The “Teaching” Appointment

We sat in the office with the doctor last week and she mentioned that we would get set up for our teaching appointment.  I really had no idea what that meant but I knew, we would finally have the chance to learn answers to questions that had been haunting my thoughts.  If I learned nothing else, I knew I wanted to learn exactly what kind of cancer had taken up residence in my body.

Yesterday we left the house before the kids went to school and headed to our early morning appointment.  We met with an amazing Nurse Practitioner that jumped right in to the teaching.  She explained in detail a summary of my scans.  My cancer is considered breast cancer but is unique, it is actually in my axillary (underarm) lymph node where the mass has presented.  It also showed a small amount of activity and inflammation in the lymph nodes under my pectoral muscle and up to the ones near my clavicle.

We also learned about each of the chemotherapy meds that I will receive and their individual side effects...all of the possible side effects.  I will be nauseous but they will do everything to help me minimize the nausea, my nails will do weird things, I will lose my hair even my nose hairs, I could get sores in my mouth, lose my appetite and will most definitely suffer from extreme fatigue.  While all of these things sound terrible they are the price I will pay to get on the other side of this cancer.  Our nurse happily answered all of our questions and explained everything until we were ready to move on to the next page.

After we learned all that we could hold we set up a date for my first infusion.  Tuesday will be my first infusion and we will follow up every other week until four infusions are complete.  The next med will be weekly infusions for twelve weeks.  There are so many more details and possible changes but this is the simplified version of our plan for now.

I will get my chemo port placed on Thursday and that is the last step before starting chemo on Tuesday.  We keep having conversations with the boys about what to expect.  Littlest Ruhlman reminds me often that even when I lose my hair he will still love me lots.  I hate that this is now part of their story too but I know that they are resilient and amazing.  Our family is appreciative of all the prayers and support that everyone has offered.  Please keep praying for us and when the time comes that we need help, we will reach out.  For now, I'm still healthy and working like crazy to get everything ready for this chapter.

Much Love,
Robin