And so the chemo begins...

Perhaps my undergraduate alma mater's fight song is appropriate? "Fight on!"

My last post was very much a reprieve from focusing solely on cancer (though it certainly made an appearance), in part due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States. But with a new week upon us, it's time to refocus on my treatment. In the pre-Thanksgiving post, I had mentioned that I had one final diagnostic test that was required in order to finalize my "staging", which took place on Monday, 11/27/2017. Due to some complications, the test on Monday was imperfect/incomplete. With the limited information available, however, the radiologist felt confident saying that he didn't see anything that would concern him, though he recommended I should have another imaging test done in six weeks to confirm.

I'm choosing to run with his interpretation and while my doctor hasn't formally confirmed anything, I am going to say that I am officially Stage IIIB! I never thought there would be a day that I would be so excited about a Stage III cancer diagnosis, but nonetheless, here we are. I wish I could have confetti pop up on the screen or something, but either I'm not sophisticated enough or this blog doesn't allow for that unfortunately.

Great, so what's next?

After complaining about the feeling that things were moving slowly despite the amount of activity going on, there is definitive momentum now. It was almost like building a run of dominoes. Each piece needed to be defined and in the right place before that catalyst could be tipped over.

Can we also talk about how apt the image of a run of dominoes is to describe what's happened with my normally well-ordered life? Actually, perhaps the better metaphor would be a house of cards or a game of Jenga with the wrong piece pulled. But at least in all of these games, the pieces stay whole and the game can begin anew. I can only hope the same holds true for me.

Now that my biomarkers were known and the diagnostics were completed, I'm eligible to participate in a clinical trial focused on improving the pathological complete response to chemo of newly diagnosed triple negative inflammatory breast cancer patients. Perhaps most importantly, my insurance cleared me to participate in the clinical trial this Monday and I've now been randomized to one of the arms of the trial (there are two). I was even randomized to the arm of the trial that I wanted!

The fact that I was cleared for the clinical trials and the results of the randomization were communicated to me on Tuesday, 11/28/2017. My team now had the information needed to tip the dominoes into play. Which is why I learned in the same conversation, that I would be starting chemo the following day (which is now today, 11/29)!

My first chemo experience

Due to the speed at which everything was put into play, I wasn't quite sure what to expect of my first chemo experience as I didn't really get the chance to speak with anyone on my care team about it. Not knowing what would happen was certainly unnerving but everything turned out ok.

As I'm part of a clinical trial, some things are being done differently than the "norm". For example, chemo is often times, but not always, a cocktail of multiple chemo drugs. While I will be receiving a cocktail of chemo drugs moving forward, this first infusion was only a single drug. When I arrived at the clinic for a previously scheduled non-chemo infusion appointment at 7:45 AM, I discovered that the clinic needed to speak with my doctor to clarify a few things. For example, I wanted to make sure that the non-chemo drug they would be giving me wouldn't conflict with the clinical trial protocol. Additionally, the order for the chemo that was to be given to me today hadn't been signed off by the doctor yet. Unfortunately it took quite some time to straighten out this snafu, but in the end, everything was set to go.

I was taken to a private room where I'm allowed one visitor with me (that's my mom in the corner!). I was then set up with an IV line since I don't have my port placed yet (more on that in another blog post).

Even though my chemo infusion is out patient based, the room is actually pretty nice. There's even a TV in there! I was highly amused to turn on the TV and realize that it's still running on the old, scrolling guide system. But at least there's something to look at while you're getting infused.

My IV line was connected to a fancy pump system that controlled the flow of the medicine based on the time designated by my doctor.

In terms of my first experience with chemo - it honestly wasn't so bad. I had heard patients previously mention that they could feel every drop entering their body, which didn't sound particularly pleasant. I was therefore a little nervous about my first time even though I had heard this over 15 years ago. In the end, I did not react to the drug while it was being infused and I've not had any side effects appear in the ensuing hours. Perhaps it was just this specific chemo drug that I didn't have a strong reaction to, but I'll take it. Chemo side effects are typically cumulative so I know this reprieve will be short lived, but I am relieved to have had an easier first time.

And now tomorrow, 11/30/2017, I will have surgery to place my port. I'll explain more about a port in the next post, but suffice it to say that after having had at least five to seven IV lines set-up in the least two weeks, I am actually looking forward to having an "implanted" device that will make getting chemo easier (at least from a technical standpoint)!