Meg vs Chemo Round 7

This last Friday (4/25) was my last scheduled Chemo!!

We brought the wonderful nursing staff at Kaiser Fontana Oncology some delicious cookies from MoMosCookies in Eastvale.

It is bittersweet leaving as these ladies took such great care of me and whenever they saw me asked not only how I was doing but asked about the girls and insisted on seeing pictures. I will definitely be popping in for a visit each time I see Dr. Miller.

Amongst all the chaos of treatment my AVID Mentor, Patti Harris, is retiring from the district I work for as AVID liaison. I applied for the job and my initial interview was scheduled for right smack dab in my last chemo. My interview was rescheduled for tomorrow (4/26) at 1:00, so prayers for strength and a clear head would be much appreciated.

I plan on going back to work on 5/12 to wrap up the school year and regain a sense of normalcy before being off for the summer.

Found a great blog entry that perfectly articulates how to help when someone is sick, thought this woman did not have cancer her insight is spot on!  How to be helpful when someone is sick

My upcoming medical schedule looks like this:
5/5- PET Scan at 10:30
5/6- Cora's 2 month check up (with shots)
5/23- Follow-up appointment with Dr. Miller

Sometime in the next few weeks a meeting with my radiation Oncologist to set up my radiation schedule (it will start 4-6 weeks after last chemo)
After radiation I will be meeting with my surgeon to figure out my reconstruction schedule since I can't start that process until 3-6 months after radiation to allow the skin to heal properly.
Because of the spots on my liver I will continue to be monitored through CAT scans until they are gone.

So this entry was a bit random I will close with another huge THANK YOU!!! to everyone for their prayers, cards, support and love that has been sent our way. Also here are a few pictures of Cora (she is already 8 weeks old!!!)

Someone got hungry in the bath

Sleeps with one eye open, just so she doesn't miss anything!

Mini-Updates

So I haven't updated in a while, sorry. So here are a bunch of mini-updates :)

My second biopsy came back clean!!! This means I will have a PET scan on 5/5 at 10:30. The PET scan is a more intense version of the CT scan.  The restrictions go like this
48 hours before- no exercise
24 hours before- no caffeine or alcohol
12 hours before- low carb diet
6 hours before- only water it is suggested that I drink 16-48 oz
I then have to allow 1-3 hours for the scan
After the scan I have to stay away from the girls for 8 hours as I will once again be radioactive.

My last Chemo is this Friday!!!!!!! This last round I was definitely feeling the cumulative effect of the treatments, so I am super excited that this is the last one! I should know Friday more about my radiation schedule, when it begins, how many rounds, etc.

I got my new prostheses on Wednesday and it seems weird to have two boobs again, especially when I can't feel one of them. Insurance covered the prostheses and three new bras.

We had a great Easter with lots of family, friends and food! We went to brunch followed by dinner at my parents house and had a great time!

Rough Weekend

So it all started Thursday my nausea set in (which is not helped with my post nasal drip caused by allergies and chemo) and that night I got the worst night sleep since my diagnosis. I don't know why. I wasn't apprehensive about my biopsy since I had already done one, I was tired, I just could not sleep and then had to be up at 6 to be at Kaiser by 7.
My biopsy on Friday went well, I wasn't able to get much sleep as the recovery area is rather noisy and busy.  This was also when my mouth sensitivity set in making me not want to eat (everything just feel gross in my mouth and the taste is off) When we got home, I took a short nap but was still tired.  I sucked up my aversion to Ensure and had one for dinner, knowing that I needed something to give me energy and that I wasn't going to be able to eat anything. Two awesome friends came over and helped with the girls while Sam was at karate.
On Saturday I woke up still feeling nauseated but not as tired but the effort of getting up and getting dressed exhausted me. I spent the whole day on the couch and was able to eat a little chicken soup, some quesadilla and some ramen noodles. Not the most nutritious but I was able to keep everything down and I supplemented with more Ensure. My nausea is aggravated when I cough, which is often right now. Saturday also began the battle with Ellie for following directions and listening. We will asked her to do something, she'll say OK and then not do anything or tell us she'll do it after she finishes what she is playing with. This sometimes will result in her waiting an hour to do something. Sam had a great idea of getting ping-pong balls and a jar and every time she listens the first time, she gets a ball in the jar, when she gets 10 she will get a small prize. This worked fabulously all day and Ellie got 6 balls in her jar.
Sunday I was still nauseated and still tired, though I am sure the tired is because I've spent two days doing nothing. The really battle today though has been getting Ellie to listen. There were tears with getting her in the shower, getting her dressed, eating her breakfast, taking her nap (she never did fall asleep) and then the major melt down came at dinner. She was crying, I was crying, Cora was crying UGGG!!!! It is hard being a good mom, it is near impossible to be a good mom with no energy! Ellie wanted nachos for dinner, we said no since she had them for lunch, she started to cry that she didn't want to eat her dinner then, we took away her i-pad, she cried that she didn't want to eat her dinner and wanted her i-pad back, we told her she could have her i-pad when she started eating, she cried....the last two were on a loop for about 40 minutes. This is when it is easy to just make the nachos and get the kid to stop crying, but that is not the responsible, good mom thing to do so I had to stick with my guns, even when it brought me to tears of frustration and exhaustion.

