First Day of Chemo = July 9

Today's doctor appointments started at 6:45am for bloodwork and stretched on for the full day. Literally did not leave the hospital parking lot till after 5pm.

Major things to report: 

1) The cancer hasn't spread. The PET/CT is clear - I have no detectable metastases anywhere. We had a good sense of this from the lymph node ultrasound, but now it is emphatically clear. Using the best medical science for detection through images alone, I am clear all except for that single spot.


 

Actual results from my PET/CT yesterday. The glowing thing in the center is my heart, and it is supposed to look like that. The other glowing thing is the cancer, and non-cancerous breast tissue is not supposed to look like that.

2) My heart is just fine. My ejection fraction is 60%, that's the efficiency of how much blood your heart actually squeezes out each beat. Normal is 55-70%. Anything higher or lower is troublesome. I can CrossFit if I feel like it, so long as I listen to my body. I probably will not set any new PRs but I can try to maintain. My radiation oncologist did CrossFit before she moved to DC, and my medical oncologist is a jogger. Whatever I feel up to doing, they say I can do. A heart attack would be very unexpected, thank God. Still, we will be watching this throughout chemo to make sure there are no adverse side effects.

 

3) Fertility drugs started tonight. My hormones have finally quieted down enough to move on from the preparation injections to actually stimulating the follicules with a new kind of injection. Basically, reproductive endocrinology is a complex symphony, that must begin quietly and will crescendo at the end. I mixed my own drugs for the new injection tonight. Starting to feel like a pro. Josh and I have been playing a different injection song each night. Tonight's was Aloe Blacc's The Man. After it's all over, I'll put together a Spotify list.

 

 



4) Chemo starts on Wednesday, July 9. I have been a good student of the process so far, but things are about to get even crazier. I am trying to figure out the exact scheduling of things and will share if I can figure out how to get the calendar feature added to the blog. I've set up a public calendar if you are interested in following along, and I tried to link it as a separate page on the blog (but I can't figure out if it is working yet). I'll probably start using a medicine app reminder too, like MediSafe to help me keep track of what to take when since everything will be on a different schedule. A lot more on this will be coming. Since July 4th will be my last weekend before chemo, I'm planning some kind of a multi-event themed weekend. We'll see. Much more to do in the next few days and weeks.

 

Up to 92 handwritten pages in the pink journal of live doctor visit notes. Note my massive and impeccably organized binder of medical reports in my bag. I am a student of my own medical history at this point. 


5) Still trying to keep good spirits up.
 

Lupita, gown by Prada.





Gown by Sibley Hospital - Lupita totally copied me.