29 More to go

Today I had my 7th chemo. Corky took me today, we left around 4:15 and got back home around 3 in the afternoon. It is going a little better with the benadryl-I don't get so loopy off of the benadryl like the first few times. They said I am building up a tolerance to it. Today I did have some numbness and tingling in my nose, lips, toes and fingers. I think they said that it is the taxol that usually causes those side effects. I get to see the doctor next week-Jan 2 I am praying for more good news.
I had the best Christmas yet-praying for so many more and thankful for each and every day that I have.

6th one down

Friday I had my 6th chemo and I am still feeling fine. Still just tummy issues and my face breaking out but other than that I feel good. My dear friends Jaime and Annie took me for my chemo on Friday. We had a great day, after the chemo we ate at Cracker Barrell and went and did a little shopping. I am so blessed to have such great friends. Everyone has been so good about wanting to take me up to Duke for my treatments. Corky is going to take me the day after Christmas. Today we are heading down east to my dad's and exchange gifts and eat some good food. The steroids are kicking in, see how I have mentioned food twice in just a couple of sentences.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas-I know I will have the best Christmas ever. It's funny how Cancer changes everything and puts the important things in perspective.

Still feeling good!

I had my fifth chemo yesterday and that one went the best so far. My nerves have finally calmed down and I know it is just something I am going to have to do and get thru it.
Monday and Tuesday are usually my roughest days with tummy issues and my face breaking out but I can definately handle that.
I'm getting ready to take the kids to the Morehead Christmas parade so this is a short post to keep you updated.
Thank you so much for the continued support from everyone. God Bless You All. Love Audra

GREAT NEWS!

Your prayers are working-thank you thank you thank you!!! I saw my doctor yesterday and she measured the tumor and it has already shrunk in size. It did measure about 5cc and yesterday she thinks it is 31/2 by 41/2. So after only 3 chemos and lots of prayers from everyone it is already shrinking. I am truly blessed with such a wonderful family and friends and some people that I don't even know calling and emailing me with positive thoughts and prayers. Thank you to each and every one of you-God Bless you!

It is the day after my second chemo and I am feeling fine. Yay!!!! Only 34 chemo treatments to go. Yesterday went a little quicker than the first time, they said that on the first treatments they have to adjust the drip slower to see if I have a reaction. So being how I did fine. The treatment only took a little over 3 hours this time.
Aly Dart just posted some pictures we had taken a couple of weeks ago. She just did a preview of 3 pictures. My babies are so beautiful! www.alydart.com blog

I want to say a big Thankyou to all the wonderful comments, cards, and prayers everyone has been sending me. It means so much when I have those sad days.

I went to the salon today and got Sarah to cut off 10 inches of my hair for locks of love. I love it, Sarah did such a great job-too bad it will only be for a few more weeks. I have read that you should cut it so it won't pull too much on the hair shaft and fall out quicker. So maybe I will get a little longer than a few weeks of what they have predicted.
I have felt really o.k. today after my first chemo treatment. I hope they will all be this easy. (wishful thinking). I have just been a little flushed in my face and neck today. They said that it is probably from the steroids.
I spent the day with my husband and kids and they have been wonderful to me. I love them all so much. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends. I know my latest blogs have been a little more depressing but I am truely grateful for my family, friends, and my faithful supporters. Thank you all so much, together with your support and prayers I know I can make it through this.

Hello everyone, we have just got home and I have put my precious angel to bed. Its been a pretty trying day with the rainy drive and all. We arrived at Duke hospital this morning around 1140am for blood work, which took about 10 minutes, then we had lunch. { let me tell you, that Duke hospital makes a pretty good bologna sandwich} After lunch she had a 200pm appointment for our first chemo treatment. They called us back around 315pm. As she got settled in she encountered a little nervousness, so the nurse gave her some happy juice. after about 30-45 minutes of that she settled down and she started her first treatment which took about an hour and a half. The second treatment lasted about an hour. So we left Duke around 700pm. Sleeping beauty slept most of the way home, THANK GOD because if she wasn't such a great hair stylist, she would make one heck of a good drivers education teacher. { had to get that one in while she was a sleep] . Her next treatment is next Friday. I hope I have given everyone enough info. I would like to thank everyone, from the bottom of my heart, for all the support and prayers. Keep em coming, may God Bless you all
love,
Corky

So here is the treatment plan. I will be on chemotherapy for 6 months, every week for 24 weeks. Actually I will be on Herceptin the whole 24 weeks. The first 12 weeks I will be on Herceptin and Taxol together. All of my chemotherapy will be given intravenously. Then the second 12 weeks I will get chemo and Herceptin twice a week with two different kinds of chemo. They also said I will get some heavy doses of Steroids the day of chemo and several days after. They are hoping to shrink the cancer and get rid of it in my lymph node. (oh yeah that came back postive in the lymph node they did the biopsy on). It is a little larger than a golf ball. They told me to go ahead and shop for a wig. I know this is a morbid question but I asked what my survival rate is and he said if we do surgery first than it will more than 80% the cancer will come back because of the size and lymph node involvement and me being Her/2 positive. I will start treatment this Friday the 14th. They said I will be there all day on Friday because they have to monitor me real close to see if I have an reaction and they will constantly check my heart to see if it is doing o.k. because the drugs can cause serious heart damage.
I am so sad right now because I am not wanting to leave here without my babies all grown up. I just don't know what I am going to do. I am just having a pity party for myself today. I guess it is just alot to take in.

