May 25th -
10:00 am - Dianne met with her chemo Oncologist and he reviewed options for 5-year hormonal treatment to reduce estrogen. Thanks the Lord that her blood count had improved from 8.9 to 9.7. Due to the improvement he cancelled her scheduled aranesp shot. He said she will not have to meet with him again until July 2009.
She will begin taking Arimidex once per day for five years. Arimidex is the standard hormonal treatment for Dianne because she was postmenopausal with hormone receptor-positive early stage breast cancer. However, the most common side effects of Arimidex include hot flashes, joint pain and weakness, reduction in bone density causing osteoporosis which could fractures.
It was so funny, Dianne asked him if Arimidex would cause her to become hairy because it suppresses estrogen. He smiled and said no, you will not turn into a hairy Schwarzenegger and then be able to whip up on him - and he pointed to me. I remember another funny incident when Dianne met initially with Dr. Blouin, her surgeon. She asked Dr. Blouin if her cancer could have been caused by peanut M&M's. Dr. Blouin looked at her, and said, honey, it was nothing you did to cause it, it is just not fair.
We also asked Dr. Edenfield about Dr Zurenko's decision that Dianne did not need to radiate the regional node area since Dianne only had 1 positive sentinel node. He was in agreement with Dr. Zurenko that the regional or any axillary nodes did not need radiation treatment because only 1 node was involved and that was a gateway sentinel node and all her regional nodes tested negative for cancer cells.
Dianne asked him if she needed a MRI to determine if all the cancer cells were gone. He told her that she will continue to meet frequently with him to assure that the cancer that was removed does not return.
Dr. Edenfield asked her what did she have planned to celebrate her completion of chemo treatments. We are definitely planning to have a nice vacation after the radiation is completed in 6 1/2 weeks.
2:00pm - Dianne went to the Cancer of Carolinas to meet with her Radiation Oncologist, who is also the Radiation Oncology Medical Director for St. Francis Hospital System. He took a local scan in order to correctly mark the area that will be radiated. The area was marked by Dr. Zurenko and she will begin her daily radiation treatments Thursday May 27 2009 which will last for 6 1/2 weeks.
We will continue to pray that God allow her to complete the radiation and Arimidex with no side effects, and he will cure her body of this disease and she will be back to her old self soon.
God bless. Bruce
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