Oncologist Update

Met with the oncologist today, Eric Gamboa. He discussed with us our options for chemotherapy and surgery. He re-explained things we already knew. That I'm an unusual case because I have two breast cancers, one on each side. The triple negative on my right is more aggressive then the one on my left. He also felt the enlarged lymph node under my right arm and has ordered a biopsy of it. There are four scans/tests that need to be performed before Chemo can begin:

1. Ultra-sound guided biopsy of the right axillary lymph node.

2. MUGA-cardiac study. They need to do a study of my heart muscle to see how strong it is before they give me one of the medicines for my chemo because it has the possibility of weakening my heart muscle.

3. PET-CT-whole body scan. This is to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else in my body.

4. MRI of chest, to see exactly what they could be working with, size wise and such.

These four things have to be cleared through my issurance and performed before chemo can begin. They've tentatively put me on starting chemo in two weeks unless we can get these scans done sooner. I also have to input the mediport but that's supposed to happen this Thursday for surgery.

He is recommending chemo before surgery due to the size of my tumor vs. breast ratio. Also the fact that it could already be spreading up my lymph nodes due to a right lymph node being enlarged and the agressive nature of the triple negative tumor. He said the right breast will respond greatly to chemo, left breast not so much because of the kind of cancer it is, but it shouldn't progress during chemo.

I will have 16 weeks of chemo or 4 months. Two days every two weeks I will go in for treatments. I responded, "Well, it must not be that bad then. I've heard of people going in 3 times a week, every week." He responded, I'm giving you the strongest aggressive treatment I can give you to combat the type of cancer you have. I would not say that it's easy. He told me I will loose all my hair and that I should feel run down for a few days. He asked if I had morning sickness with my kids? I said no, not really. Considering you've had six pregnancies, thats good. Your body should tolerate chemo well then. I will be on 6 different chemo meds over the course of 4 months: cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, neulasta, anastrozole, leuprolide, paclitaxel.

After Chemo, I have 4 weeks off and then will have the double mastectomy. I will have to have radiation for a period after that and then possible ovary removal, again due to my age and the reoccurance of cancer showing there later. Side effect of chemo, is it can cause cancer later somewhere else.

I asked him if I could still go to church and he said yes, but we'll see what that means. I'm not supposed to be around anyone sick. If I have a temperature that gets to 100.4, I'm to immediately go to the hospital. He explained, no matter what time of day or where I'm at, go immediately to the hospital. When asked why, he said because you could have an infection and you won't have an immune system to fight it.

We've scheduled and are leaning toward doing chemo first versus surgery solely for the fact that it starts attacking the cancer wherever it may be. If my PET scan comes back and it has spread to another organ in my body that will change the game plan above. Probably still do chemo but may require different meds and surgery options.

I again asked this doctor if he was religious and he told us he considers himself a religious man but doesn't go each week. He prays and if he put himself on a scale he would rate himself a 7. He asked what religion we were, and I replied LDS and he responded he was catholic. I again told him that lots of people are praying for him and I and he appreciated that. There are different "Miracle" signs all over the cancer center so those were comforting to see.

This can sound daunting but we will get through this. I will be forever grateful for the prayers being offered in behalf of myself, my family and the doctors. There has been a lot of peace and strength so far in this process and I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. The support from our community is amazing! I'm so blessed to live in a place where people care about each other. It will take many working hands to help my family through this next year, and I will be forever in your debt. Love You All!