I met my friend Janice Sylvester at Panera's in the Lawrence Park Shopping Center. Janice also had a mastectomy on her right breast on the same day as I had mine. We have become very good friends.
I drove for the first time in 3 weeks - Dr. Frazier cleared me to drive as long as I put a pillow between my chest and the seat belt for protection. (Even as a passenger when my mom drove me to my appointments, I always used a pillow.) It was a bit unnerving but I managed to get my first 'drive' in without too much anxiety. Driving is like riding a bike - no matter how long you go without driving, once you put the key in the ignition it's like old times.
Janice received her Oncotype DX Test result last Thursday. She chose not to call me with her results last week so she wouldn't bring me down with the weekend coming up. Her score was 33 so she will have to have chemotherapy - 6 rounds, once every 3 weeks. She will have her chemo transfusions with Dr. Gupta (a wonderful oncologist who works in the Oncology Department at Bryn Mawr Medical Specialists Assocs). My sister works on the 3rd floor in the Business Dept. so I told her to stop by and visit my sister.
Dr. Gupta was the same oncologist my dear friend Cleo saw when she moved back home from New Mexico to live with her parents. Cleo had Stage IV breast cancer and the disease had spread to her lungs, bones and brain. On July 11th, one year ago, Cleo lost her battle to breast cancer.
With Arimidex and the 6 chemo rounds, Janice's recurrence rate will drop to 12%. I reassured her she will be fine, and considering we are being monitored very closely, if our cancer were to come back they will surely catch it in time. Even though our tumors were small, 1 cm, 1.5 cm, her tumor's profile was found to be aggressive.
An Oncotype score of 1 to 18 = low risk of recurrence.
An Oncotype score between 19 & 31 is moderate.
A score above 31 (32 to 100) is high risk.
I truly believe we are meant to meet certain people in our lives - I mentioned this in a prior post. Janice and I support each other. We cry, we laugh, and at the end of the day we cheer each other on. We talk a lot over the phone about our hopes and fears. She has to shop for a wig and hopes to find one that she likes today or tomorrow. Her chemo starts this Thursday.
We discussed our scars. We both agreed our scars will always remind us of our battles. Our war with cancer is not over. We both are living with cancer, and until the day we die, we will always be living with cancer. Our fight has not ended after our surgeries, it will not end when the drugs we have to take stop flowing. I have a 4% risk of a cancer recurrence, Janice will have a 12% risk of recurrence once her 6 rounds of chemo are over.
We will fight this disease until it is no more because no one should have to live with cancer. And as we fight, we are not victims - we will always be survivors.
We hugged each other outside and walked to our cars.
Hang in there Janice. Ten years from now we'll be looking back at what we have endured and we will be laughing!
No comments:
Post a Comment