Update for 7/20-the rest of chemo #4/port and other

Well, contrary to my last post, the second day of chemo proved to be really tough. Despite the mega anti nausea cocktail I had going, it was my worst bout of nausea yet on day #2 and #3. My mom told me later I actually looked green but she didn't tell me that at the time (thank God). By day #4 however I wasn't feeling nauseated anymore, just fatigued, so I didn't participate in Saturday night worship that night. The funny thing is that last Saturday night I woke up about 3am and could not go back to sleep. After three or four days of sleeping you can imagine this, right? Anyway, Dan had asked me to sing that Sunday morning and I was amping to do something so sure enough I showed up, even though I had called him on Saturday saying that I didn't think I could do it. What a joy it was to worship on Sunday morning and serve in that way. It was really great to sing with Elli and Andrea and Dan and Scott since I haven't sung with them in a while. It was nice just to be together. Jenna, Elli's daughter really helped me out, too, since that morning I left to go to church without my vitamins or thyroid medication (I'm hypo a bit so I have to take it). She went to my house and brought it-twice- the first time my mom had put only half the dosage in this cute little plastic bag rather than giving me the whole bottle. It was funny and I am so grateful to Jenna. Otherwise I definitely wouldn't have had the stamina to do even one service. Lisa Hughes also blessed me since she had this incredible spread of food for us on Sunday morning and that really saved me as well. After three days of not really eating, and finally being really hungry and just knowing I had to eat to survive it was so great to have some wonderful and nutritious stuff for us that morning. Wow. Bless you all!!
I met with Dr. Luke on Monday and discusssed with him that I'd like to get a port put in so that I don't have to get stuck so many times. I really really have a problem with those 1 inch needels being put in my veins for chemo and I'll have to do it for a year on Herceptin, not to mention the blood draws that I have to have done regularly, too. He was supportive. So, Tuesday I went to see Dr. Peter Shulz and he agreed to put a port in even though I haven't decided what I'm going to do about surgery. This is fairly remarkable because I didn't think he would do it since I don't have a surgeon or surgical procedure decided upon yet. He did tell me he thought that wa sa bit unusual. I'll take that as a compliment. I am going to start looking at surgeons again: one in the valley and one out of the valley. At this point, I'm not happy with City of Hope becuase I've asked some follow up questions regarding some of the surgical variables and they haven't gotten back to me. In addition, Dr. Wagman who I saw there is not a breast specialist, even though he has done a lot of breast surgeries. I really want to see someone who is immersed in the breast world for thier opinion given my age and situation. Really the tricky part is whether or not they can actually do a lumpectomy on me because the two cancerous sites are adjacent to one another, so breast conservation, even if the tumor is significantly reduced or altogether blasted by the chemo to only be scar tissue, may not be an option. I need time, however to consider the ramifications personally of either doing a lumpectomy versus a single or double mastectomy with reconstruction as well as chew through the data and studies on everything. My analytical nature is this way, so I'm grateful that I have the time of chemo to do this.
So, I have a pre-op appointment this morning at Eisenhower for the port surgery, which will be next Friday, the 28th.
Meanwhile, this week, I've had to take naps every day in the middle of the day just to survive becuase as my labe results revealed yesterday, my red blood cell counts were all low. Boy do I feel it. It's kind of a strange feeling really. Your body just doesn't get up and go like it normally does, and no wonder since I've been blasting it with poison every other week for the last eight weeks. So, they gave me a procrit shot which really won't kick in for about two to three weeks. Bummer. So, in the meantime I'm taking some iron supplements to help as well as my vitamins etc., and sleeping when I need to. I guess I'm not superwoman. Oh well. I'll have to have bloodwork every week to check up and see how I'm doing (another reason to get the port-yes!!). I'm a little nervouse about the port surgery even though it's minor becuase I've never really had surgery before, so I don't know what it's like. I'm told they'll give me some "happy" medication and a local before they insert the port implant. In a nutshell, the port is a line into a vein so that they blood can be easily accessible. I'd rather thave a small scar subclavically than veins that are trashed from being poked. So there.
Oh there was a funny ordeal with my mom's departure that I'll talk about in my next post (thanks Debbi!!) and a I saw Rick Jervis this past Monday to remove a suspicious nevi from the palm of my hand. Excitement!

That's all for now.
Love you,
Julie