I'll have the port please

Heather had her port placed today.  The port will allow easier access for blood draws and chemo delivery.  Instead of having an IV inserted for each treatment they just administer it through the port! Good thing too since they had to stick her twice to get an IV to work for the delivery of anesthesia for today's surgery.  It also involved propping the needle base up with a gauze pad so the needle would sit just right in her vein to allow the liquids to pass.  :/

The port is placed under the skin just below the clavicle in Heather's left shoulder.  The surgery went well though she is having significant pain emanating from her shoulder down into her arm.  Drugs are wonderful so for now she is sleeping it off.  Waking up is not going to be pleasant.

We had a wonderful meal thanks to one of our neighbors and that helped immensly as we arrived just in time to pick the kids up from school and got home about 6:15.  Having dinner ready to be passed over the back fence saved us from a cereal dinner!  Thanks Penelope!!!

The surgey took place at University Hospital and the same day surgery unit is right across from the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) where our daughter Jackie was working a 12 hour shift!  She was able to get away for a few minutes at lunchtime (her lunchtime being 2:45) and came over to the waiting room right when they called me back to see Heather.  We all hung out for a few minutes then I got a tour of the SICU (impressive to say the least) and then let Jackie get back to her crazy day which I am unable to begin to describe here.  It was wonderful to see her in action and well respected on such an important unit of the hospital. I am very proud of her.

Heather gets "a day off" tomorrow then starts her red devil chemo on Friday.  It's almost go time and we are ready to dive in thanks to all of the care, love, and support coming our way.  Thank you all from the bottom of Heather's port.  (Which is above the heart so that's supposed to be a good thing folks!)

Heather's fashion statement

Reality Check!

First I'd like to say that during this process I have always thought - "We'll, why not me?"  I feel like I have had a pretty good life up to this point. Not to say there has never been drama or chaos but really if we didn't have those things would we be normal? I have never felt like this cancer wasn't fair to me - not that I've been wretched and deserve it - but I won't claim to be a saint either. Just that I don't feel like there is anything so different or special about me that I should be exempt from some major life battle.

It probably helps that I come from a long family line of dealing with some very trying and difficult health issues if not out of the ordinary. I have a strong and beautiful warrior cousin who was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis at a very young age, I have an adorable niece with Neurofibromatosis (NF), I have an aunt with MS, and so on...  So who am I to ask " Why me?"

So that brings me to this week. A very sweet co-worker sent me a book written by a local woman who had breast cancer. It was a quick read and I found some humor and insight in the book but it also got me to start asking questions again. I have admittedly given up googling anything regarding my cancer since the end of June.

I decided to look up some information on the chemo treatment I will be starting this week. The first of my chemo drugs is what they call AC (because the actual names are impossible to say in healthcare we frequently use acronyms). I started by reading a site that was just a forum for women talking about their side effects,etc. Nothing too surprising popped up there.

Then I found a site called Health Central which had some more objective information in it and was actually discussing my full chemo regime which is AC and then Taxol (I won't get too scientific here but will put a little blurb at the end for those who are interested). But I will say that AC is frequently referred to as The Red Devil.

The site is set up as a Q&A type forum and I was reading through finding all kinds of useful information and then I came across a paragraph that knocked the wind out of me.
It talked about how a patient may be put on an accelerated schedule which is referred to as "dose dense" chemo. This is considered a more aggressive way to deliver chemo "when aggressive measures are necessary."

With that last part of the sentence I started to lose my supercharged optimism. I sat on the couch saying over and over that it was just because I'm so young not because its that bad. And then I started to cry. Luckily my brave knight was nearby and could come and hold me and remind me that we can do this, that I can fight this good fight.

Reality is that it isn't great, but it is far from a losing battle. But I have come to realize that it is going to be a lot harder then I have been admitting to myself so far. That I am going to need to rely on my troops even more then ever to help me stay focused and positive. That because it is "dose dense" that I'm probably not going to recover as quickly between treatments as I want to think.

I am worried for my family and how hard this will be on them. I hope that for my kids this will become a blurry memory someday. But the anxiety and exhaustion that is my husband's plight is hard - it's just hard. He is being very strong but its hard for him to hide his true feelings from the one who reads him best. So I worry.

