I Need Drugs for my Drug's Drugs!

Chemo Treatment Number 2 2/21/19

Many of you have asked what chemo is like and honestly there’s no way to describe it, but I decided I would do my best!

I feel like this will be more exciting and dramatic if you play this law and order sound effect in your head every time we switch days. Cool? Cool.

Day 1

The day of chemo is a pretty normal day, The treatment itself is great, I get warm heated blankets, great ice chips, a super cute dude to my right, and nobody yelling “mommy” 15 thousand times. Believe it or not, it’s peaceful. My husband and I actually have fun!

Fast forward to a couple hours after treatment and, here come the hot flashes. Bad hot flashes. So, ladies going through menopause, I feel you girl, and I’m praying HARD for you! Haha! Really besides that it's just some fatigue. So overall day 1 is totally bearable!

Day 2

Day 2 isn’t too bad either, I just spend most of the day fighting nausea and nothing really taste good but other than that a pretty normal day!

Turns out, they have these drugs pretty figured out. The problem is you treat one drugs side effects with another drug and guess what... that drug has side effects too!

But on the real, modern medicine is pretty amazing! GO TEAM WESTERN MEDICINE!!

Day 3

"So chemo is easy. Piece of cake. I got this!" Then day 3 comes around I am in pure HELL. "F that piece of cake!"

From what I understand, most of it can be contributed to this shot they give to help my white blood count called Nuelasta. Remember how I said the helpful drugs come with their own side effect side kicks? Well this one causes EXTREME bone pain. Yeah bone pain. All bones, all the time. It feels like at any given minute my whole entire body is going to break into a million pieces. Anyways, that pain last about 18 hours and slowly gets better! Think about the flu but x1000.

Day 4, 5 and 6

If you are playing by the rules, you should have done the Law & Order thing 3 times right there and the suspense of this blog post should be building to unbelievable levels.

This is the no fun zone. Simply put, I'm sick. But it does get better every day! I slowly start to lose the nausea, the fatigue, etc. Some hours are better than others but I try to stay on top of meds and rest as much as I can! I'm supposed to avoid large crowds of people so I stay in my lair and wear my cool breathing mask. I'm basically a bed ridden, cancer fighting, vigilante at this point.

Day 7

Hey world, it's me again! I'm back to my normal self! Well besides the whole bald head thing haha! Now that I am feeling much better and I'm sick of my bed, I try and go back to work for the next 6 to 7 days before it's time for the next treatment day.

So, yesterday was my second round and my blood work looked almost perfect (so that devil shot, Nuelasta worked!), all of my organs are functioning great, and according to a physical exam by my doctor, MY TUMOR SHRUNK! GO TEAM WESTERN MEDICINE!!

I also got my results to the genetic testing. The goal of this was to determine if there was any genetic mutation that could explain why at my age I possess 2 different types of cancer. Well this all came back negative except I have a “mutation of unknown significance” in the BRCA 2 gene.

So what that means, basically means, scientifically speaking, is they don't know what it is or if it matters at all. What I was told is that it’s not a bad thing. They just literally can’t identify the gene. It has yet to be classified. These classifications are updated all the time and 9 times out of 10 they end up being of no medical significance, BUT, they are going to keep their eye on it!

At my very first oncology appointment I was told that the type of chemotherapy I am doing there’s a strong chance that I will become infertile so I had the option to meet with a fertility specialist and begin the process of freezing my eggs. One of the only concerns my oncologist had was the probability of the cancer coming back during/after pregnancy because they are both hormonal cancers. That day was tough (we had like a 24 hours to decide) I prayed that Jesus would lead my heart to do His will and we decided to just thank God for the two precious little girls we are so blessed with and continue fighting off this cancer!

Because of this "gene mutation of unknown significance," we have decided to add to my surgery checklist and go ahead with a full hysterectomy including my ovaries. And I am at peace with this decision. I know that my boobs and my ovaries don't define me as a woman. And my thyroid damn sure don't! God tells me who I am. I am his daughter! He is my father!

So get out of here boobs. Get out of here thyroid. Get out of here ovaries! I got plans and you're just getting in the way!

Although we can’t control the outcome of our circumstances, I know I will be okay. I will be victorious because Jesus is victorious (1 Corinthians 15:57) #BattleVerse