Monday, December 1, 2008

One more day..

One more day to chemoland. Steve is out trying to get me Neulasta, which I need to inject myself on the 2nd day of each chemo cycle to stimulate my bone marrow into producing white blood cells. My regime is dose-dense with no breaks. This is to ensure that all the cancer cells will be killed but it doesn't give my body time to recover. Anyway, the drug is $6000/dose and only one of many I will be taking.

Trolling through the internet, I did find a somewhat positive article about triple negative with lots of quotes from the widely acknowledged expert at UNC, Lisa Carey. (http://bcwatchdigest-triple.evidencewatch.com/) The positive points are 1)TNBC responds better to chemo than the hormone fed type 2) If you can survive 3 years, you are home-free whereas the hormone positive people only slowly decrease their chances of reoccurance over the years. The big negative is that it has a high reoccurance rate in the first 3 years and a nasty tendency to target the brain. It will be a scary 3 years.

Things are finally melting so I might be able to get one more run in. I will try to run during my long stay in chemoland but I have to be realistic here. Maybe some time on the indoor bike will be all I can handle. Not being overweight is strongly correlated with survival so I have that to worry about. It seems almost as important as chemo!!!I also should write all my passwords down somewhere. I have alot floating in my head and I might not be able to recall anything.

We went out to lunch with Mary and Larry at WCC today. It was nice. They told us about their Morocco trip.

I am very nervous about what the next 16 weeks will bring. Please friends, don't forget me even when I am no longer myself.

1 comment:

Renee said...

Sue,

I am wishing and hoping for the best with your first chemo. It's more scary in our brains than it actually is.

Remember to drink lots and lots of fluids to flush those drugs out of your system and kidneys. And take your anti-nausea meds as scheduled even if you don't think you need them. Kind of like taking pain meds - it's hard to get ahead of the pain when you are behind on the meds.

I am surprised that you have to give yourself the Neulasta. Not sure if this would be something I could do. I go in the day after chemo and the nurse does it for me. Whew! It is great stuff and will help you tremendously! I didn't have it after the first chemo and I suffered greatly.

Hugs my friend,

Renee

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