So this is my reality check. And this is my plea to my troops and my guardian angels and my bad ass cancer fighting team. Please forgive me for my excessive need. Please know that I see you and hear you and feel you when you do me a favor, send me a note, or even pray or send your positivity my way. I appreciate every gesture no matter the size and I thank you. There will be many more requests to come - especially around entertaining the kids. So thank you all from the very depths of my heart and soul. 

For those that are I interested in the medical details...
AC - is actually two drugs: doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan). I will receive The Red Devil every 14 days for 4 cycles. It is normally given every 21 days.  Once that is complete I will be given Paclitaxil (Taxol). This is given to woman who are node positive or have had a recurrence. It follows the same schedule as AC. Radiation details to follow later.
This is a pretty heavy duty cocktail normally so I will be loosing my hair within the first month. So I've tasked Mark with coming up with my cool new bad ass bald chick name. Feel free to offer suggestions he is great with brainstorming.

Tata faux now,
Love you all💕💕
Heather

A little bit of great news!

I wanted to put a note out there for anyone who has been following my mom's story.  The second spot they found was negative - so she only has the one little spot of cancer.

For those of you who didn't know - they found a spot of cancer in my mother's breast around mid-July. After doing an MRI they found several more spots of concern. There has been a lot of craziness back and forth with biopsies and failed biopsies they narrowed it down to just one new spot of concern. This spot was the difference between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy. They were finally able to get a good biopsy of the spot on Aug 13th. It took until today to get the results.

All I can say is that I am quite relieved that it is just the one little spot. I don't know what the full final treatment recommendations (outside of the lumpectomy) will be but they will be so much less and that is a wonderful thing!

As Mark would say - always keeping you abreast if the situation.
Love to all,
2 Drainz

Ode to 2 Drainz

Ode to 2 Drainz 

(Sung to the tune of Billy Joel's "Always A Woman To Me")

She has taken her stance, she is ready to go now

She will kick cancer's ass she already knows how

Through chemo and rad, cancer will take its leave

She had them removed but she'll always be 2 Drainz to me

With a quiet approach and a gleam in her eye

She is ready to go she is ready to try

She's going to punch cancer right in the teeth

She had them removed but she'll always be 2 Drainz to me

CHORUS

Ohhh... she will fight like a girl

She will give it a try, she will give it a whirl

Ohhh... and she'll never give out

And she'll never give in, she will not change her mind

With 8 rounds of chemo; radiation to boot

We will always stand by her and continue to root

She will come out on top you just wait and see

She had them removed but she'll always be 2 Drainz to me

CHORUS

Ohhh... she will fight like a girl

She will give it a try, she will give it a whirl

Ohhh... and she'll never give out

And she'll never give in, she will not change her mind

She'll prolly throw up and be sick as a dog

She may also be in a bit of a fog

She will lose all her hair but you better believe

She had them removed but she'll always be 2 Drainz to me

CHORUS

Ohhh... she will fight like a girl

She will give it a try, she will give it a whirl

Ohhh... and she'll never give out

And she'll never give in, she will not change her mind

Life is Good......but some days really suck!

This has been a busy week of appointments in the Mountel household.
Starting the week with getting Reilly registered to start school in 2 weeks (what??) - not sure I'm totally ready for that one.

Next up was family counseling - the kids started by telling the lady how mom has "boob cancer" and then they got to throw "feelings" balls at each other and draw rainbows, they loved it.

Thursday was our appointment with the plastic surgeon and after fussing at me about my keeping my street cred as "2 Drainz" she then gave me a couple ounces of boob boost (or as Mark likes to call it IPA).

Our last appointment of the week was the big Oncology appointment we have been anxiously awaiting. Throughout this whole process I have felt pretty positive - realistic but positive. So that is how Mark and I both went into this appointment. We were a bit thrown off our game at this appointment. The basic jist is that the cancer was quite pervasive to the point that they want to do radiation in addition to the chemo.

