Doc appt 2

Somewhat happier news to share today, thankfully. :)

--Drain got taken out, woohoo! Didn't hurt a bit to take out, and am so happy that I will be able to sleep in my bed tonight! (Been sleeping on the couch for fear of rolling over and pulling on drain tube, which hurt even when it wasn't being pulled.)

--Saw medical oncologist today (chemo doc, drug doc, hormonal therapy doc, etc.) Everyone who has heard who I have as my doc has said he is one of the best in the world, and after today I totally believe it too.

--What we discussed:

--Radiation:
--Will start as soon as I heal enough. Have an appointment next wednesday with my radiation doc. Will radiate a larger area than originally intended based on my lymph node status.

--Tamoxifen:
--This is the drug that attaches to estrogen so it can't feed the cancer. This was already on the menu for me to start taking sometime soon. He said why wait, gave me a script and I started today. It's a daily pill, for about 5 years.

--Lupron:
--Something I found out about on internet, it is a way to supress your ovaries, putting you in to menopause, so they don't produce the hormones that my cancer feeds on.
--Was going in there, all ready to ask about it and push for it, etc. and he totally up front agreed with me and said yes, we should add that to the Tamoxifen. Got my first injection of it today, will get it monthly for awhile, and then when we know for sure that it has shut down my ovaries, will get it every 3 months, for around 2 to 3 years.

--Zometa:
--Something else I found studies for on the internet. It's actually given to women to help with bone loss. Older (post-menopausal) women can take different meds than Tamoxifen, but they cause bone loss (or maybe it's the Lupron that causes bone loss, I forget?). Anyway, there are fairly new studies out that seem to show that Zometa actually prevents recurrence of breast cancer. It's not ready to be fully used for that purpose yet.
--Doc agreed again, said it can't hurt, will probably help prevent at least recurrence in the bone, so let's do it. I'll start that next month (he didn't want to throw all 3 at me at once). It's a 15-minute infusion drug (given like chemo but without the side effects) that I'll get every 6 months.

--One reason I really like this doc is that he not only agreed with wanting to give me everything that could possibly help, but he already knew about the studies I was mentioning and even some previous studies in other countries that I didn't know about. He is up to date on everything it seems and is willing to try anything to help my chances.

--We are going to continue to use PET scans as screenings, but also blood work. The blood will not only tell us about liver function, but there are some things called tumor markers that may be of some use to look for (though he said its not a proven way to detect cancer, it can't hurt to look for them anyway).

--Not sure how much I believe this part (will have to do some more of my own research), but doc believes that by using all 3 of these tactics, we can increase my overall 5-year survival rate to more like 70%! And my disease free survival rate (chance that I will not have a recurrence in 5 years) to 60%. So that's a good bit better prognosis, now that we are throwing everything we can at the cancer.

--It's still not the greatest prognosis, and you could tell by the way everyone that read my report asked how I was doing that they know how serious it is. But I feel better just knowing that we are trying everything we can.

--Also, Cody and I made an appointment with the psychologist at the clinic, and we are going to ask her to refer us to someone closer to where we live. We feel like we are taking everything fairly well (of course, I am up to 2 anti-anxiety pills a day) but we want to make sure we don't spiral downward (plus Cody is not on any medication and is stressed with work and his ailing grandfather as well as me, he may need it more than I do!).