The next month and a half was full of several trips to the
hospital for appointments; here are a few of the major ones:
March 30, 2016
This is the first time I met with my oncologist Dr. Thakar.
I walked in to the department to register and when I looked around; all I saw
were people with white hair. I certainly felt like an odd ball, that I didn't belong here. He answered all
of the questions we had regarding chemotherapy. He gave us his opinion on what chemotherapy
treatment plan he recommended. The plan to being cancer free was to undergo
chemotherapy until October or November, complete surgery a month later, and do
radiation after if needed, and complete ten years of hormonal therapy. We discussed how fast I should start
treatment, and if I was interested in freezing my eggs. I left this appointment
with more questions than I went in with. I was being forced to make decisions
about my life that was never in a million years even crossed my mind. I found
out that until a plan was set in stone my life was chaotic and frustrating. Not
knowing what your next year and half consists of is one of the worst things
about cancer, the unknown- your life basically turns into a mess, a mess that
you really have no control over.
March 31, 2016
One side effect that chemotherapy has is hair loss. After
doing some research I found out that most breast cancer patients lose their
hair within the first two weeks of starting chemotherapy. As I have always had relatively
long hair I was nervous to see myself in the mirror being bald. As cancer takes
all your control of your life away, I wanted to have control over losing my
hair. Even getting trims at the hairdresser in the past was traumatic for me.
Heck, there was a time in my life where I only would get one hair cut a year,
however, I had nothing left to lose. So, on this day, I just walked into a
salon at the mall and had them give me a pixie cut- and I LOVED it!
April 4, 2016
Another potential side effect of
chemotherapy is that it can affect your heart. Dr. Thakar ordered for me to get
an echocardiogram to get a baseline of my heart before starting chemo. An
echocardiogram is a test of the action of the heart using ultrasound waves to
produce a visual display. This appointment was pretty neat because you get to
see and hear your heart. As always, Mom was at this appointment and she teared
up stating, “The last time I heard your heartbeat, was when you were inside of
me.” She’s been amazing throughout this entire process, and I am so grateful
for everything she has done for me.
Read Morea about Echos Here: http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/echocardiogram
April 6, 2016
Today was the day we (Mom, Dad and I) would venture into New
York City to receive a second opinion at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
(MSKCC). MSKCC was amazing, their staff was so friendly and accommodating I was
able to meet with several key players that help treat this disease without
having appointments for many of them. I realized while I was there, sitting in
the waiting room that there are several young woman under the age of 40 that
have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer isn’t as taboo in young
people as many would think; and in a sense, that was comforting. Dr. Comen,
gave us her recommended chemotherapy treatment plan, as did Dr. Kristein about surgery.
It was a long day, and now I had to make decisions. The worst part about this
is making decisions, I rarely can decide what to have for dinner let alone make
life changing decisions about my health. However, I had no choice. 
No comments:
Post a Comment