I've finally caught up and this is about real time now...
Yesterday I had some pre-chemo stuff to take care of. I went to get a echocardiogram, and already knew what to expect. It's pretty cool to see your heart beating on screen, to see the flaps flapping, and to hear the sound of it pumping.
As that was done, I had to scurry to a different location to get my first PET/CT scan. I was nervous about the claustrophobia part. My CT nurse (Anabell) was very nice, and explained every step of the procedure to me beforehand. The first step was my IV. Ugh. By now, I'm very used to needle pricks, and I also think my pain tolerance is pretty high. But this sucked. She tried the large vein in my elbow area, but missed it on the first poke. With the needle still in, she poked in/out/around 5 more times trying to get in the vein. It hurt a lot! She finally gave up and pulled the needle out, and I finally turned my head to see -- and what I saw was my arm covered in blood and more blood pooling in my hand. Grus! She cleaned me up, and tried IV #2 in my wrist. Whew, she got it on the first try. In the meantime, a courier came in carrying two big lead boxes and Anabell explained that one of the boxes had my medicine, specially prepared in Gilroy the evening before and overnighted for use that day. From inside that lead box, they brought out a syringe containing my radioactive glucose and the syringe was covered completely in lead! Crazy to think that this radioactive stuff they're protecting everyone else from is going right into my bloodstream!
After they injected the stuff into my IV, the next step was to sit still for an hour in my own little private room. It was pretty awesome. I watched The Price Is Right in a comfy recliner, wrapped up in a blanket, with a space heater blowing. This allowed the glucose to travel around my body and work its magic by sticking to any potential itty-bitty cancer bits.
Then finally came the scans. The CT/PET machines were not as claustrophobic as I was thought they'd be. There were two separate tubes with a gap inbetween, and each was only wide enough to cover half my body, so it helped with the claustrophobia knowing that I could move at least a part of my body freely at any given time. They ran the PET scan from my knees to the top of my head, moving in sections. I fell asleep. I drank water all morning hoping to open up my veins, so halfway through I needed to pee. They let me go inbetween the PET and CT scans luckily. But after the CT scan, they had to re-do the PET scan of my bladder because it was so full earlier. Hah. The scans took about 75-90 minutes. And then I went home! Easy as pie!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
IVF Cycle & Embryo Freezing
(I'm almost up to real time now...)
On Dr. Awesome's recommendation, we met with a couple fertility doctors. The first doc we met -- DO NOT WANT! We met with a second private clinic and liked them a lot. We quickly decided to go ahead and freeze some embryos as an insurance policy. Yes, it was expensive. Yes, we could always adopt. And yes, since I'm still in my 20's my period will probably come back some time after chemo. But still... we decided it was worth it. I always thought I'd have my first child around 30, but it looks like nature has it's own plans for us. We've been told that after chemo, we should probably wait 2 years before trying to conceive naturally. That puts me past 30. Oh well. There are worse things in life!
After blood testing and a marathon 5+ hour appointment at the fertility clinic, I finally got started with the IVF cycle. The clinic was very accommodating for cancer-treatment patients, and put me on a "fast track" so I was able to do what was needed within a couple days, when it would have taken a "normal infertile couple" a few weeks. My first Lupron injection was a few days before the wedding. I did the first injection myself. It was a cinch! The key was to not hesitate in sticking the needle in -- the quicker it went in the less I felt it. I did about 10 days of the Lupron shots, and Miles and my mom took their turns too. No big deal!
Then I had to stimulate my follicles to grow. My daily injection changed to 3 daily injections: Lupron, Menopur and Follistim. The Lupron was a walk in the park because I was used to it. The Follistim was a little weird because of the pen-style needle, but was still a breeze. But the Menopur was awful, especially the first time! The awful burning as the injection went caught me off guard. But after I got used to it, it was a breeze. I did those 3 daily injections for the next 9 days.
