Port Placement & Brain MRI

 Last Thursday I had my port placed for easier access for chemotherapy.  The port is a plastic device that was placed under my skin right up by my collar bone on the right side.  I had to be there bright and early at 6 am. Everything went well with check-in and the surgery.  They told me I'd probably wake up right out of the surgery but it took me about an hour. After the port placement we went over for my radiation appointment that was supposed to be at 7:30.  We didn't get there until 11:00 but they were great at working us in since we had had surgery. 

I went home afterward and spent most of the rest of the day slipping in and out of sleep in my bedroom.  We told the kids to work together and leave me alone so I could rest.  They actually did a really great job. It has taken me almost the entire week to feel better.  There was a lot of bruising to other muscles in my shoulder and chest.  It feels kind of weird knowing that there is something under my skin all the time.  I'm hoping that I just get so used to it that I don't notice at all. 

Monday, I had 2 MRI's done.  One was my thoracic spine because the lumbar MRI showed that the tumors on my spine went up into my thoracic spine.  Luckily the only thoracic vertebrae affected are the same ones they could see on the lumbar MRI.  It made us feel very happy to find that out.  The 2nd MRI was of my brain.  We just wanted to verify that the cancer hadn't moved to my brain yet.  I have never been so happy to find out that my brain is "unremarkable" :) we were so happy to have a 2nd bit of good news because up until this point it felt like everything came back negative.  

I just finished my 10 days of radiation on my spine today.  Next week on Tuesday I start chemotherapy.  I'm nervous but it also helps me feel like we are doing something to take care of and kick the cancer out. 

Radiation

 When we found out that he cancer had metastasized to my spine, the doctors decided I needed to have radiation to shrink the tumors on my spine.  They are pressing against my spinal cord and they don't want it to cause paralysis.  I also am waiting on my port being placed tomorrow and they can't start chemo until after that so they wanted to start something they can work on in the meantime. I am having 10 days of radiation.  They originally said it wouldn't cause any side effects. After my first appointment, they realized that it was a large area they were treating and would probably cause nausea and vomiting, which it has.  It also makes me extremely tired, but I have learned that naps and nausea meds are my friends. :) I just finished my 5th treatment today so I am over half way done! 

Tomorrow I get my port placed and then after Thanksgiving we will start chemotherapy.  It is planned on going on for quite a long time until my body can't handle it anymore or they need to try a new chemotherapy drug.  They are also planning on doing immunotherapy drugs with the chemo which will help fight my specific type of breast cancer.  We are extremely hopeful that all this will work and shrink and even kill the tumors. (doctors haven't said they can be killed completely, but that is my hope and prayer).

I do have another MRI scheduled for Monday as well.  The first MRI was just my lumbar spine.  This one is supposed to be Thoracic spine and Brain. We just want to make sure it hasn't spread elsewhere that they didn't see before.  The PET scan they originally did showed a tumor on my L4 vertebra but when they did the MRI it showed tumors from L5 to T 10 which was as high as they could see on that MRI.  They weren't expecting that because the PET scan is typically a better scan.  That is why we are doing further scans to see if it goes farther then we saw.  I haven't had a ton of brain symptoms of cancer but have had headaches so that is why we are doing that scan to rule anything out.    

Breast Cancer

 Over the last month our life has been turned upside down.  We got the dreaded diagnosis nobody every sees coming.  I have breast cancer. It is stage 4 metastatic, invasive ductal cancer. It has spread to my bones and my lungs. It is also estrogen dominant, progesterone dominant and HER2 +.  All of that just means it aggressive, but along with that it means there are cool ways they can use treatments to allow the cancer to attack itself.  

