I did it!!!

I did it! I'm done with my six rounds of chemo!!! I really, really, really did not want to go to this round. I told my doctor I didn't want to be there. 😉 He asked me how things went with my appointment with Dr. Tittnesor (breast cancer surgeon). I told him she didn't see anything on the ultrasound and couldn't palpate anything either. He said, " Oh that's such good news." I said, "I know. So let's just skip some meds today." He told me that he could probably decrease my taxotere (chemo drug) by about 20-25% I said, "Great. So we'll do 20 mg of taxtoere." Ryan said, "No he said he would decrease it by 20%" The standard dose of taxotere is 75mg. After round 3 when I didn't recover as well he decreased it to 65mg. So I was asking him this time if we could go to like 50mg. He said he'll put the numbers into the computer and we'll go with that dose. I took a picture of my med bags yesterday to figure out the dose but my nursing math brain couldn't figure it out. I'll have to send it to one of my coworkers to have them help me. 

So there is a tradition, I think in most oncology offices of ringing a bell when you're done with treatment. I had mixed feelings about ringing it. I know that there are some people that would be getting treatment yesterday that may never ring the bell. They may be terminal and never stop coming to get 

treatment. I didn't want to "rub it in their face." So I got up there and took a picture by the bell. One of the nurses was standing by and I said, "I'm not going to ring it, I'm just going to take a picture by it." She said, "Do you want us to clap? Or quiet clap?" There was a lady getting treatment in one of the chairs in front of the bell, facing me. She said, "Ring it. You should ring it." So I did. And everyone cheered and clapped. And it was so nice. 

Remember how I said in my last post that we have an amazing, unique neighborhood? Well they came through again. And it's not just me. It's not like Oh everyone loves Lindsey. No that's not it. I mean they do love me hehehe but it's not just me. A couple years ago my neighbor's son got into a bike accident, hit his head (his helmet saved him) and was in the hospital for a while, like a month or so. Anyway, when he was released from the hospital we all lined the street and cheered for him as they drove by. I got all choked up. Like what an amazing community to come out and show support. There was another time my neighbor’s little girl was lost. She was lost for a while. The police had come out. There were a TON of us out looking. All of a sudden one of our other neighbors came walking up with her in his arms. She had fallen asleep on some rocks out by another neighbor’s house- like she was out by a field…I can’t describe it adequately but she was wearing a hot pink jacket and he saw it sticking out of the rocks. When he walked up with her, I burst into tears of joy. It was so…..I don’t know my heart exploded with joy. That’s just a few examples of how amazing of a tribe/village that we have here. 

I had a surprise party waiting for me when I got home yesterday. We pulled up to our street and there were ribbons and balloons tied on the trunk of the trees lining our street. Then we pulled up to the house and a group of friends and family were on the lawn cheering for me. It was so..... I don't even know the words to describe it. I got out and hugged everyone. I got about halfway through when I lost it and started crying. I am so happy to be done with this stage of the game. It has been so horrible. I'm not out of the woods yet but I'm getting there. 

I'm getting a little medical here for a minute. Bear with me. So I've been on the TCHP regimen. The T and the C are for taxotere and carboplatin. Those are the two chemo drugs I've been dealing with. The H and the P are for Herceptin and Perjeta. The H and the P are specific to the breast cancer that I have- I have Her2 positive and progesterone and estrogen negative. Those are the three components of breast cancer ( maybe there are more but I'm pretty sure it's just those three). And you can have any combination of those receptors being positive or negative. Some people are triple positive, some are triple negative, others are progesterone/estrogen positive and Her2 negative. Anyway, the Her2 receptor is the one that isn't super common and that's what I have. I don't have to go through hormone blockers for the next 5-10 years, I don't have to have a mastectomy if I don't want to. Those are things dealing with the progesterone and estrogen being positive. With that being said, I found out a few things yesterday, the Her2 protein stands for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. My doctor said yesterday that we have the Her2 protein all throughout our body. Ryan and I can't remember exactly but I think he said the breast tissue mutated causing the Her2 protein cells to mutate and send signals to rapidly divide and grow. That’s why the tumor grew so fast and is considered an aggressive type of cancer. So I take the Herceptin and Perjeta because they are monoclonial antibodies. The Herceptin blocks the Her2 growth signals to stop growing. I stay on the Herceptin for a total of one year. So I'll still get infusions of Herceptin every three weeks until January 2023. This shouldn't have many, if any, side effects, or so I've been told. 

I have my surgery on June 1st. When they take the tissue out they send it to pathology to make sure the cancer cells are all gone. If they're all gone, we stay on the Herceptin and go from there. If they find that there are still some cancer cells that were resistant to the chemo drugs I have to have a chemo drug added with the Herceptin. Originally he told me that there wouldn't be many side effects with that. He actually didn't even mention that it was a chemo drug until round five. He kept calling it a trojan horse that would be added onto the Herceptin. And it was no big deal. I'm totally not trashing my doctor in any way. I actually love him. I think he's very reasonable, he listens to me, he is very thorough in what we talk about, we get medical, I just didn't realize that this "trojan horse" he kept talking about was a chemo drug. Well, after my last post when I mentioned that I have yet to find anyone that has a Her2 positive component, my cousin reached out to me and said she was pretty positive her friend had the same cancer as me. She gave me her number and I got in touch with her. She DOES have the Her2 positive component, but she is triple positive so she also has the hormonal involvement. She finished up her treatments in the fall of last year, 2021. With her surgery they did find some cancer cells so she is getting the trojan horse with her Herceptin. She had a bad experience with it. I'm a little nervous now about that BUT her situation was very different from mine. Dr. Tittensor has told me that 70% of the time when they get in the surgery, the pathology comes back clean. She didn't see or feel anything, which doesn't mean a TON, cancer cells are so teeny, but I'm hopeful to be in that 70%. Dr. Tittensor also mentioned that this TCHP regimen is pretty bad, one of the worst she sees, but it's super effective. Obviously. 

I'm really praying that I will be in that 70% and I'll just have the Herceptin until January, do some radiation and then be healthy for years to come. 😋