Let the fight begin….
November 2009. A few days after my diagnosis, my husband rushes to me with his laptop. His eyes are bright with hope, there is a smile on his face, he has found something on the internet. He has found a survivor blog, someone with the same type of cancer, diagnosed 10 years ago. She was 28 when she was diagnosed, she is 38 now, she is well, has a successful career, in her blog she complains about mundane things like bad dates, ruining her outfit in the rain etc. Oh how wonderful, how I want to return to worrying about promotions, crib about commuting to work, be sad that my hairstylist is moving to a different city. That is life, she is living that life, she is not worrying about death, she is alive, if she is alive, I will be too. I will beat cancer, some day I will be penning my 10 year anniversary blog post. The fight is on cancer….the fight is on….
I meet my oncologists, guess what, Her2 might just be a blessing in disguise. They have a clinical trial for me, a targeted therapy. Lapatinib, the wonder drug, take a pill every morning for 3 months, lets see what happens. I won’t lose my hair, I won’t gain weight, it won’t make me nauseous. What is this wonder drug ?????
The dual prong attack begins, Lapatinib inhibits Her2 expression while Herceptin binds to the Her2 receoptors and blocks grown signal. It is not all that simple though. My tumor is triple positive, which means it thrives on the female hormones that my young ovaries produce in abundance. So along with doses of herceptin, I will be getting monthly Zoladex injections.
Zoladex temporarily shuts down ovaries, I am officially in chemical menopause, I will have terrible hot flashes and my joints would be stiff.
Woah Woah, I am menopausal….but I guess that is a small price to pay and of course this is temporary, and completely reversible and look at the bright side, no monthly visits from Aunt Flo…Yay !!!
The first month I was a good girl, the onco nurse requested that I shut my eyes before the injection, I abide by her request, she had already injected a local anesthetic, I barely felt the Zoladex needle.
Next time around my curiosity took hold, I took a peak, bad idea, the needle looks more like a screw driver, I panic, I am not letting her stick that in my abdomen, it took a lot of patience from my husband to get me to a state where I would let the onco nurse come anywhere near me. I smile every time I think of this incident. I knew from the first time that it does not hurt that bad, but it was instinct I guess, no one wants some one poking them with a screw driver do they???
3 months later I cannot feel my tumor, its has melted away. It does not show up on my CAT scan.
It is surgery time, the surgeon finds no cancer in my lymph nodes. The tumor though too small to be detected on the CAT scan or be felt during physical examination was still there, but guess what, it was about 99% gone..
Yes, gone !!!
Round 1 …goes me to me….:)
youngbreastcancersurvivor 