I hope that Monday we can start off on a better foot with no tears from either of us. Also happening this week, I should get my biopsy results Tuesday or Wednesday, if there is no sign of cancer from this biopsy I will most likely have a PET scan to identify any cancer cells in my body.  On Wednesday I have an appointment at Nordstrom to be fitted for my prosthesis, so I will not look lopsided anymore.
I'll leave you with a picture that makes me smile :)

Biopsy take 2

So my oncologist called on Monday to tell me that the spot on my liver did not show evidence of cancer. Great news! But also slightly confusing. Confusing in major part because I had such major lymph node involvement from surgery (15/18) The spot did show scar tissue which could be due to chemo. Because of this oddity, my oncologist has requested an additional biopsy, just to be sure.

So on Friday 4/11, I will go in for another liver biopsy. I check in at 7, procedure at 9 and then monitored for 4 hours for internal bleeding.

If this biopsy comes back clean as well, my last Chemo will be 4/25. We will then figure out when I will start radiation and start looking at when my reconstruction will be.

Meg vs Cancer round 6

This last week was a crazy one!
Tuesday night we were able to join some good friends in their suite at the Angels game, Ellie had a blast cheering on the home team and Cora looked adorable in her new Angels gear

New Angels fan

Wednesday I went into Kaiser for lab work pre-biopsy and pre-chemo and picked up my chemo scrips. Since my in-laws had the girls, I made a much overdue Costco trip, a trip to Kohl's and to Babies-R-Us to return some duplicate gifts.

Thursday I had to check into Kaiser Fontana at 7:00 for my 9:00 biopsy. I was called back at about 7:45 to get me IV and check in. The appointment before me checked in late and in the wrong place so I got to go in early! (Less waiting is always good) For this procedure, they take extra pictures with the CT scan and use an ultrasound to ensure they have the correct spot for the biopsy. They then numb the area with Lidocaine and give me a light sedation, as I have to be able to control my breathing. Since your liver is near your lungs, if you take a breath at the wrong time you can mess up the whole procedure. After the Lidocaine they puncture between the ribs and take several samples of the areas of concern. After that I was taken back to recovery where they monitored my blood pressure, heart rate and blood oxygen levels for 4 hours to ensure no internal bleeding. Overall the procedure was not as bad as I expected and I left with a bandaid over the biopsy site.

Best way to recover from a biopsy!

Friday was back to Kaiser at 8:15 for round 5 of Chemo and to meet with my Oncologist, Dr. Miller. Realistically given the node involvement when I had my tumor out (15/18) it would be pretty shocking if my "spots of concern" were not cancer. And if they are not cancer, they are something else and that would mean more biopsies and tests to determine what they are. So given that the plan for if they are cancerous is to finish my last round of TAC Chemo on the 25th of April and then begin another round of just the Taxotere.
The lab didn't run two of the tests on my blood on Wednesday so I had to have a blood draw and wait for results before starting my Chemo regime for the day, but once we got started it went pretty quickly and I was home by 2.

Waiting for the blood work to come back, & getting some fluids while I'm at it.

This week I should get my biopsy results on Tuesday or Wednesday and I have my post baby OB appt on Tuesday. After which I hope to have a two week hiatus from Kaiser!

On another note, my good friend Kate Huffman nominated me to be the honorary Bat Girl for the Angels on Mothers Day. You can vote once a day using the link below. You can find my entry under Kate's name as she nominated me :)
Angel's Bat Girl Voting

I hope you all have a fabulous week and I will post again as soon as I have biopsy results. Your prayers, thoughts and support mean the world to us!!!