    Everyone always asks how it happened, how we found out.  I can go way back and say that when I was pregnant with Ben I had a small lump in my right breast but 2 gynecologists and a dermatologist in the last 6 years have all said it was nothing.  I have large breasts and it is normal for them to be lumpy.  Now we know that isn't the case as the largest lump has grown from an eraser head to about 3 cm. (apparently the size of a bouncy ball?) This last couple years I have been tired, but I have 7 kids so it was to be expected especially since the youngest is 2.  I also started having breast pain earlier this year, but if you look up breast cancer it says most breast cancer doesn't hurt so I didn't think anything of it. In the past year I've also had a lot of back pain, but I figured it was from not being in as good shape as I could be. I started going to a Physical Therapist in May to see if that could help since we had a family reunion planned for the summer and we were also going to travel to Pennsylvania and New York after the family reunion for a wedding and much needed family visiting.  The plan was to drive the entire way in two separate cars since we don't have a vehicle that fits everyone.  I really needed my back pain to be bearable so we could go.  The Physical Therapy helped a lot but didn't make everything 100% better.  

Our family went to Colorado in July for that family reunion.  While there we went to Pike's Peak which is 14,115 feet above sea level.  It is beautiful and tall, but it also made me feel like I couldn't breath great and I never really recovered after that.  Anytime I would go walking, especially up any small incline I would be short of breath.  The last day we were in Colorado as I was packing and preparing to head to Ohio, I was really struggling with a lot of pain in my right side of the chest and breathing.  I asked my mom who is a nurse practitioner about it and she said it could possibly be costochondritis and to take Advil to see if it helped.  It did! I was so happy and figured we'd figured out our problem. She did say that if it didn't resolve in a couple weeks to check with a doctor especially since I was having breast pain with it too. We finished our family vacation back east and had a great time visiting family and the Advil seemed to help any pain I was having so I figured it really was costochondritis.  My mom had mentioned my Physical Therapist might have exercises to help so I brought it up with him at my 1st appointment after we got back.  He had exercises that helped so I thought we were doing great other than the cough that had cropped up even though I hadn't been sick.  I thought I must have developed some asthma because of the high elevation we'd been at in Colorado. 

Fast forward a month  to end of August and I was having some worsening back pain again.  The physical therapist mentioned getting an MRI to see if I had a bulging disc but I declined because I told him I didn't want to do surgery since back surgery doesn't have a great success rate and he assured me that my exercises could fix a bulging disc. I can say that the exercises have helped a lot so when I found out about the metastases to my spine I was surprised... 

In late August, early September I started noticing swelling in my breast. I called my gynecologist and got in for an appointment so I could get a mammogram. I should have had one last year for my 40th birthday but various things got in the way... When I saw her she said she didn't feel any lumps and figured that the swelling was from an unsupportive bra. It eased my fears and I didn't worry too much when I called to schedule my mammogram and they didn't have any appointments available until October 6th. 

On October 6th, I went in for my scheduled mammogram.  When I got there they asked if I felt any lumps.  I told them that I did, but the doctors didn't.  They told me they couldn't see me that day and I needed to come back the next day when the radiologist was there to do a more in depth mammogram and ultrasound.  They said even if they did it that day that they radiologist wasn't going to be in until the next day so this was a better option for me to get results more quickly.  I went back October 7th and they did the mammogram and then sent me to do an ultrasound as well.  After the ultrasound, the tech said she was going to talk with the radiologist and come right back.  The radiologist ended up coming in and asked how Monday sounded for a biopsy. I was scared at this point.  Things has drastically changed from the normal, everything is fine line I'd been receiving for so long.

Monday morning we went in and they biopsied two lumps in my right breast and one in my armpit.  All came back as positive for breast cancer and thankfully they were all the same type of breast cancer.  It took us until Friday, October 14th to get the results which felt like an eternity.  It was one of the longest weeks of my life.

Since that appointment we have met with a radiation doctor, oncologist, and surgeon.  They all had one plan of action until we did our PET Scan and MRI which showed that the cancer had metastasized and then that changed our course of action. 

We are so thankful to everyone and your thoughts and prayers.  I testify that prayers are truly felt and have lifted us up.  It isn't easy and I don't think it will always be but right now we (I) have a lot of peace.  We are also thankful for all the help we have received from friends, family and ward members.  The outpouring of love from everyone has been amazing.  I will post more in further posts since this one is already long and all over the place :)