Seeing the light....

Friday (June 12) was my six-month anniversary as a cancer survivor. I’m two thirds of the way through my Cancer treatments, Katie is officially potty-trained, and I can see a Cancer-Free Christmas from here with a bit of hair!

Things are going well and I anticipate being done with all Chemotherapy by July 8th. As of this past Wednesday, I have completed 8 of the 12 weekly Taxol treatments. I will begin radiation treatments at the end of July and the treatments will be everyday, Monday – Friday for 6 weeks. I should be done with the everything, except Herceptin (more about that later), the five years of Tamoxifen and reconstruction for a rousing 41st birthday celebration on September 11.

This round of Chemo has been much more tolerable than the previous "Red Devil". In fact, the steroids that they give me during the infusion to prevent an allergic reaction give me a great deal of energy; so basically, the night and day after my infusion I am typically tackling some project, re-organizing some remote corner of the house, jogging my entire three mile route and making some crazy to do list for the next day that does not get done. That level of energy, however, is short lived as Mike has to give me an injection of Neupogen on days 2 and 3 following chemo which works to keep my white cells blood up. That drug makes me feel achy and tired for a few days but it is tolerable. I did not take the Neupogen following my first dose of Taxol and the next week my white blood cells were 1.3 (normal range 4.5 – 11.0) and my absolute neutrophil count was 0.2 (normal range 2.0 – 7.5). Needless to say I did not have chemo that week. I have not had that issue since I started the Neupogen, so the drug seems rather effective at $246.50 a shot. While I’m going off on a tangent, this is absolutely unbelievable….I just logged into the web site to check my prescription insurance claims as I wanted to give the exact cost of Neupogen; and since January 1 my prescription claims for just stuff I get at the drug store, not including chemo or other drugs at the hospital are over $28,000.

Once my chemo brain subsides, I’m going to explain to the assholes who do not think that we need some kind of healthcare reform why people who do not have the income of Warren Buffet can’t afford to be sick without health insurance and why in a recent study conducted by Harvard found that 60% of all personal bankruptcies were a result of medical bills and 75% of those folks had health insurance! Okay, enough about the system, now, back to me……

The most stressful finding since my last posting has been the possibility of chemo induced cardiomyopathy (i.e. weakening of the heart muscle) a known side effect of the Red Devil. This is suspected because my baseline heart function was 60% before Red Devil and 52% after. The normal range is 55% to 45%. While I’m still in the normal range at 52% they are concerned because this was a drop from 60%. The VERY worst case scenario from all of this is that the heart muscle continues to weaken which results in congestive heart failure and I either get a heart transplant or die….now wouldn’t that be some shit…. I die from heart failure and not cancer. The more immediate issue is that it has postponed the drug called Herceptin. The original plan was to start Herceptin with the Taxol. Herceptin is a targeted therapy because it only attacks the cancer cells and is basically the “break through” drug for my type of cancer. But, unfortunately, a side effect of the drug is reduced heart function. So to make a long story short, my Oncologist decided that it would be best to give my heart a little break and hold off on the Herceptin. I also now have a freaking cardiologist. In the mean time, I had a repeat heart function test that came in at 51% (considered stable), been put on a low dose high blood pressure medicine (the theory is that it may protect the heart), and am scheduled for a cardiac MRI on July 2 to look at the heart muscle to see what, if anything, is going on.

Regarding my hair…My eyebrows and eye lashes are thinner and lighter but not completely gone. I also have some fine baby hairs coming in on top of my head. Mike swears it is really growing but I think it is just teasing me. It does, however, stay put when I roll the sticky lint brush over it.

I will say that some of the most interesting news is that I have apparently become a local Chatham County celebrity practically overnight. Back in April, Mike and his friend John walked a ridiculous amount of miles at the Wilmington Relay for Life in my honor and then the following weekend Mike walked a ridiculous amount of miles at the Siler City Relay for Life in my honor. He raised almost a thousand dollars for cancer research. In the meantime, a reporter from the Chatham News (a weekly paper) called about interviewing us. They did a short feature on my story which landed on the front page along with a picture of me and Mike (Katie was with Memaw and Pop Pop). The reporter, however, got some of the story incorrect and I had to ask for a correction. (Of course I would!). The next week after the Siler City Relay Walk, the paper plastered my bald head on the front page of the paper again. I guess bald headed women sell papers! The picture was taken during the opening ceremony. Mike walked the torch in from the City Limits…..Mike, Katie and I walked onto the track…..Mike handed me the torch and I walked ¼ of the track and handed it off to another cancer survivor. The torch was passed around the track to three other survivors and the last person lit the big flame. The article was about the about the Relay itself and ran concurrently with my requested correction. Here is the link to that article: http://www.thechathamnews.com/archives/May.7.09/ . The link to the first article was not available.

For those curious, the retraction I requested was based on breast cancer detection. I told the reporter my story, (short version: yearly gyno visit = dr. found nothing; found lump during self exam following month, mammogram following self lump detection resulted in diagnosis). He printed that I had initially had a mammogram that did not detect the lump during my yearly examine and.. I could not in good conscious allow people to read that thinking that mammograms don't work. Despite all the other mistakes (referring to Katie as Kathy, for example) the mammogram thing was the only correction I requested, simply from a public health education point of view. I mean, I do have an MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education and should probably use the graduate degree from time to time.

That's been the biggest excitement around here lately, except for, like I said, Katie's potty trained. She's such a big girl at only 29 months and I’m so proud of her! She even stays dry at night. Despite how unfortunate the circumstances seem, she always makes me feel like I have won the lottery! I’m so fortunate to have such a wonderful little girl.

Yesterday was the Susan G. Komen Walk/Run in Raleigh. It was a huge event (the largest road race in NC) and was a great experience. It was a bit overwhelming to see how many people have been touched by this disease and to see the passion people have to find a cure. With that, I'm not very good or comfortable asking for tax deductible donations (unless it is in support of other folks like those fleeing from the aftermath of a hurricane). But if you are so inclined and have the means you can click on the following link and type in my name which is Gail Robuck in case you were wondering about the marriage and the Fox/Robuck thing.

http://race.komennctriangle.org/site/TR/Race/General?pg=pfind&fr_id=1070

Much to my surprise one of my friends in all of her generosity and thoughtfulness made a surprise donation to me on Wednesday and it jump started my last minute fund raising efforts. I changed my goal from the standard $150 (the cost of one mammogram) to $1000. You can make donations to count for this year until June 30.

If you have already donated to Susan G. Komen, thank you in advance for supporting the foundation. From my personal experience, I feel that the Susan G Komen foundation does an excellent job locally disseminating the funds to under-served populations in this area and I feel quite certain that many of the treatment options and information available to me is a result of their advocacy and the national research programs they support. In fact, I'm currently participating in one study funded in part by them looking at racial disparities and survival rates and I will participate in a program funded by them for survivors when I'm finished with chemo and radiation.