5/28 update on my battle against breast cancer

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on what is going in my world…….

I just finished my 4th chemo yesterday. So, I’m lying here trying to distract my brain from the nausea and catch up on some emails. This is the last chemo of this type (Adriamycin/Cytoxan). My next chemo, I start getting a much harsher chemo (especially harder on the heart) called Taxol. Next week I will get what is called a MUGGA test to see if my heart is strong enough to process the Taxol for eight weeks. Taxol is very stressful on the heart, so they deliver it intravenously through my port-catheter rather slowly. It will take about 5 hours, where the Adriamycin/Cytoxan cocktail took about 2-3 hours.

I should know before I start the Taxol whether or not my cancer is a specific protein base or not (the HER2 protein). If I do test positive, I will need to take a medicine called Hercepton intravenously every week for a year and it will have to start the same time I take the Taxol in two weeks. I’m definitely praying that the protein test comes back negative. I know with the Lord, I’d be able to do chemo for a year, but I would really like this cup to pass over me.

After the Taxol is done in eight weeks, (and possibly while the Hercepton is going on) I start my radiation therapy. I will have radiation for every weekday for three months. Then, onto hormone therapy and genetic testing.

Anyway, I’m just trying to get through this week with the nausea, diarrhea, headache, and extreme bone pain. I should be feeling well by Sunday. My white blood count has been low, so I have not been able to get out as much as I would have liked, and I need to stay away from people with colds, but other than that, I am hanging in there. The Lord gets me through one day at a time.

Thank you for all of your prayers as I am coveting them right now! J Your support and prayers have been unbelievable and I am ever so grateful for them all. Please continue to pray for my grandmother as well. She is stable since her stroke, but mentally has deteriorated and needs to be moved from the rehab facility because they don’t see much improvement. Please pray as the Lord leads you.

And pray for Debbie, Hannah, and Lindsey who have been a tremendous help in organizing my support through all this. If you would like to contact them and find out how to help, please let me know and I will pass along their phone numbers. Please keep them in your prayers as well, for they are blessings sent from heaven!

God bless you all!

Blessings,Noëlle