6 Down, 2 to Go

We've had some milestones and have had to make a few decisions on our treatment to come.


First, Christina has had the first two infusions of her second round of chemo. This round is Taxol, which has a different set of side effects. Thankfully, Taxol causes less fatigue than the previous regimen, but causes bone pain and tingling fingers and toes. Christina has been able to bounce back from these treatments far quicker than the first round; she was in bed practically the entire week of her treatments, and now is up and around within a day or two. Still, it is taking a lot out of her, she's still quite weak.


The good news is that she has only 2 more to go; Febuary 7th will be her last treatment, if all goes according to plan. The only thing that could get in the way of that is if she were to get sick, or if her blood count drops significantly. Her blood counts have been consistently healthy, so hopefully that will continue, and we've managed to keep her from catching the flu or anything else.


In discussion with the genetics counsellor, we've decided that there is no pressing need to have her uterus removed. Christina's genetic mutation that caused her breast cancer also indicates a strong likelihood of ovarian cancer. There isn't any connection to uteran cancer, though, so she is at the same level of risk for that as anyone else. She'll have her one remaining ovary removed, and leave her uterus intact.


We met with our gynecologist, Dr. Eyvazzadeh, who will be performing the procedure to remove Christina's ovary (an oophorectomy). He has recommended that we have this done apart from her other surgeries. This means that she will have an additional surgery to remove the port from her chest, and (possibly) to start breast reconstruction. We had hoped to combine these procedures into one, but because of Christina's history of endomitriosis, Dr. Eyvazzadeh is concerned that his procedure may be more involved than we expect, and in that case we may be concerned about the amount of blood lost.


We're a little discouraged, frustrated by the news that there is one more sugery in our future than we had hoped. It's just one more step to take, though, so we're not going to let it get us down.


Thanks to all of you for your support, and words of encouragement.