Results and my next steps...chemo :(

The surgery went well and Dr. Black believes that he removed everything that is visible on the MRI and the pathology showed that it is still a low grade tumor (stage 2) and the cells are dividing at a 3% rate. Now I took that number to mean that that is the rate it is growing, however I was sadly mistaken.

Yesterday, Sean and I went to see my new oncologist, Dr. Rudnick up at Cedar Sinai Hospital. He and the whole tumor board recommend that I start chemo as he said my tumor grew quickly (complete shock to me as I was thinking, mistakenly that it was growing at a 3% rate), and Dr. Rudnick believes it has grown 20% since my last surgery 18 months ago.

He recommended starting chemo, which we knew he would and planned to start it after the holidays. However, because of the rate of growth, Dr. Rudnick, recommended starting it right away and said that since we don't know how much it's currently growing, the sooner I start the better. So they ordered my chemo (pill form) to be delivered to my house and it came today...

 

....along with a lot of warnings! As well as coming in a specially marked bag!!

*I have to pee in my own toilet, not shared with others.
*I have to flush twice if I puke.
*I can't touch the chemo pills as they are toxic and have to pour them into the lid to take them.
*My kids and husband can't touch the chemo pill bottle

Along with all the warnings came many strong side effects...

*severe nausea and vomiting
*headache (which the anti nausea pills cause also, yay me!)
*constipation
*loss of appetite (that part I really don't mind)
*tiredness
*weakness
*night sweats
*and the rare symptoms...mouth sores, swelling of feet/ankles, easy bleeding, bruising, swollen glands

I've also been told by those who have taken it that it'll hit hardest after my chemo cycle is over, you mean to tell me that when I think I'll be celebrating finishing my chemo, I may actually be worse off than while taking it...that just doesn't make sense!!

So with all of that being stated, I will be starting these pills on Friday night, hoping that I'll feel OK for the weekend with my family and only getting sick during the week while my kids are in school, feeling better by next weekend (I can dream, can't I?)!!

I'll try to keep this updated on how the chemo makes me feel, what it does, etc...
I'm definitely going to keep a journal.