It has been three weeks since I last posted a blog. Since my last post, I have received my first round of FEC (a more intense chemo) and I went to MD Anderson for a follow-up on the spot on my 10th rib.
On Monday, March 10th, I received my first of four rounds of FEC chemo. FEC is the combination of three chemos, and I am still receiving Herceptin along with FEC. Therefore, during this treatment day I received a huge bag of fluids as a pre-flush before treatment, 4 different bags of chemo, a huge bag of fluids post-flush after treatment, and saline in between each bag. Yes, that is a lot of fluids!! The doctors had warned me that this round of treatment would be more invasive. I did have the metal taste in my mouth following the treatment for several days. I also kept myself on nausea medicine for 4 days, but still had little appetite and a weak stomach throughout those days. This slowly surpassed over the past couple of weeks. During my past treatment, I was receiving the Neupogen on a weekly basis to increase my white blood count. With this round of chemo I am now getting Neulasta, which is designed to last three weeks vs. one week. This injection is much more intense. A week following the injection, I thought there was something wrong because my back and hips were in intense pain. I was having muscle spasms and a constant throbbing pain. I had lab on the following day, and the nurses informed me that my pain was a sign that the Nuelasta injection was working, and this was normal. This injection and the Neupogen injections are both designed to break your bones down and form new white blood cells.
On Wednesday following my treatment, I felt as though I had been hit by the flu. I was pretty nauseated, and every bone in my body hurt to move from the Neulasta injection. It took everything I had in my body to get out of bed and go to my bone scan appointment at MD Anderson. Once at MD Anderson I was injected with a solution that is designed to light your bones up when being observed. The technician that injected me informed me that if everything looked good, then they would only have to do the bone scan. If there was something on my bones that needed further investigation, then more tests would be ordered. After a two hour waiting period for the injection to take effect on my bones, the bone scan was completed. Once it was complete and the doctors took a moment to review the bone scan, additional tests were ordered. The radiologist doctor informed me that the additional tests did not necessarily mean a good thing or a bad thing, they just needed more tests ran due to my young age. I on the other hand knew that there had to be something still on my rib. The additional tests included a 3D imaging of my ribs, and a ct scan. My PA was out of the office until Monday, so now it was a waiting game to receive my results.
I received my results from the PA on Tuesday, March 18th. The spot on my 10th rib is still there, but it hasn't changed. This is a good thing! The PA informed me that if the spot was decreasing in size then this would be bad, as it would mean the chemo was attacking it, and it was indeed cancer. The spot was also not growing, which is also good. At this point the PA is concluding that the spot on my 10th rib was a prior injury that did not heal correctly. Another bone scan will be conducted to follow-up on it in 2-3 months.
At this point I only have about 20% of my hair left. I still haven't shaved my head, as it still looks half way decent under a cap. I have also gained quite a few pounds. I have researched and learned that the vast majority of the breast cancer patients gain weight since all of your hormones are turned off. Additionally, the chemo breast cancer patients are treated with takes a patients current fat cells, pulls additional fat out of your blood stream, and attaches itself to the fat that is already being stored in your body. I really wasn't planning on gaining weight while undergoing cancer treatments, but I am happy to look and feel healthy.
