The oncologist said the word chemo and Robin in the same sentence. He said he recommended she have it. I looked at Robin and wanted to cry. I looked at Robin and knew she was no longer hearing anything.
I heard the voice in my head "You had better be here right now or the job you took on by being here is not going to get done."
Deep breath
"Okay, so you have to know the word chemo scares us."
"I do"
"Okay, will she throw up and lose her hair?" I was horrified that that was what kept going through my head and I couldn't make it stop. I couldn't hear anything he was saying because I was picturing Robin bald, with the veins sticking out of her head as she hurled into the old barf bucket my mom used to give us. My voice was shaking and my face was contorting in an attempt to hide that I was going to cry and cry.
Dr Reyes was wonderful. He actually turned fully to me and said "The type of chemo she will get will not make her throw up. Her hair will probably thin but she won't go totally bald."
Somehow, once I got that she was not going to be throwing up and bald, I could then listen. Once I could listen, I could look at Robin.
Oncology and Math
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peacock2121
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Dr Reyes saw that I had a pad an pen with me. He told me all about her pathology.
Seems things have changed since my mom was diagnosed. When she was diagnosed, cancer had stages. That was that. Stage 1, 2, 3 or 4 with some division in Stage 3. The stages are based pretty much on the size of the tumor and on lymph node involvement and on spreading into other kinds of tissues in the body.
I had done nothing to educate myself before my mom's diagnosis. She was stage 2, as her ductal carinoma had infiltrated from the cells to the breast tissue, was only 2 cm large and she had no cancer cells in her lymph nodes.
Dr Reyes starts telling us about Grades, not Stages.
Seems things have changed since my mom was diagnosed. When she was diagnosed, cancer had stages. That was that. Stage 1, 2, 3 or 4 with some division in Stage 3. The stages are based pretty much on the size of the tumor and on lymph node involvement and on spreading into other kinds of tissues in the body.
I had done nothing to educate myself before my mom's diagnosis. She was stage 2, as her ductal carinoma had infiltrated from the cells to the breast tissue, was only 2 cm large and she had no cancer cells in her lymph nodes.
Dr Reyes starts telling us about Grades, not Stages.
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peacock2121
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Seems they are now looking at various things in the cancer they took out. These people, Bloom and Richardson, did some research and discovered three different things in cancer cells. These three things mean something, proven by statistics. These three things can be measured. Once they are measured they get a number. The numbers are added up and it gives your cancer a grade. This is one of the times, you want a low grade.
The three things are:
Tubular Formation - that indicates how closely the cancer looks like regular old breast tissue. In other words, how many tubules they can see. A score of 1 means they can see many tubules, 2 means not so much but some and 3 means, it's pretty solid and can't see many.
Nuclear Pleomorphism - that indicates how large or small the nuclei is and how much variation there is in shape. 1 means small and little variation in shape, 3 is large with much variation and 2 is in between.
Mitosis - that measures how fast the the malignant cells are dividing - how aggressive the cancer is. Slow dividers get a 1 and fast ones get a 3.
Then they add up the scores and agian, in this case, you want to score low.
Total of 3 ,4 or 5 and you are Grade 1
Total of 6 or 7 and you are a Grade 2
Total of 8 or 9 and you are a Grade 3.
Your prognosis and treatment plan and all of the percent numbers they give you are based on these numbers.
Made me so grateful for the woman who came before Robin. Made me so grateful for the women who participated in tests, who tried unproven protocols and let themselves be experimented on and and followed.
The three things are:
Tubular Formation - that indicates how closely the cancer looks like regular old breast tissue. In other words, how many tubules they can see. A score of 1 means they can see many tubules, 2 means not so much but some and 3 means, it's pretty solid and can't see many.
Nuclear Pleomorphism - that indicates how large or small the nuclei is and how much variation there is in shape. 1 means small and little variation in shape, 3 is large with much variation and 2 is in between.
Mitosis - that measures how fast the the malignant cells are dividing - how aggressive the cancer is. Slow dividers get a 1 and fast ones get a 3.
Then they add up the scores and agian, in this case, you want to score low.
