Of Bagels and Biopsies (oh yeah, and chemo drugs too)

Heather just got out of our visit to the Katmai Cancer Center here in Anchorage, we met with Dr. Susan Delgalvis to further discuss Heathers latest diagnosis. Dr. Delgalvis went over the scan results with the radiologist this morning and she is fairly confident that the cancer has spread to her spine and sacral area, which is by the tailbone, not by the hip as previously thought. She spoke with Dr. Cox back in Fairbanks, which judging by the Facebook pictures I've seen today, looks beautiful- and formulated a plan of action. She is going to schedule a biopsy for the tumor on Heather's spine and hopefully get the results sometime this week. If it is confirmed to be cancer, then Heather gets bumped from Stage 3 to Stage 4 cancer- there is no Stage 5, if you get my drift. If that's the case, then Heathers care plan changes as well, she was originally supposed to have intensive chemotherapy treatments of Taxol which slows the spread of cancer cells, and Herceptin, which specifically targets the cell receptors that “tell” a cell to grow and divide, in her case, the cancer is caused by too many cell receptors telling the cells to grow, thus resulting in rapid growth of cancer (see picture). If she is diagnosed as Stage 4, she will only receive the Herceptin, and that every three weeks. The doctors that be would like to save the actual chemotherapy for if she has a major outbreak of cancer growth so they can beat it back into submission (hopefully).

Read a USA Today article on Herceptin and breast cancer here.   Make sure to read to the end of the article.  Did I mention I'm desperately grateful I have medical insurance?

Heather had her first infusion of Herceptin today, it comes in a clear fluid, unlike the red fluid that Adriamycin comes in. I guess that Herceptin can cause some pretty sever immediate side effects to first time users, such as shortness of breath, lowered blood pressure, and others, so the initial infusion is used to monitor if she would have any negative side effects. Fortunately, she simply went to sleep after eating a bagel I bought her at the cafe downstairs. The infusion was uneventful, other than her sending me down for another bagel and a croissant sandwich (who knew toxic chemicals would stir up such an appetite?). A small bit of positive outcome is welcome with all that has gone on as of late, and hopefully this means that she will not have any major side effects in the future, at least with the Herceptin. As such, she will receive Herceptin every three weeks for the rest of her natural life, and here's hoping that will be many years down the road.