Long Week

I made an entry on Wednesday but when I went to post it it only saved it as a draft. It is posted now.

Thursday is already a blurr. I spent the day running around doing errands. I called Dr. Gray's office to see if I needed to move my appointment up now that we know that we were going to do chemo first. They said that he wanted to see me on Friday.

Friday was also very busy. David picked me up at 9:45 to go to our appointment with Dr. Gray. Mom met us there. Dr. Gray explained more about what will happen when I start the chemo. I need to have a pick line put in next week. Dr. Rosenthal prefers to have someone else do that so that she can focus all of her time on breast surgeries. The office made me an appointment for Dr. Jordan to put it in. I will talk to him on Tuesday, 2/5/08 and he will put it in on Wednesday 2/6/08.

We also talked with Dr. Gray about participating in a clinical trial. I would still receive the same chemo as I would if I don't participate but I may also receive additional medicines that are approved by the FDA just not for breast cancer that is in my stage. After we left Dr. Gray's office we went over to McKay Dee to meet with the trial coordinator. She gave us a lot of information to read and talked with us a little about the trial. We still need to look at all of the information and see if I even qualify for the study. The main benefit is the extra medicine I would get and they would pay for that medicine. One difference is that I would get the 8 doses of chemo once every 3 weeks instead of once every 2 weeks. This makes it longer overall but it would give me more time to recover in between. If I decide to do the study, the chemo will last for 27 weeks instead of 16. That is almost 7 months instead fo 4. I also don't get to choose which group I am in. There are 6 different groups. Each is different and 3 of the groups get a medicine after surgery once every 3 weeks for 30 weeks. There is so much to consider before we make a decision. We also don't even know if I qualify yet. I would need to have a few different/ additional tests and another biopsy before we start chemo if I decide to participate.

We got home just in time for me to pick up the kids from school then it was more phone calls about medical issues. I had an appointment to meet with Shawn's school councelor at 2:30 to talk about him adding a few more classes for school. That went well. He will start back to art, health, and seminary starting Monday. He still needs to catch up in math now that he has one of the teachers at school to tutor him. She is really good and he likes working with her. Hopefully he will be caught up soon. He is only 1 chapter behind the class but it is a long, difficult chapter.

The hospital called me while we were at the school. The insurance didn't get the preauthorization done for Monday's tests so we had to reschedule them. Monday is now open. I am planning on going to Salt Lake with Mom. Tuesday I will do a CT at 8:00 and the injection for the bone scan at 10:00. Then I rush to Ogden to Dr. Jordans for a quick meeting. Lunch if there is time then back to Layton to do the bone scan. Wednesday is the surgery for the pick line. I probably won't know what time until Tuesday. Thursday is the echo and some blood tests. Friday is Dr. Gray again. I don't know yet if this is just to talk or if he wants me to start chemo. I will check on Monday.

We still don't know the results from Wednesday's biopsy. Hopefully Dr. Chung will call me on Monday.

Some people have asked me how to get in touch with me. You can email me at candytatton@yahoo.com or call and leave a message. My email is also listed at the top of my blog. I am not home much right now but I am sure that that will change once I start chemo. I don't know how much I will feel up to but I will try to get back to people as I can. You can also respond to some of the postings but since nobody has done that yet I am not sure how exactly that works. We have also had many inquires as to if there is anything that we need. Right now I honestly don't know what we need. Prayers are always welcome. Dave and my Mom are going with me to appointments while we are still figuring out what to do. That saves me having to explain to them what happened. Dave then passes on info to his family and Mom passes it on to mine. I am hoping to do the chemo at Dr. Gray's Layton office so that I am close to Dave's work. One of them will probably go with me to my first chemo treatment. After that everything will depend on Dave's work schedule and when my parents receive their mission call and when they have to leave. We are very blessed that Paint Sundries is letting Dave take whatever time he needs. He will need to go back to California for a week at the end of the month. That could change depending on how I am doing. Dave's mother and Helen have also been very helpful. They have been there for the kids a lot. There are many more people who are doing little things to help. It is impossible to thank everyone here. Once again I am not sure what we need or will need. We just ask that if you feel a prompting from the spirit with regards to our family that you listen to it and follow it as you feel appropriate.