For those who are interested in more scientific detail please continue otherwise skip this paragraph and go to the next...
They removed an additional 3cm mass which is in addition to the 2.7cm mass they removed which means the mass was >5cm. In addition, they removed 7 lymph nodes 3 of which tested positive. The CT scan came back clear - which means no metastasis (yeah!). So that makes my cancer a T3 N1 M0 or Stage III A.  one of the concerns that came up in the pathology was that there were little cancer nodules spread throughout the fatty tissue which leads to concerns about there being cancer in my chest wall. In addition, because my lymph nodes didn't take the blue dye that is supposed to show the path of lymph fluid there is some concern that there may be some sneaky little cancer cells hiding in my lymph nodes that weren't checked. So that is the reason for the radiation.

What does this all mean going forward. ..
I will get a port installed next week to make blood draws and chemo treatments easier. I will get my drains removed by August 22. Then I will start chemotherapy treatments on August 30th (To my BABC -I still plan on being there!) My chemo treatment will be a high dose treatment which means that I will have a chemo cycle every 14 days. Once the chemo is complete then I will move on to radiation therapy. I still need to meet with a radiation oncologist to find out that plan but that is a ways down the road - so I will not think about it too much yet.

How am I doing?
Right now I'm worn out. I'm sad and disappointed and pretty ticked off!  I'm hanging on to the ticked off piece and trying to let the rest go. I know I will get through this. I know it will be a hard fought battle but it is worth every ounce of pain and energy I have to be here for/with my family - both blood and chosen.  My spirit is a little wounded for the moment but I know by tomorrow it will be refreshed and renewed with the hope and optimism that has carried me thus far.

Love to you all.
2 Drainz

Heather's new street name

As you may know Heather had 4 drains placed after her surgery on 7/24 to help drain fluids from the surgical site. 

One drain was removed last Thursday and another was removed today leaving two.  Therefore she will now be known as 2 Drainz. 

Thank you!  Goodnight....I will be here all week.  Tata for now!

For us...and the kids

Heather and I visited with a counselor with Cancer Family Care at Anderson Mercy today.  We want to make sure the family is dealing with this whole thing the best way we can.  Apparently we are off to a great start though we do have a couple minor things to work on.

We will take the kids with us next week so that the counselor can talk with them a little bit, play a game or two, and begin to determine how well they are doing.  We have done all of the right things by talking openly and plainly to the kids about Heather's cancer, that they can't catch it, they had no bearing on her getting it, and have shown them the results, talked about chemo, etc.

We just want to make certain everyone is dealing well emotionally and it is often hard to determine with kids especially during a tumultuous time since we become overly sensitive to their actions and their meanings.   Keeping you abreast of our feelings....Mark

Holding pattern

On Thursday we had a post op appointment with the plastic surgeon whom I like to call The Reconstructionist. One of the four drains was removed as well as the silver antibiotic tape that stretched horizontally across the middle of each of Heather's breasts.  We kinda miss that look because it made Heather feel like Leeloo from the Fifth Element though I thought it looked like a Wendy O' Williams cover up.  (Fortunately Heather looks much more like Milla Jovovich than Wendy O' Williams!)

Unfortunately on Friday Heather could barely get out of bed.  She has been in a substantial amount of more pain than right after the surgery and she began running a fever.  Thinking it might be an infection in the area of the removed drain the doctor prescribed an antibiotic on Friday but through last night/early this morning Heather has been miserable.  High fever, hot, cold, hot and cold, cold, hot, repeat.

This morning she is a bit more functional though she probably needs to lay very low the rest of the day.

We will know more about the course for chemo once we meet with the Oncologist on Friday 8/16. We really like her and expect that she will continue to be very thorough in her process to treat Heather's cancer most efficiently and effectively.  

We have had an incredible amount of support from family and friends alike and we are very appreciative for the dinners, visits, cards, and help site/blog/Facebook comments and well wishes.  

Not to diminish anyone else's support but Heather's sister, Katie King who lives in rural North Western Michigan, has been with us since a couple of days prior to the surgery and continues to take care of the kids, the house, laundry, cleaning, dishes, food prep, transportation, craft projects, care giving and emotional support to both Heather and I and likely other things I am not even aware of. We can't thank you enough Katie.  

Our good friend Georjean Rossow and her son Alex came to hang out and help with a lot of those things too.  Just having them here to hang out really meant the world to us.  She is also looking for any excuse to come back so we may just find one for her over the next few months.  ;)  Thanks Rick Rossow for letting us borrow them for awhile!

As always...trying to keep you abreast of where we are - Mark