Here is the latest. We went to Duke on Friday for the lymph node biopsy that was not as easy as the last three biopsy. The lymph node that they biopsy was sitting on my lung. Then on Tuesday I had to go back up and get more blood work done and have the muga scan. They started an IV and gave me a couple different kinds of medicine then I had to go sit in a room and wait an hour then they gave me two more injections of differnt kind of medicine and the they injected me with some kind of metal particles so my heart will show up on the scan. The actual scan was o.k. it wasn't completely closed in but it was about 2 inches from me face and I had to hold my arms above my head for an hour. We were there for about 6 hours. Then yesterday (Wed) we had to go back for the PET scan and CT scan. That test was about a 3 to 4 hour test and we were there for about 5 hours. They had to give me another IV and about 4 different kinds of drugs and I also had to drink two big cups of this bitter lemonade. The actual test when they put me back there was only about 30 minutes but when they shot some of the dye for the cat scan it was warm and made my heart race like crazy and I started moving my feet around and they kept asking if I was o.k. (I don't think I ever answered them) so one of the techs had to come out and talk me through the last few minutes. It felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. I thought well this is just great I am going to have a heart attack. Anyway glad that is over with. Bad news I will probably have to keep getting all these test over and over again to check my progress.

Negative on my genetic testing! Yay!!!

I just got off the phone with the genetic testing doctor and my test came back negative on brca 1 and brca 2. Yay!!!!!! They are now running more testing on the same type of genes for different mutations. Hopefully that will be negative too!
They called from Duke today and scheduled a biopsy on the lymph node that is scheduled for this Friday the 7th. Hopefully that biopsy report will be back by next week when I meet with my oncologist. Keep you posted.

That same day I had more mammograms done (about 2 hours worth) and I also had a ultrasound done of both lumps and blood work. We met with another oncologist at 1:oo and he agreed with the first doctor, he thinks it is more invasive cancer than what we originally thought because of the size.
We went back to Duke the next day Oct 16th and I had two biopsys one on the original lump and one on the new lump that they felt yesterday. The doctor that did the biopsy said the new lump didn't look cancerous to him but the biopsy would tell us for sure.
So then we had to wait another week for the results of those biopsy-the first one was invasive DCIS and the new lump wasn't cancer.
The waiting of all of these test have been dreadful.
On Wednesday Oct 22 we had to go back to Duke for genetic testing and also to have a MRI.
The genetic testing was painless with just some blood to give them and talk about family history. They can determine if I have the gene Brac 1 or Brac 2 that will mean I will have about an 80% chance of it coming back in my other breast so I would need to have a double masectomy and my ovaries removed because I would have a high chance of getting ovarian cancer. If it comes back negative than it is called environmental. I hope i am negative. I will get the results the week of Nov 11th.

My doctor called from Duke and said that the MRI showed a large lymph node behind the cancer. Measuring about 2cc so they will have to biopsy that. (I think that is what they said) also I am going to have a Pet scan done to see if it has spread to any organs or my bones. (LETS PRAY THAT IT HASEN'T) I also am having more ultrsounds done and more blood work done. I will be having a MUGA scan done on my heart to see if it is healthy enough for the chemo. He said that they are going to start me on some pretty aggresive chemo and the drug Herception in the next couple of weeks. I will need to take the drug Herception because I am HER/2 positive. That means that it is a fast and aggresive growing cancer.

I still can't believe all of this-it is like a bad dream to me. But I know I have to keep going and be strong for my family.

My family and friends have been so wonderful to me. Thank you so much! I love all of you!

So on October 15th we headed to Duke. My first appointment was at 9 that morning with a oncologist plastic surgeon. I thought that we were just going to discuss reconstruction if I have to have a full masectomy. He examined me and sat down and told us he felt another lump in the same breast. He also said that he doesn't think that it is just DCIS because it is so large. ( the first lump) He thinks it might be invasive cancer but we needed more test done. He said that he is pretty sure I will not be running a hundred yard dash-it will be more like a marathon.

The beginning

It all started one day when I came home from work on September 24 and felt a lump in my right breast. I went to the doctor on the 26th in the morning and he said he needed to send me to get a mammogram. They couldn't see me for a full week and so my doctor wanted me to go to Greenville to the Breast center there. They were able to see me at 1:00 that day so Corky and I headed to Greenville and we were there for about four hours. I had about 20 mammograms and they told us there was something there but they had to biopsy it to know exactly what it was. We had the biopsy done and we had to wait another week for the results. Corky and I went in to talk with the doctor about what the results were. We were not expecting the next words to be cancer. My doctor told me that it was the best kind of cancer to have it is called DCIS-that means it is contained in the ducts. He also said that it is the worst of the best because it is so large. It measures 5cc. We discussed different places that I should go and we decided on Duke, so we got an appointment that day for October 15th at Duke.