The One With the Million Appointments

I thought earlier this year I couldn't live without my planner. But after this week, I am completely dependent on it. After my first oncologist meeting on Friday, we scheduled an overwhelming number of visits to nurses, technicians, and surgeons and crammed them all into these next seven days.


My wonderful planner :) There are 7 Jane Austen books pictured.

First, my meeting with the oncologist last Friday. I met my new best friend, Dr. Baatz, in the cancer center with my parents, Henry (boyfriend), and Mary (one of my best friends from college). First we met with a nurse who went over my whole medical history - which I would not have remembered completely without my team. She revealed my "working stage"....2A! Which is a lot better than we expected given how many swollen nodes I have. The 2 means that I don't have any cancer beneath my diaphragm but I have it on both sides of my neck. The A means I don't have any "B" symptoms: itching, rapid weight loss, and night sweats. This was definitely good news.

Using this stage, we are able then to figure out my treatment plan. Chemo doesn't depend on just your type or just your stage because every body and every cancer is different. It's dependent on stage, type, and a couple other factors. My other factors are that it is non-bulky (doesn't take up more than a third of the diameter of my chest) but high-risk (because I have 3 infected sites). My chemo plan is AVDB (or AVBD? some combination of those letters). The first part of the plan is 4 cycles of chemo. I'll be treated every 2 weeks for four months. After that, we'll assess how well I'm doing with another PET scan and figure out if I need more chemo, some radiation, or something else entirely. I will probably have 2 months of chemo after that.

We found out that the chemo will almost definitely make me lose my hair. I'm actually, surprisingly, positive about this. I have been battling my thick, thick hair since I had it and it will be a blessing to have a reason to cut it short and then lose it completely. I'm sure I'll have a new appreciation for it when it does grow back (though I'll be annoyed if it comes back even thicker :P). I will be cutting my hair short in 7 days! Prepare for pictures!

Today, I'm going in to meet my nurses who will talk about the short term side effects of chemo, like nausea, constipation, and fatigue. After that I will meet the surgeon who's going to put in my port on Friday. A port is a little mechanical device that hooks into one of my arteries. Chemo does nasty things to veins, so a port is used to avoid using an IV each round. On Wednesday I have my bone marrow biopsy, and Thursday I have two tests to assess my heart and lungs before treatment. Friday, again, is the surgery for the port. Next Tuesday is my second meeting with Dr. Baatz (and that night is my haircut!). And Wednesday chemo begins!

So that's what's been going on :) Thank you a million for all the well wishes and kind thoughts.

Current symptoms, side effects, and complaints: Nothing, though I wouldn't turn down a nap :)