Unpleasant Surprise

As some of you may already know, Vicki was diagnosed with breast cancer on October 25th. The cancer is at stage two (of four) - which is a good thing - and is therefore very treatable. The kind of cancer she has is called Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC). Statistics show that 10% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have IDC. On the plus side, this type of cancer is not genetic so female family members are at no greater risk of developing cancer. Vicki has a great team of doctors that have wasted no time in getting her treatment started. We are all staying very positive and know that Vicki will be just fine.

Her treatment plan will include chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. The names of the drugs she will have through chemo are taxotere(T), carboplatin(C), and herceptin(H). She is scheduled for TC treatment every three weeks for the next three months and will have herceptin once a week for the next year. All of these drugs are administered through an IV. During her "on" week of chemo, she goes in for treatment two days in a row. The first day is to administer the chemo. The second day is to flush the chemo out of her system and give her a shot called Nuelasta to boost her white blood cell count.

After her chemotherapy is finished, they are hoping that the tumor will be completely gone. If not, she will have two more rounds of chemo. Once the tumor is gone, then surgeons will remove the tissue where the lump used to be. On the plus side, there should be no disfigurement from the surgery. At the same time they do the surgery, they will be checking the sentinel lymph nodes to make sure there's no cancer there. After the surgery, she will have eight weeks of radiation.

Vicki had her first round of chemo this week. She went in on Tuesday (Nov. 4th) and Wednesday (Nov. 5th). This week she also had a heart test and next week she'll have a body scan. She is feeling okay - she felt a little queasy from the chemo but started feeling better today. Her legs are still very achey and the veins in her arms are sore from all of the IVs. Vicki has requested that everyone please pray for her veins - they're going to be going through a lot the next year.

We really appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts - please keep them coming. They help so much. We will continue to keep everyone updated as things continue.