April 18, 2025

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 Friday. Where'd the week go.....

Tracey goes with me to the cancer center for treatment training and labs. This appointment is to go over my treatment plan, discuss side effects, reactions, etc. And to explain the reason for weekly labs prior to treatment. (This is in order to monitor my CBC to ensure I'm healthy enough for treatment.)

For the life of me I can't recall the person's name, and I think she was a physician assistant, but it didn't really matter. I knew she was just going over my stuff and not fully integrated in my care team. 

She was nice, explained each medication, the potential side effects, possible allergic reactions, etc. She was informative. She discussed the options for getting cold packs for my hands and feet to prevent neuropathy - an extremely common side effect from one of the meds. 

Common side effects from chemo drugs - nausea, vomiting, low blood counts, hair loss, mouth sores, numbness or tingling in fingers and toes, hearing loss, joint and muscle pain, to name a few. 

The ending result of this appointment was another folder of reading material, a list of over the counter meds to get and prescriptions. Imodium, Tylenol, Claritin, anti-nausea scripts... just in case meds. And a script for cream for my port to put on 30 min before treatment. 

Information overload. 

I forgot to mention that I had a phone consult with the cancer center in Blacksburg to discuss the genetic testing for the BRAC1 and BRAC2 mutations. This test helps to identify women that may be at a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Obviously I already have this diagnosis, but it will provide information to the doctors on whether or not I have a higher risk of it appearing in the other breast or the risk of reoccurrence. This information is also hugely important for Adrianna. If I have these gene mutations, there's a likelihood she may as well. Either way, she's been thrown into a higher risk category thanks to me. 


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