Monthly Archives: October 2020

How Important is Family History

We have all been to appointments and been asked hundreds of questions about family history. It is annoying and something that I didn’t pay much attention to until recently. History is used to know if you are at a greater likelihood of certain diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and even some cancers. I want to talk specifically about knowing your family history of cancer.

At the very beginning of the IDC journey, I was asked about family history relating to cancer. I had to have conversations with both my parents to learn that, as it turns out, every one of my biological grandparents had cancer. All different types and all at different stages in their lives. Are they related? Does that make me more prone to getting it myself? I had so many questions.

The most recent bought with cancer my family faced was my maternal grandmother. Though she was never officially diagnosed, that I am aware of, we believe that she had and most likely died from breast cancer. I was upset for a long time that she had hit a lump and opted to never tell anyone because she didn’t want treatment forced on her. I battled internally with anger and thinking how selfish that was for those down the line genetically. I was able to let go of the anger and hurt, but it took time. Even sometime after she had passed. It is not something I have openly discussed, even with my mom. I have mentioned it at times and told her if she ever did that to me I would slap her. I hope that we have an understanding now!

Anyway, I get the reason she kept it a secret. Treatment is hard. She was ready to go home. She didn’t want the brutal fight. I respect that. What I didn’t respect at the time were the potential implications that would have on her daughters, grand-daughters, and great-grand-daughters. Had there been a definite known history of breast cancer I might have been screened at an earlier age. I did unofficially know and I could have said something to my doctors, but I didn’t. I do not blame her for my cancer. I do not blame her for me not getting a mammogram until now. That I somewhat blame on science. They said I was too young for cancer and didn’t need routine mammograms until 40.

I say all that to share what I have learned in the past two months about family history and genetics. The first appointment I had with my oncologist we discussed genetic testing. She agreed that due to my “young” age and a family history of cancers in the reproductive system it would be wise to be tested. The testing was simple. We worked with a genetic counselor to do a family tree. In that, we outlined everyone in my immediate family going back to my grandparents. This would include my grandparents, my parents, aunts and uncles, my siblings, and all our kids. She asked about known cancer for each person and we put that in their box on the tree. We then went and had a simple blood draw done. The test was looking at, I believe, 95 different genetic markers known to be associated with cancer. 95!

The results took a few weeks to come back. At that time we discussed with the counselor how very few come back positive. I may have my numbers all wrong, but I believe she said that only 19 percent of cancers are genetic. The rest are caused by environment or unknown reasons.

When the results came back they showed that I was negative for all genetic cancer markets. My cancer was not genetic. I was relieved. There are a lot of important people in my life and I was happy to know that I and, most likely, my siblings, did not carry genetic cancer genes. We cannot say whether my nieces and nephews do or do not because they will have very different DNA. We cannot even be 100 percent sure my brothers do not, because even though we share the same parents, their DNA is unique. But the likelihood they do is very small.

To sum it all up, my cancer is not genetic. All the family history of cancer is more than likely just a coincidence. We have no way of knowing for sure. All I can advise you to do is ask your family about the history of cancer in your family. If you feel there is a lot, or even if there is just one case, ask your doctor about genetic testing. It can be tricky to get insurance to cover the cost, but it might be worth an out-of-pocket expense to piece of mind.

The genetic counselor did say that people who are adopted or do not know their family history are actually easier to test because the leg work done before in gathering all the information is not needed. If you have no idea what your history is, go be tested. It may help provide answers.

Am I Old or Not?

Before I get to explaining the title of this post I will provide you with an update. I am five days post-chemo and for the most part holding up well. I have had fatigue and in the last few days some nausea has set in. I have lost some taste, which is for sure a bummer when it comes time to eat. Things I love no longer taste good such as my beloved Dr. Pepper or Whataburger. I don’t need those things anyway, so maybe it is a blessing. I pray this is how each infusion will go, but I am fully prepared for the symptoms to increase as I continue to receive treatments. This is my off week of chemo. I will go on Tuesday to have blood work done to make sure everything looks good and then next Tuesday will receive cycle two of four of the AC chemo.

Now to the title of the post. This will require some back story, but it is something that has brought a laugh to me over the last few weeks.

Eli, who will be two in December, was a complete and total unexpected blessing to our family. When I became pregnant I was a young 34 years old. At my first appointment with the OB she informed me that since I would turn 35 while pregnant that I became a bit higher risk. In the state of Texas, a “geriatric pregnancy” is defined as anyone pregnant over the age of 35. I remember thinking, man, I thought I was in prime child bearing years at 35. Who knew that made me high risk. Throughout my pregnancy my age was talked about on numerous occasions. They continued to use the term geriatric, which absolutely cracked me up. The pregnancy was fairly routine. I did end up having gestational diabetes and high blood pressure. All this combined with my “old” age meant I would be induced and have our beautiful baby boy at 37 weeks. No complaints from me as that meant three less weeks pregnant and it put him coming in just under the wire to be able to claim him on our 2018 taxes.

Fast forward to today. I was diagnosed with invasive ducal carcinoma breast cancer roughly a week after I turned 37. From the very first visit with the surgeon to the visits with all the other physicians who would treat me, my age was again a factor. This time for the opposite reason. You are so young. It is not common for someone under 40 with no real family history to get breast cancer. Actually, the median age of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer in America is around 62 with most diagnosis being those age 55-64. So I am a good 20 years too young for breast cancer. This just proves that cancer does not discriminate or follow any rules. We know that my genetics are not the cause of my cancer, but we may never know what did cause it.

You often hear that God works in mysterious ways and His plan is perfect. I truly believe this. At the time we laughed at the thought of “starting over” with a new baby. We had a junior in high school, a third grader, and a newborn. Who does that? Now, two years later, I know exactly why Eli came along. I feel God put him in our lives for three specific reasons.

