Yesterday was my last day of radiation! I did 20 days, and the last 4 were what they call boosts. The first 16 were radiation with photons, which goes all the way through the breast tissue. They did it at an angle so they wouldn't go into my body, and they targeted the whole breast. The last 4 were done from above pointing right down at the area where my tumor was, and they radiated using electrons, which can be set to a certain depth. They were set to the depth my tumor used to be, so they didn't go in the rest of my body either. It's all part of the same machine, which can also do x-rays and small area CT scans.
I said goodbye to my fellow patients I'd met, and the technicians, who gave me a hug, then Frank came in to watch me ring the bell before I left. Afterwards, Frank and I drove up to go to the League of NH Craftsmen's Fair, and we went to friends' house for dinner. Nice to celebrate!
My skin where the boosts were done is very red, but the other skin is already reverting back to normal color, and the itchiness seems to be better. Lots of lotion should help!
I started up my immunotherapy infusions again on Wednesday, which was a long day. Had the radiation treatment at 10 in Nashua, then drove straight from there to Suzi's to deliver a pop-up tent for her yard art display this weekend and chat for a bit. We then drove to Dana Farber in Chestnut Hill, had my blood drawn at 11:30, had an appointment with the oncology assistant, then had the infusion. Everything after the blood draw seemed to be slow, so I didn't get into the infusion chair until over an hour late, then the Pembro took a while to arrive, so we didn't get home until about 6. I was tired at the end, but just because it was long. I haven't noticed any side effects from that infusion. The immunotherapy is supposed to help my immune system, rather than kill fast-growing cells like the chemo does, so it's not expected to make me feel worse.
The oncology assistant answered some of our questions about what comes next. Because I had a triple negative tumor that didn't respond 100% (mine didn't shrink completely, only 70%) to the neoadjuvant (before surgery) chemo, I have to have more chemo and immunotherapy. They will give me about 6 weeks off now before they start up the chemo. I will have my blood tested for floating cancer DNA bits, and if I have them, I may qualify for a clinical trial. If I end up in that trial, I will get 24 weeks of chemo infusions, I think every three weeks. And if I don't qualify, I will get the standard chemo protocol, which is chemo pills twice a day for 2 weeks and one week off, for 9 cycles, so 27 weeks. Both of these would include an immunotherapy infusion every 3 weeks. So, timing-wise, if all continues as expected, we're looking at completing this in the spring.
Tuesday, we got to see Jenny and Jon, for an afternoon visit on their way up to see the Craftsmen's Fair. Always nice to be together!
My next treatment will be an immunotherapy infusion on August 31.
Together with Jenny and Jon on a beautiful day!
The view from the infusion chair is very different when all the leaves are on the trees!
They had ceiling art for me to look at during the radiation treatments.
Celebrating by finishing my sticker chart and ringing the bell!
I finished reading my book and my 20 treatment sticker chart!
**** Trigger warning **** - The last photo is of the radiated area where the tumor was removed. If you don't like looking at closeups of body parts, stop here!
The area that got the radiation boost. You can see the short puckered scars where the surgery was done: one in the armpit to remove the sentinel lymph nodes, and one on the upper breast to remove the tumor. They marked the planned radiation boost area with blue marker dots to help align the machine. The area within those dots is quite red, but the area to the right has already begun looking less pink, compared to the area above and to the left, which didn't receive radiation.
Kathy, this is amazing!!! Congratulations !!!!!!!!
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