May 31, 2012 - A/C chemo treatment started on Wednesday

May 31st - On Wednesday I meet with Dr. Moynihan to review my test results.  He said my heart was strong from the findings of the echocardiogram that was done last Friday.  The blood work looked Ok for the new round of chemo to start and the results for the Breast MRI showed significant dimishment in the size of the tumor.  Dr. Tim said the tumor appeared to have reduced by more than 50%.  This is great news!!  It means that the chemo drugs were doing what they were supposed to be doing and more!!  He showed Don and me the scans from my first MRI back in January to the one that was done on Tuesday and it was a significant change.  Thank God for small victories!!  And thank you all for all the prayers...keep'em flowing as I’m not through yet!!

The second round of chemo (A/C chemo) started that afternoon. 
If you are at all interested the A/C stands for this:
A = Adriamycin and C = Cyclophosphamide (CTX, Cytosan or Neosar). 
Big words, I know and they come with some of the same side effects as the first chemo drugs.  Hair loss (well I've lost most of that), nausea, vomiting, decreased white blood and platelet counts, mouth sores, poor appetite and metallic taste in mouth, to name a few. 
To start they gave me a half a dozen of various pill.  Then they started with the new chemo drugs.  The “A” chemo drug comes in two huge syringes and the drug is red in color.  Kind of scary in a way and I had to asked myself – what kind of poison is this.  The color red to me was always the color of danger but I guess it’s also a “power” color.  So I have go with the power thing, that the drug will have the power to kill that darn tumor – have to think positive!!  They injected that into my IV which takes about 10-15 minutes.  After that they hooked up the “C” chemo drug to my IV which is just a clear fluid.  This takes about 30-40 minutes to drip in.  It was a lot more “new” information but the good thing is that I only have to go back every two weeks for a total of 4 treatments. At that point they will do another Breast MRI to see if the A/C drugs have reduced the size of the tumor any more.  Then we are talking surgery and then 5 weeks of radiation following the surgery.  That is the long range plan unless something changes along the way but I will keep you posted.

For now that is all I know and these little eyes are getting sleepy!  Don says to say "Hi" so Hi to all !!
Have a good rest of the week and I’ll talk with you soon.

Prayer is the voice of faith.
~William Van Horne