Ch. 18 - The Last Chemotherapy

Ch. 18 - The Last Chemotherapy

Well, the moment finally arrived, the last chemotherapy treatment... YEAH!!! I had my last chemo on Tuesday, January 8th at 10:00 am. The treatment went as planned, the pharmacy was just a little late getting my medications down to the infusion center. After treatment, I was instructed to continue to follow-up with Dr. Zhang and Dr. Grace. Although this was a big event, it did not go without its own unique set of side effects. Over the weekend I came down with a sore throat and cold as well as my normal nausea and fatigue. Out of a 24 hour day, I think I slept 20 of them on Saturday and Sunday. I was surprised that I got sick since I was continuing the injections for my immune system for 3 days after chemo. But anyway, come Monday, I returned to work as normal; it seemed like I needed to do something just to keep me out of the bed!

Besides the cold, I have noticed that on my right thigh I have some kind of redness that does not itch, but it just won't go away. I showed it to my doctor and he said that it looks like some sort of dermatitis. He encouraged me to show it to the dermatologist when I go at the end of the month.

So for now, my plan is continue recovering from the last chemo and follow-up with my radiation oncologist in 2 weeks in order to begin radiation. As for my porta cath, Dr. Zhang encouraged me to keep it in for 1-2 years unless it begins to bother me. He said just in case of a relapse or reoccurance, I will already have the port in the instance I would need more chemo. I just have to have the port flushed by the infusion nurse once a month so that it does not get clogged. That part seems pretty easy. I do have to return to Dr. Zhang in March in order to start the Tamoxifen and for follow-up blood work.

Ohhhh! Good news about my BRCA test, it was negative. So... my 8 little frozen babies are in the clear of carrying the breast cancer gene. At least that is one less thing that we have to worry about at this point. IT IS GREAT NEWS!!!

I will continue to keep you posted on any new events as they occur. Thanks again for all of your support!!