No big deal!:
Oh, and somewhere in there I cut my hair once I knew that chemo was a definite. Here's how long my hair was before:
During the 9 days I was on stimulation meds, I had to get periodic ultrasounds to see how large my follicles were getting. They monitored them closely because I had to stop the stim meds once the follicles got to a very specific size. Here's a photo of my follicles that my sneaky mom took. They are almost ready!:
Once the follicles reached the right size, they sent me home with one last (whopping) injection that I had to take at a precise time that night. The HCG had to be injected in my butt, and it's purpose was to trigger my body to release the matured eggs. So exactly at 8:30 p.m., this happened:
So I guess technically it wasn't my butt, but the muscle right above my butt. I was really nervous for this one because the needle was 1.5 inches long, so I iced my skin for 20 minutes. Then I laid down, told Miles I was ready, and then reminded Miles to pinch the skin... only to discover that the needle was already in & I hadn't felt a thing! Awesome!!
Everything had to be really precise, so my egg retrieval procedure was exactly 36 hours later at 8:30 a.m. I showed up early to the clinic and they prepped me. My IV went in my elbow area without a hitch. They said I'd be under sedation, not completely out, but that I probably wouldn't remember a thing. Since I'd conquered general anesthesia fear during my lumpectomy, I wasn't nervous at all for this procedure. They injected the sedative, and I was out like a light. About 30 minutes later, the anesthesiologist woke me up by shaking my shoulders saying "Teresa..." and then they wheeled me out to my spot where Miles was waiting. No biggie!
All along I'd been told by multiple people that my egg count and ovaries were "phenomenal," and they'd also counted about 30 follicles at the previous ultrasound, so I was disappointed to hear that they only got 12 eggs from my retrieval. And I was a little more disappointed when they called the next day to report that only 9 eggs were mature, and that 1 of the 9 had a chromosomal defect, so in the end they only fertilized and froze 8 eggs. Ahh, well. It could have been worse! And still, we have 8 potential little babies on ice! I gotta think that at least one will take if we ever have to use them...
Recovery after egg retrieval was not that bad. I had some cramping, but it was tolerable with Tylenol. The worst part was discomfort. I had gained some pounds and was about 10x bloated than a regular period. Every time I took a step I could feel the bloating and stuff actually moving around. It was like I was carrying a bunch of delicate eggs in my belly. Come to think of it... I was!
On Dr. Awesome's recommendation, we met with a couple fertility doctors. The first doc we met -- DO NOT WANT! We met with a second private clinic and liked them a lot. We quickly decided to go ahead and freeze some embryos as an insurance policy. Yes, it was expensive. Yes, we could always adopt. And yes, since I'm still in my 20's my period will probably come back some time after chemo. But still... we decided it was worth it. I always thought I'd have my first child around 30, but it looks like nature has it's own plans for us. We've been told that after chemo, we should probably wait 2 years before trying to conceive naturally. That puts me past 30. Oh well. There are worse things in life!
After blood testing and a marathon 5+ hour appointment at the fertility clinic, I finally got started with the IVF cycle. The clinic was very accommodating for cancer-treatment patients, and put me on a "fast track" so I was able to do what was needed within a couple days, when it would have taken a "normal infertile couple" a few weeks. My first Lupron injection was a few days before the wedding. I did the first injection myself. It was a cinch! The key was to not hesitate in sticking the needle in -- the quicker it went in the less I felt it. I did about 10 days of the Lupron shots, and Miles and my mom took their turns too. No big deal!
Then I had to stimulate my follicles to grow. My daily injection changed to 3 daily injections: Lupron, Menopur and Follistim. The Lupron was a walk in the park because I was used to it. The Follistim was a little weird because of the pen-style needle, but was still a breeze. But the Menopur was awful, especially the first time! The awful burning as the injection went caught me off guard. But after I got used to it, it was a breeze. I did those 3 daily injections for the next 9 days.
