Treatment plan

For those who want medical updates:

Today I heard back that I do not have the BRCA gene mutation – very Good news for my female relatives and their children and so on!

April 13, at 8:30 am, I have an MRI biopsy in the morning hopefully with Valium involvement, a mammogram to confirm markers from biopsy where they should be (query wtf would they do to me if the markers aren’t in the right place? Okay I’m not going to think about that now.) My dear friend Melissa is accompanying me to this day thank goodness cause they won’t give me Valium without proof of a driver!

At 1:00 I will head in for my first chemo treatment which entails blood work each time an hour beforehand. The chemo cocktail I will get is carboplaxin and taxol. I will be getting a lower dose than many chemo patients get because I’m getting weekly treatments for 12 weeks. Supposedly this means I won’t get as knocked out by the treatment. I sure hope so and plan for that, but, since everyone is different, time will tell.

The next 8 weeks I’ll get another cocktail, AC I think (?), biweekly. After that, I will recuperate for 6 weeks (working, other life stuff, and doc appts of course) before I have surgery. This will likely be a mastectomy since it appears there is cancer in more than one location of my left breast. Surgery can take 4-6 weeks to heal and then I’ll start daily radiation for a month. Following that will be reconstructive surgery. I haven’t mapped this all out on a calendar yet, but I will. I think I’ll be able to work during our next Duke Law leadership weekend – our first with our new Dean-designate Kerry Abrams at the helm. I will definitely aim to have surgery after that since I’m missing the board meeting and Reunion Weekend this weekend and I’m a bit sad. But, I know I need to get this treatment show on the road! Sooner I start the sooner I’m better. I imagine I will learn so much about life, and so many other things, along the way. This is what an implanted chemo port looks like 5 days post installation. Nasty huh?