Total of 3 ,4 or 5 and you are Grade 1
Total of 6 or 7 and you are a Grade 2
Total of 8 or 9 and you are a Grade 3.
Your prognosis and treatment plan and all of the percent numbers they give you are based on these numbers.
Made me so grateful for the woman who came before Robin. Made me so grateful for the women who participated in tests, who tried unproven protocols and let themselves be experimented on and and followed.
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peacock2121
- Posts: 18451
- Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:58 am
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peacock2121
- Posts: 18451
- Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:58 am
Dr Reyes said:
- With no addition treatment (she had already had the cancer removed) she had a 30% chance of her cancer coming back in 5 years.
There were three things that she could do to decrease those chances. They were:
- Chemo
- Radiation
- Hormone Treatment
Robin had tested positive for Estrogen and Progresterone receptors. That meant that her cancer was fed by hormones (the cancer liked them). That also meant that if hormones were taken away from the cancer, the cancer would not be happy.
- With no addition treatment (she had already had the cancer removed) she had a 30% chance of her cancer coming back in 5 years.
There were three things that she could do to decrease those chances. They were:
- Chemo
- Radiation
- Hormone Treatment
Robin had tested positive for Estrogen and Progresterone receptors. That meant that her cancer was fed by hormones (the cancer liked them). That also meant that if hormones were taken away from the cancer, the cancer would not be happy.
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peacock2121
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- Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:58 am
I noticed I translated the 30% number to 70% in my head. It kinda made my head hurt.
When my mom came back from the visit with the Robin's surgeon and told me what was said, she said that Robin's pronosis was excellent. I turned that into a number in my head and that number was not 70% chance of the end of cancer. It was more like 99%.
I also noticed that when I heard that number, I started thinking 'we' - like "We need to do something."
I then thought "I have no right to think 'we', it is not my body."
When my mom came back from the visit with the Robin's surgeon and told me what was said, she said that Robin's pronosis was excellent. I turned that into a number in my head and that number was not 70% chance of the end of cancer. It was more like 99%.
I also noticed that when I heard that number, I started thinking 'we' - like "We need to do something."
I then thought "I have no right to think 'we', it is not my body."
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peacock2121
- Posts: 18451
- Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:58 am
So, I got my pad and pen out and started writing stuff down.
Dr Reyes kept saying the names of the drugs he would use. I could not get those names straight to save my life. I still don't have them right. I just called them to two chemo drugs.
He said that with just radiation, her chances of the cancer not recurring would be 22%.
He said that if she had chemo and then radiation - the number would be 15%.
He said adding hormone therapy to that - would bring the number to 10%.
Still not the number I had in my head, but.....okay.
I am taking all of these notes, asking questions about the order things happen, how long it all takes and all. The whole time feeling like I am in some stoopid dream - this is not suppose to be happening.
Then, Robin says something that has me get that she is 'not thinking'. She says "I have a cruise planned for April and I can't miss that cruise."
I got that Robin is not getting it and that I have to get it and make sure that at some later date, she gets it.
I must have given her what we daughters call "The Mommy Look" because she then said to me:
"Tell me what to do."
I said "It's a no brainer, Robin - do all three."
She said "Okay - let's schedule it."
I wanted to kiss her and cry my eyes out.
Dr Reyes kept saying the names of the drugs he would use. I could not get those names straight to save my life. I still don't have them right. I just called them to two chemo drugs.
He said that with just radiation, her chances of the cancer not recurring would be 22%.
He said that if she had chemo and then radiation - the number would be 15%.
He said adding hormone therapy to that - would bring the number to 10%.
Still not the number I had in my head, but.....okay.
I am taking all of these notes, asking questions about the order things happen, how long it all takes and all. The whole time feeling like I am in some stoopid dream - this is not suppose to be happening.
Then, Robin says something that has me get that she is 'not thinking'. She says "I have a cruise planned for April and I can't miss that cruise."
I got that Robin is not getting it and that I have to get it and make sure that at some later date, she gets it.
I must have given her what we daughters call "The Mommy Look" because she then said to me:
"Tell me what to do."
I said "It's a no brainer, Robin - do all three."
She said "Okay - let's schedule it."
I wanted to kiss her and cry my eyes out.