First, simply, our family was not complete. God knew we needed the little firecracker to keep things exciting! Both of his brothers adore him so much and the feeling is mutual. His best friends are his big brothers. his dad and I are pretty fond of the little dude as well. He brings so much joy to our home.

Second, I do not believe I would have found the cancer had he not been born. I breastfed Eli for roughly 9 months. I would like to say i am fairly in tune with my body. When I stopped breastfeeding I noticed that things on my right breast felt different. I don’t know how to describe it, it was just not normal. I brushed it aside thinking it was my body trying to dry my milk up and that the harder spot was a clogged milk duct or something. When that lump began to become larger and more uncomfortable I questioned if it was related to breastfeeding or something else. I still put off talking to my doctor for longer than I should. Hindsight is always 20/20. I have learned that tumors like mine take years to be able to be felt by hand. This mass could have been there while pregnant and while breastfeeding. I have no idea if feeding Eli caused it to grow faster or if it just made me more aware of what was going on in my body, but thanks to breastfeeding this beautiful baby boy, I found the lump. It was still nearly a year later before I brought it to the attention of my physician, because, again, I was making excuses for what it was. I mean, I was too young to have breast cancer, right? When a few other things had been ruled out, I knew it was time to speak up. So glad I did!

And third, God put Eli in our lives to get us through this fight. Not that my other two boys aren’t worth fighting for, they absolutely are, but having another kid, especially one so young, makes you want to fight harder. I want to see all my kids graduate high school, start college, get married, and have their own kids. To do that I need a good 20 more years in my own life. God gave us Eli, so full of energy, to help fight the fatigue that chemo would bring. It is hard to sit idle when you have a 22-month old terrorizing the house. It is hard to be sad and down on yourself when you have an innocent little guy giving you “cheesy grins”.

Look at the cheesy grin!

While one speciality might think I’m too old for babies and another that I’m too young for cancer, I know that God has a perfect plan for my life and I trust Him. The path may not always be clear and straight. There will be detours and obstacles, but we must trust in our Lord to get us to the end of the race.

48 Hours After Chemo

Tuesday morning I gathered my bag of boredom busters and snacks and headed to the clinic for my first treatment. I was nervous because there was so much unknown.

I was given a few medications to take prior to chemo. I was wrong in a previous post and stated it was anti-nausea medication. It is actually a steroid that I take the night before and the morning of my therapy.

When I arrived I got signed in. They had already done the pre-chemo bloodwork so my one and only stop was the treatment room. It was very nice. All the staff was friendly and knowledgeable.

The actual infusion happened in stages. First I had a bag of anti-nausea medicine and steroids that ran in over 30 minutes. Then there was another anti-nausea medication that ran in over 15 minutes. Both of those went well. I felt nothing. During that time I made myself comfortable and watched Netflix and did a lot of talking to people on my phone.

The nurse then came over to begin the actual chemotherapy. The first one was to be pushed in manually. She told me that I needed to chew on ice while she was injecting it to help prevent mouth sores. She slowly pushed the “red Devil” medicine in. I am not versed in the actual names of the chemo drugs yet, but I will get the names before the next treatment. For those who know about chemo drugs, I am recovering AC chemo right now. While that medicine was going in I again had no effects. No bad taste in my mouth or weird feelings at all.

The final step was the last chemo drug which would go on over 45 minutes. I had brought with me some snacks. A sweet and a salty. I wasn’t sure what I would want or how they would taste. If you know me, you know I started with the sweet. It was a Swiss cake roll and it tasted as good as always. Next up was some Chex Mix and a bottle of water. I continue watching Netflix and before I knew it I was all done.

Shortly after getting home I got a pretty nasty headache. The nurse had warned this could happen. It means we will need to slow down the flow of the second chemo drug and run it in over a longer period of time next time.

The rest of the day I slept off and on. I had little energy and the headache lingered. I was unsure what I could take for the pain so I didn’t take anything. Looking back, I should have called my doctor and asked, but I am hardheaded.

I was able to eat lunch and supper with no issues and was actually very hungry most of the day.

The night went well. I was still battling a headache and about 4 am gave up and took Tylenol. I had seen mixed reviews online of whether that was okay or not, but I couldn’t stand it any longer. I got a few more hours of sleep and woke up feeling pretty good.

I called my doctor when they opened and she confirmed it was okay to take Tylenol or ibuprofen for my headaches. The day went well. I was sent home the previous day with an auto-injector of the Neulasta medication. It was set to go off 27 hours after being put on.

At about 2 pm I heard a few beeps and the medication began going into me. This too would take about 45 minutes. While it was going in there was a click every second or so. As it go closer to done the clicks became farther apart. To let me know it was all done it beeped a few seconds and a green light came on. I was told I could then remove it and place in a baggie for them to dispose of. Since there is a needle involved I cannot just throw it away. Makes total sense. There was no pain associated with this. I felt absolutely nothing as the medicine was going in and it came off my arm with ease.

After that medication went in I felt pretty tired. Chris says it was just my normal nap time and he is probably right! I took a good nap and woke up feeling refreshed.

This morning is a bit of a different story. During the night I woke up with pain in my neck and throat. My glands seem swollen and I just feel yuck. I knew all of this was coming but it doesn’t make it easier. I feel hungry but don’t really want to use the energy to eat. It is very much “flu-like symptoms”.

I know that my body needs food and water so I am drinking protein shakes, water, and Gatorade until I feel up to eating something.

I am fully prepared for this to get worse before it gets better, but I find comfort in knowing this is temporary.

God>Cancer