No big deal!:
Oh, and somewhere in there I cut my hair once I knew that chemo was a definite. Here's how long my hair was before:
During the 9 days I was on stimulation meds, I had to get periodic ultrasounds to see how large my follicles were getting. They monitored them closely because I had to stop the stim meds once the follicles got to a very specific size. Here's a photo of my follicles that my sneaky mom took. They are almost ready!:
Once the follicles reached the right size, they sent me home with one last (whopping) injection that I had to take at a precise time that night. The HCG had to be injected in my butt, and it's purpose was to trigger my body to release the matured eggs. So exactly at 8:30 p.m., this happened:
So I guess technically it wasn't my butt, but the muscle right above my butt. I was really nervous for this one because the needle was 1.5 inches long, so I iced my skin for 20 minutes. Then I laid down, told Miles I was ready, and then reminded Miles to pinch the skin... only to discover that the needle was already in & I hadn't felt a thing! Awesome!!
Everything had to be really precise, so my egg retrieval procedure was exactly 36 hours later at 8:30 a.m. I showed up early to the clinic and they prepped me. My IV went in my elbow area without a hitch. They said I'd be under sedation, not completely out, but that I probably wouldn't remember a thing. Since I'd conquered general anesthesia fear during my lumpectomy, I wasn't nervous at all for this procedure. They injected the sedative, and I was out like a light. About 30 minutes later, the anesthesiologist woke me up by shaking my shoulders saying "Teresa..." and then they wheeled me out to my spot where Miles was waiting. No biggie!
All along I'd been told by multiple people that my egg count and ovaries were "phenomenal," and they'd also counted about 30 follicles at the previous ultrasound, so I was disappointed to hear that they only got 12 eggs from my retrieval. And I was a little more disappointed when they called the next day to report that only 9 eggs were mature, and that 1 of the 9 had a chromosomal defect, so in the end they only fertilized and froze 8 eggs. Ahh, well. It could have been worse! And still, we have 8 potential little babies on ice! I gotta think that at least one will take if we ever have to use them...
Recovery after egg retrieval was not that bad. I had some cramping, but it was tolerable with Tylenol. The worst part was discomfort. I had gained some pounds and was about 10x bloated than a regular period. Every time I took a step I could feel the bloating and stuff actually moving around. It was like I was carrying a bunch of delicate eggs in my belly. Come to think of it... I was!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Surgical Pathology Report
(Written in mid-November)
November 4th was an election day for the history books, but it was also a memorable day in my breast cancer journey. My mom and I were at Safeway when I got a VM. It was Dr. Awesome saying my post-surgery pathology report was in, and it was good news all around with no surprises. I love a doctor that gives you a heads up to expect good news on a VM, rather than keep you in suspense until the actual conversation.
I called him right back, and he reported that he removed the 1.4 cm tumor with clear margins all around (which meant no 2nd surgery!) and that the 2 lymph nodes he removed were confirmed as cancer-free! Yaaaay! Even though he'd told us immediately after the surgery that there weren't cancer cells in the sentinel lymph nodes, I'd been holding my breath til the lab completely dissected them to make sure. Whew! What a relief! I called Miles to tell him the joyous news!
Knock on wood... but I'm so thankful that since the awful diagnosis on October 6th, we haven't received any additional bad news. Let's keep it that way. Plskthx!
November 4th was an election day for the history books, but it was also a memorable day in my breast cancer journey. My mom and I were at Safeway when I got a VM. It was Dr. Awesome saying my post-surgery pathology report was in, and it was good news all around with no surprises. I love a doctor that gives you a heads up to expect good news on a VM, rather than keep you in suspense until the actual conversation.
I called him right back, and he reported that he removed the 1.4 cm tumor with clear margins all around (which meant no 2nd surgery!) and that the 2 lymph nodes he removed were confirmed as cancer-free! Yaaaay! Even though he'd told us immediately after the surgery that there weren't cancer cells in the sentinel lymph nodes, I'd been holding my breath til the lab completely dissected them to make sure. Whew! What a relief! I called Miles to tell him the joyous news!
Knock on wood... but I'm so thankful that since the awful diagnosis on October 6th, we haven't received any additional bad news. Let's keep it that way. Plskthx!
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