Robin's Fifth Chemo and more - 4/3/05

 
A week or so after the fourth Chemo on February 15th, Robin had fairly severe after-effects. She was having severe yeast infections, worse nausea, and she was diagnosed as full blown Diabetic. They finally got her blood sugar doing fairly well, but she must inject insulin at every meal and before bed. This was a big change in lifestyle. She also started having fairly significant swelling in her feet and lower legs, but putting her feet up at night seemed to help.

Robin had her Fifth chemo on Tuesday, March 8th. Her blood counts were good and the doctor could not detect the lumps by touch. We discussed the plan with her from this point. Dr. McClure said Robin would have another chemo after March 8th, then surgery about three or four weeks later. She said the enlarged lymph node between the heart and trachea needed a biopsy to find out how far the cancer had spread. She also needed both breasts removed. She discussed reconstruction options, and we felt that we should wait until later to think about that. A couple of things that came out that surprised Robin: First, her cancer is stage three for sure, and stage four if the lymph node near the trachea is malignant. Second, she has "Inflammatory Breast Cancer" which is somewhat rare, and very aggressive.

After the examination (and our cross-examination of Dr. McClure), Robin had chemo. Our son John was on Spring break, so he stayed with Robin during the infusion and drove her home afterward.

Robin seemed to do well for a few days, then got sick on Friday, as usual. Her anti-nausea pills didn't seem to help much, but she didn't really take them preemptively, as the doctor suggested. The second week seemed like she was improving (normally). Robin looked up "Inflammatory Breast Cancer" on WebMD.com and found articles that said that most people do not survive five years after diagnosis. Of course, she freaked out. She called me and I looked at the articles. I could see from the text that it was written in 2001, which means that the data used for the statistics was several years old. Clearly there have been and continue to be better therapies and more research. In fact, her treatment using chemo first and then doing surgery is fairly new. She calmed down a bit; after all, it is just probabilities.

We visited her surgeon (Dr. Mason) during that week and he explained what he would be doing and what the recovery would take. He said the trachea node biopsy would be done separately by a thoracic surgeon, probably a week or so before the mastectomies. We have an appointment scheduled to meet the thoracic surgeon on April 12th, and we will revisit Dr. Mason after that.

The third week after Chemo 5 Robin's feet were swelling worse than before, to the point that she couldn't wear regular shoes, and the swelling was painful. Her doctor prescribed a diuretic, which didn't seem to help. Her blood sugar has been good throughout these weeks, though. In general, she has been much weaker this time and has felt worse than ever before.

On March 29th, Robin was supposed to receive her sixth (and final, until after the surgeries) Chemo infusion. Her blood levels were good, but the Doctor was concerned that the leg swelling might be caused by a blood clot, so she sent us to the Hospital for a "venous Doppler" exam. The technician saw no blockage (good news?), so the doctor gave her another diuretic. Dr. McClure also ordered additional tests: Echo Cardiogram, Bone Scan, and CT Scan. The first two are scheduled for tomorrow (Monday) and the last is scheduled after Tuesday's Chemo treatment.

I will write again after the results of the tests are known.

With love and thanksgiving for all the prayers and support,

Larry and Robin

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