upbeat meeting with medical oncologist, and getting to WORK OUT!!

Dr. O'Regan was great. She said "I hope you haven't been googling too much about triple-negative, there's a lot out of bad stuff there, but I always say, ALL breast cancer is curable if you catch it early." And, she agrees we've caught it early, and even labeled it Stage II, which is the first anyone has given it a stage. 

I begin chemotherapy this coming Tuesday. O'Regan, being new to Madison, is eager to get the new hair-saving cold cap treatments started here; they are routinely used in Europe and are starting to be more common in the US, including at Emory where she was for the last 11 years. But because they are not yet FDA approved, they are quite a hassle, and I'm opting to skip it. I've already had two very kind offers to make or loan me special hats to wear when I am (temporarily) bald, and Don is actually hoping I will agree to him shaving his head in solidarity (it appeals to his inner Buddhist monk). 

The treatments will be every two weeks for 12 weeks or perhaps longer, depending on how things go. The first 4 treatments will be "AC" and the ones after that will be either "T" or T plus Carboplatin if I turn out to have the BRCA mutation. We'll have to give me another shot, Neulasta, at home the day after each treatment to help my white blood cell count recover. I'm likely to experience some nausea and fatigue and bone pain, but they have pretty good anti nausea drugs and advil helps with the pain. She said most women I treat keep working through their chemo, perhaps taking the day after the treatment off, though she supports whatever choice they make about that. Apparently the low white cell count won't affect my susceptibility to viruses, just to bacteria, so I'm allowed to travel, etc. and basically go about my regular life as much as my energy allows. 

Today I also called the nurse in the morning to find out if it was okay to bike to work and see my fitness trainer today, and swim tomorrow before the additional biopsies, and got a "YES" to all three, so I'm a happy camper (those of you who don't know me super well, and many of you who haven't been around me much in the past 2 years, don't know that I've become a pretty serious exercise addict, working out 60 minutes most days, either swimming, fitness training, walking, or dancing...and I don't sleep well if I skip more than a day! Other nurses, tech staff, and husbands were MUCH more conservative about when I could start to swim again after the last biopsies, which made me pretty grumpy.)

Off to the fitness trainer now. Thanks again for all the awesome support. I'm looking forward to hanging out with some of you this weekend. There's a chance I will only end up with one biopsy rather than two, in which case I'll be playing tennis with you (kidding!!).