Chemo Update

Art and I had an appointment at the oncologist office the day before Thanksgiving, which was the first visit since surgery. He gave us some info about the chemo and reviewed all the good reports from surgery and the PET scan. Next Thursday, I will meet with the nurse and get "chemo education" and schedule the treatments.

We found out that I will have 4 sessions of chemo about 3 weeks apart. Each treatment will be like double treatments, which I don't really understand yet...but basically it sounds like one will be given right after the other, on the same day. I will learn more about this on Thursday. I'm thankful that the chemo process will be fairly short!

Some friends have asked why I need chemo if the cancer has been removed and my results were so good??? Even though the cancer was rated stage 1 after surgery (initially they had said stage 2), there were no signs of cancer in the lymph nodes, and the PET scan showed no signs of cancer, there is still a possibility that cancerous cells are in my body or small undetected cancer growths could be present. This is just an added precaution (required by the doc) to be as aggressive as possible and take every step to rid my body of any cancer cells. Anytime the tumor is over 1 cm, they require chemo. As you know, I've been aggressive since day one and I'm glad the doctors attitude is the same.

Although I'm dreading the chemo process, I am very thankful that chemo is available and so effective. I've asked the Lord to help me look at it in a positive way rather than negative. I'll be honest and say, I'm not totally to that point but my attitude is getting better. Once chemo is done, I'll take a drug for 5 years that increases my survival rate and lessens the chance of recurrence.

As with everything else in this process, I'll find humor! I'm already thinking about all the time & money I'll save with no hair to style! Maybe I should have gone for the pink wig...now that would be worth a laugh!

Thanks for your continued prayers!