.  It sure is hard to keep little ones quite, good thing I have a pair of ear plugs.  Not sure when I got up, but after breakfast we went for a long walk around the block.  It felt really good, but I was getting pretty tired towards the end.  I took an afternoon nap, but didn't wake up feeling to good.  I never really felt nauseous, just a little out of it.  I couldn't remember when I took my medicine even though I write it down.  I was questioning if I had actually took it or just wrote it down and still needed to take it.  It was a weird feeling not knowing.  Dad stayed and helped with supper again, and getting the kids ready for bed.  I was able to relax with him there helping Andy.  

The rest of the week I've felt a little bit more fatigue than I remembered with earlier rounds of the taxol/herceptin, but still manageable.  Friday I had another MRI done, but haven't heard any results from that yet.

I want to thank everyone who brought us food this week, prayed for us, sent kind thoughts, or helped out in whatever way.  It is amazing how much love a person can feel; which when your faced with a battle like this, I need it!

Now for my Dad.  The love and strength that you have given me is more than you know.  I look at my own children and the love that I feel for them is indescribable.  I would give anything for them to not have to feel pain.  I know that you feel the same for me.  It probably was hard coming along and watching me get the chemo drugs knowing that you can't take that pain away from me.  I just need you to keep on holding my hand.  You have raised a strong woman and I will fight through this!  

Race for the Cure

9/21/2014 Susan G. Komen Race - Racing for the 1 in 8

What a wonderful day this was for me.  At first I wasn't sure about doing a 5K and if I would even be able to finish the race/walk.  I had know idea how the treatments would be going and if I'd be up for walking.  As the day got closer, and I could see all the support I was getting it was well worth every step.  I loved the head bands "Sheila's Squad", the shirts, and buttons.  I felt like I had an extra little bounce in my step this day.  The music was fun, and there were just so many people.

After the race we came back to our house for a potluck.  It was probably one of the first parties we had that I didn't feel like I was running around like crazy.  Grandma Getter and some other people were instead:)

Back at the house we thanked everyone for coming and I tried to share some of the emotional feelings that I've been having through this journey.  Some of the hardest things is to put my trust in God.  There are days when I question why he would give me breast cancer.  What did I do to deserve this?  Will I make it through?  Will it come back?  How is this affecting my family?  I also talked about the many books that I've been reading, internet searching (although that I need to monitor and cut back on this).  I have one book that I read little passages every night that talks about God being by our side.  Giving me hope, and trusting that he has a plan for me.  I asked my family and friends to sing "In Christ Alone" with me which has been one of the songs that I continue to sing for hope and courage.

Again, thank you to everyone that was able to come and walk/run, join us at our house, or just thought of me on this day.

I tried making a video from the pictures I had from the day, but the one below might be blurry, so then I uploaded it to you tube and it seems to be a little better.  So here's the link for that http://youtu.be/oSUGxNatJNU

No Treatment - too low white blood counts

9/30/2014 NO TREATMENT - too low white blood counts :(

So I didn't expect to receive this phone call on Monday night, but it finally did happen to me.  My NEUTROPHILS (part of my White Blood Counts) were too low for treatment.  In fact, they went from 1.71 to 0.53.  They are supposed to be at least at 1.0 for treatment otherwise my immune system will have a difficult time fighting off any germs/infections that may come my way if they proceeded with chemo.  

So now the question becomes, what does that exactly mean for my course of treatments?  Basically, everything will get pushed back with Taxol.  I still will be getting my 12 rounds, but now the last round gets pushed into December:(  So not exactly sure what that means for surgery then either.  I'm guessing it still may happen in December, depending on if I miss anymore treatments.  I also asked why they just don't give me the Neulasta shot after my treatments like they did with the AC to help boost the white blood cells.  They did say if my counts don't bounce back there is a different shot called Neupogen that I can get that would help boost the counts.

They did give me Herceptin, nonetheless.  This is that targeted treatment to combat my HER2 status that I will get every 3 weeks after chemo is over.  Again, Herceptin is not considered to be chemotherapy, but I will get infused with this drug until August of 2015. There are limited to no side effects with Herceptin, thankfully.  

My friend Kelly came down still and took me to the clinic.  We picked up Subway, shocking I know, same sandwich for me every time:)  I was awake the whole time for this one, so it was so nice to catch up and be able to talk with Kelly.  Thanks so much for taking me!

So right now I feel great!  Bummed out that I couldn't get treatment, but there isn't much I can do about it.  Just hoping that my counts bounce back up for next week.

Treatment Taxol/Herceptin 3 of 12

9/23/2014 Chemo Treatment Taxol/Herceptin 3 of 12

It was so great to see so many of my friends and family on Sunday for the Susan G. Komen Race. (I'll blog about this later)  Although by the end of the night by legs were quite sore and even into Monday.

So I thought most of my blogs with my taxol/herceptin treatments were going to sound very similar.  Again to start my morning off, I dropped the boys off at school and then Clara went to Grandma & Grandpa's for the day.  I headed back home and got myself ready, picked up a couple of things and then my cousin Rhonda showed up to take me to my treatment.  We headed off to Subway and then to the clinic by 11:30.  They got us back in the room and started the saline.  This time they threw me off because they gave me the herceptin first which takes about 30 minutes.  I said, "Wait aren't you suppose to give me the steroid drugs,etc. first?"  They said those are needed for the taxol and this order will be just fine.  So Rhonda and I ate our subs, talked about the race day, how the party at the house went, and other things too.  After the herceptin drug came on the benadryl.  I like the fact that it makes me sleepy, but not the other side affect.  Rhonda put on Friends which my nurse Deb even watched a little with us too.  She is so funny!  I love her!  It didn't take long and I was out sleeping away.  Although I had some major leg twitching this time, and it stayed for most of the day into the night for me. Half of me was wondering if I pushed myself to hard with the Susan G. Komen Race, and then the other half was wondering what in the world did they give me.  Something new?  Deb thought it could be the combination of the benadryl and lorazapam that I took.  Who knows?  Eventually the time had passed and I was done with the taxol a little after 2.  I had to go to the bathroom so bad, so they helped me up but I ended up getting really dizzy.  Being to proud I didn't want them to get me a wheel chair.  I figured I could do it on my own, I'm a strong girl.  I sat in the chair in the hallway for only a little while, I really had to pee, so they helped me back up and I made it in time.  One of the nurses walked me back to my room and we stayed a little longer so I could get my barrings back.  At that point all I wanted to do was get home and lay down in my bed.  I think we left the clinic just before 3, in a wheel chair.  Good thing my cousin Rhonda is a prow with pushing one of those things:)

We got back to the house and I gave hugs and thanked Rhonda for taking me.  (THANK YOU!)  Off to bed I headed thinking this was a good idea.  Rhonda waited around until Andy got back from work.  I stayed in bed until after 5.  We ate a little supper and then Andy went to get the kids.  I had a little snuggle time with the kiddos before their bedtime.

Andy and I watched the movie "We're the Miller's", which was super funny.  I'd highly recommend watching it.  It was getting closer to 10 and so we were heading off to bed.  But of course I couldn't fall asleep.  My legs were still bothering me and my sleeping pill and lorazapam just didn't seem to work.  Actually felt like it had the opposite affect.  Finally I just got back up and went to the recliner so I wouldn't keep waking Andy up.  I think I finally fell asleep after 2 sometime.

The rest of the week went well.  I felt pretty good, didn't really need my nausea medication as much.  I had the kids on Thursday already, but definitely could've used a nap but I survived without one.  I even made it to the zoo on Friday:)  Overall, I'm doing good with this treatment so far!