Breast cancer.

[Mulesaw]

@Sheilajeanne That sounds like some aggressive medicine for sure, especially given that the side effects from chemo aren't super friendly either. Thought they seem to be more long term like dry eyes, dry and sore mucous membranes etc. 

For the radiation treatment Mette might stay at the hospital for a few days. They have a patient hotel where she can stay so she doesn't need to drive back and forth every day. We might try that for a few days if the weather is bad. We have a 2 hour drive to the hospital, so basically half a day is spent in transport. 
She'd then drive there herself, and I's stay at home and take care of the dogs and horses. 

The good thing this year is that the company have decided that there is no need for keeping a full crew on the ship for Christmas, so instead of going back to the ship on the 22nd of December, I get to stay home until the 27th meaning a regular Christmas at home :-) 

 

[Sheilajeanne]

OH, that's great you can have Christmas together!

I was only about 45 minutes from the hospital, so was okay with commuting, and due to COVID, they condensed my chemo into only 7 sessions. A friend's mother was living in North Bay, so she stayed in a residence next to the hospital that was built by the Rotary Club. It was really lovely accommodations. There was a fully equipped kitchen, lots of lounging space with a nice view, and a large south facing balcony!

[Ferg]

My wife got her diagnosis seven years ago. When she told me, I lost it. This lady is the love of my life. We have worked side by side in our various business ventures for almost forty seven years. The very thought of losing her was something I was not prepared for. Her undying faith and refusal to give up helped her healing I am sure. My mom, one brother, brother's wife, and only sister died of this dreadful disease. Unfortunately neither of them had early diagnosis. I have three younger brothers. Two have cancer one has stage five kidney disease. I have been blessed with relatively good health my entire almost ninety years. My wife and I offer our prayers for any and all of you experiencing the effects of this terrible disease.

[Sheilajeanne]

Thank you, Ferg!

I currently have 2 female friends who have gone through cancer THREE times! Fortunately, each time it was caught early enough that it could be cured.

The one friend had breast cancer, kidney cancer and bowel cancer. The other had thyroid cancer, then many years later, following a lumpectomy for breast cancer, the cancer popped up in the other breast, but was a different kind of cancer! She had a double mastectomy, followed by a hysterectomy, as she tested positive for the gene that causes female cancers. 

Both are doing well. And may research continue to find more and better ways of making cancer survivable. 

 

[Mulesaw]

@Ferg
Thank you Ferg, it is deeply appreciated.

I also felt completely blank when we got the diagnosis. We were sort of expecting it because Mette had felt a lump in her breast, but to the very end you just hope that it is something else. but then once it was diagnosed - it just seems so overwhelming. 

@Sheilajeanne I think that Mette has had something like 16 weeks of chemo therapy before the surgery. We started the first session on May the 1st, and there is still some time to go. But apparently there are different types of breast cancer. And this type should be treated like that. I have previously thought that all cancer was the same, only it attacked different parts of the body. But I learned something new (that I really didn't want to learn)

 

[Sheilajeanne]

Mulesaw, yep, even with breast cancer there are a number of different types. Most are hormone sensitive - some to estrogen, some to progesterone, so post-treatment, you have to take drugs that suppress those hormones. Mine was not hormone sensitive - it was Her-2 positive, for a protein that encourages rapid replication of the cancer cells. Until recently, this was a very dangerous type of cancer. Then, researchers came up with a drug (a monoclonal antibody) that blocks the Her-2 antigen. It's called Herceptin, and I got infusions of that every 3 weeks for a whole year. There were no noticeable side effects, but it can damage the heart and cause congestive heart failure, so I had an echo-cardiogram every 3 months to check on my heart.

The last one was 2 weeks ago - they continue checking up on you even after the treatment is over. I have an appointment with the cardiologist this week, and hopefully he'll tell me everything is fine, and I won't need to see him again.

The usual chemo drug of choice is Taxol. I was to have 12 treatments, but after 5 treatments, they finally listened to me when I said I was having trouble breathing. They found my lungs looked almost like a COVID patient's (white patches) and I had an infection in my chemo port! I had to go on oxygen, and was hospitalized while they treated all this. The COVID lockdown happened just after I was discharged, and my oncologist said she'd understand if I didn't want to continue treatment, due to the risk of catching COVID if I had to leave home. 

I actually did have one more treatment, but the shortness of breath was so scary, I quit after that. Since my cancer was early stage with no spread to the lymph nodes, she said quitting only slightly increased my risk of it coming back. (Fingers crossed!) I'll breathe easier when I've gone 5 years with clean mammograms! One more year to go after this!

Edited November 13, 2023 by Sheilajeanne