Chemotherapy

For most patients with breast cancer, the first step of treatment is surgery to remove the tumor. Then, depending on the specifics of the situation, adjuvant therapy is considered, including chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy. In some cases, neo-adjuvant (meaning before surgery) chemotherapy is seen as a good option. My case is one of those. The biggest driving factor for neo-adjuvant chemo in my case was the size and location of the tumor. My tumor is rather large (around 6 cm now--think the size of a lemon) and is abutting my chest wall. My tumor is also considered triple negative, which means that it is not receptive to hormone therapy. So, by doing chemo first, the doctors hope to shrink the tumor which will make surgery easier (and may also give me the option of having breast conserving surgery if I want it) and will also tell the doctors which chemotherapy agents work for me.

My first dose of chemotherapy was on May 23, 2011. I wore my "chemo" shirt to keep myself in the right mindset (It says "Hey Cancer, You picked the wrong bitch"). The day started with a blood draw and then an appointment with the oncologist to make sure that everything was okay for the treatment. This actually took a lot of time and involved a lot of waiting around. Most of the hold up was because of a study that I was participating in.

Finally I went up to the infusion floor and waited some more. Eventually, a nurse called my name and took me back to the infusion suite. There are various private rooms as well as rows of chairs facing the window. You can request a particular type of location if you want, but because this was my first time, they put me in a private room and had a nurse with me for most of the treatment.

Before you get the actual chemotherapy, they treat you with a lot of pre-medications to help control the side effects, manage anxiety, and minimize allergic reactions. The pre-meds include steroids, benadryl, and anti-nausea medications. They offered me ativan for anxiety, but I was feeling okay, so declined. The pre-medications took about an hour and were fine. The benadryl made me sleepy, but I stayed awake, in part because my friend Eleanor was there and in part because I wanted to see what was happening.

After the pre-meds, they gave me the actual chemotherapy agents. For me, it was a drug called Taxol. The taxol infusion took about an hour. I ate a turkey sandwich and messed around on my iPad during the time.

Once the infusion was complete, the nurse checked my vital signs and deaccessed my port. And then I was free to go. The nurse was so sweet--she gave both me and Eleanor hugs and wished me luck.

My friend Russ came and picked me up and took me home. I felt decent, just really tired from the drugs. So I went home and took a nap. I survived the first treatment with flying colors.

Chemo treatments number 2 and 3 where pretty much the same and uneventful. I went to these appointments alone, as I prefer not to worry about how my friends are handling seeing me hooked up to the machines. I watch movies, listen to music, knit, read, or nap.

The original treatment plan was for me to do 12 rounds of Taxol. I had an MRI after my 3rd dose and the imaging showed that my tumor had actually grown during the weeks I was on Taxol. So, my oncologist suggested a change in treatment plan. This meant that I was not able to participate in the research study anymore, but the doctor thought that the change was necessary. On to plan B.