thank you, next.
I’m excited! Which is weird to say when your cancer morphed and you didn’t have a good response to chemo and now my treatment is another entire year. But, yes, I’m excited!
Although I’ll be in active treatment for another year – this treatment should be kind. Most importantly, I can live my life. And isn’t that what treatment is all about – so you can continue living?
I needed this.
I’m going to try to put this in the simplest of terms. But, there’s a lot we just don’t have answers for and we never will.
After my mastectomy there was still over 5cm of tumor left. This is significant considering I had the most aggressive chemo for Triple Negative breast cancer. The normal process following a mastectomy is to send the lymph nodes removed and entire breast tissue to pathology to retest. This testing showed HER2+ and we sent to a new lab for further confirmation – which also confirmed, it’s HER2+. Click here to learn about HER2+ breast cancer.
What does this mean?
Either my initial tumor was partially triple negative and partially HER2+ and during chemo targeted to the Triple Negative the HER2+ sections grew. Or, my tumor morphed into HER2+ cells. We’ll truly never know.
But shouldn’t you be cancer free after the mastectomy? We sure hope so! I’m having a PET scan on Monday (Happy Birthday to me) to confirm things haven’t spread elsewhere in my body. If nothing lights up in the scan then I’m No Evidence of Disease!
BUT! Even if I’m NED, I’ll still continue treatment. Cancer cells are little hoes. They can hide. And my cells have a history of mutating into these little hoes so we’re being aggressive af to make sure this doesn’t happen again!
If my PET isn’t clear then we’ll add another chemotherapy – and I’ll be on some form of treatment forever. I’m terrified of this outcome. But I’m confident my scan will be clear.
What’s next?
Radiation for 25 rounds – this will be Monday through Friday for five consecutive weeks. Potentially 8 “boosts” to specific area, we’ll know more about this soon. I’ll start radiation beginning of May.
Targeted drug therapies for HER2+ - I’ll do infusions of Herceptin and Perjeta every 3 weeks for an entire year. These are biologics, not chemo – so they should be fairly easy! I’ll start these in the next week or 2. My medical oncologist is mapping out the plan and getting insurance authorization while I have to go get an echo cardiogram to make sure my heart is healthy enough. We’ll monitor my heart every three months throughout the year of this treatment.
Xeloda – which is a chemo – (another chemo finito party will happen!), but this time it’s. pills. I’ll take them every day for 2 weeks, then take 1 week off, for 6 months. I can’t start this until I’m healed from radiation – so likely mid-June. Xeloda works against all types of breast cancer cells so this will help cover if there are any remaining triple negative cells floating around.
Surgery and reconstruction are on the back burner. I can’t have surgery at the same time as the chemo pills. I will likely be flat until 2023 some time. This is truly devastating and I’m processing this.
The good news:
We are thrilled about this change! The targeted therapy for HER2+ breast cancer is incredibly effective!
I get to still live my best life. I’m planning summer travel (thankful for working remotely) and unpausing all of the unknowns.
I can get back to Pure Barre and being more active – thank God because this is my therapy.
My hair will continue to grow back throughout the treatments outlined above!!! The best news!!!
How can you support me as active treatment continues through 2023?
Prayers, good vibes, well wishes that this thing doesn’t mutate again, isn’t hiding somewhere else, and overall the treatments are kind to me.
I hate to ask but donations to the GoFundMe are truly the best burden lifted off of me. I’ll do an overview of where this money is going soon. But, I’m limited on PTO and I’ll now need at least 3 hours off each month moving forward for infusions. Even more for follow up appointments throughout. Not having my full salary is detrimental to my budget – even with tremendous cuts to spending.
Even if I don’t respond, your messages mean the world. I re read a lot of them, especially when I’m frustrated that this roller coaster seems never ending. Thank you for taking the time to reach out and please never stop!
GO TO YOUR DOCTOR! DO REGULAR AT HOME BREAST EXAMS! DON’T IGNORE YOUR HEALTH! ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF!
Life throws disappointments at us in so many forms. I struggled with this extension of treatment at first. But, now I just feel lucky I get to do this. Treatment is still curative. And I can’t wait to celebrate with y’all on that day!
