Everyone has had a lot of questions about how my treatment was, so I'll start from the beginning...
I didn't realize how aggressive they were being in my treatment, had I known, I'm not sure I would have agreed to it! First of all, I thought chemo and radiation were always given at the same time, but that's not the case. Getting both at the same time make you way sicker, and then on top of that they threw in a second chemo, now I understand why my radiation Dr. was hesitant to agree to the treatment plan!
My treatment consisted of chemo once a week and radiation everyday M-F for 5 weeks. In the beginning things were going great, I didn't have any side effects from the chemo, the radiation made me tired and I had some GI side effects, but nothing I couldn't handle. Then came week 2.... I was nauseous and the meds weren't working, but I could still handle it. I was even more tired and I got my port-a-cath placed, which FYI sucks to have placed, I felt like I got beaten in the chest with a baseball bat, but once I healed it was totally worth not getting an IV stick 3+ times a week! And then there was week 3, everything from this point on is a blur, I was sooooooo sick! My counts starting dropping, I could barely get out of bed, none of the nausea medicine worked, not even marinol! I cried when I woke up in the morning because the thought of getting out of bed was exhausting, but I had to, I refused to delay any of the radiation treatments no matter how bad I felt, and I had the option to hold off if it got too tough, but I just wanted to finish. In the end I barely left my room except to go to treatment, I couldn't even hold Kaitlyn b/c it took to much energy, it was bad... Addy would come up to my room and watch cartoons with me, it was one of the only happy times during those last couple of weeks...
Then it was over! Like I said those weeks were a blur... My Dr said I did better than he expected, which made feel a little better, I guess he expected me to end up in the hospital at some point, but I'm a pretty awesome patient, so I made it through without any setbacks! Now that the hard part was over I was scheduled to get internal radiation. I also had the option of getting more chemo, it wasn't standard protocol for my Dr, he was basing my treatment off of a new study on patients who's cancer had spread to other organs(which mine hadn't), like I said, he was being aggressive! After some careful consideration I decided against it, I didn't think my body could handle it, at my last dose of chemo my ANC was 400 and my platelets where in the 30's, my H/H was dropping, at that point I felt like we had been aggressive enough, I reached my limit!
Internal radiation, it's as horrible as it sounds! To make a long story short, they put a metal stick with prongs into my cervix and shoot radiation directly to the site, it hurts! I had 4 rounds of this treatment, 2 per week. The first time they placed the device I was under general anesthesia, the second time I was only given PO ativan and pain meds during the placement, I have never felt pain like that in my life, so it was back to the OR for the last two rounds! The whole ordeal was not fun, I'll spare you the details!
And that's it! That has been my life for the past couple of months! I have now moved on to numerous follow up appointments and multiple exams, all privacy has been given up, I think every Army Dr has seen my goods! Small price to pay to be cancer free! I will have to be seen every 3 months for 2 years and then every since months for 3 years.
I have a scan next week to make sure there is still no evidence of cancer anywhere, I will post something as soon as I have the results, which shouldn't be until the 8th.
FYI, should be coming back to Jax in October :)
Thanks for all your continued support, I may not have shown it or said it, but it's what got me through my toughest days, and I can't thank you all enough :)
