Port Placement and Chemo Starts Monday
Port placement was Friday.
Port day sounds more fun while on a cruise than on a cancer journey.
It went smooth. Erin bounced back and spent the day being mom as if nothing happened. Taking care of the house and kids and going to the Plainsmen homecoming game and then cooking us a late dinner.
Superwoman does exist.
Port placement is a "small" surgery. But it's still surgery and placing a port in your chest and connecting it to a major vein near your heart, is not small in my book.
Chemo will start Monday.
If you care or wonder about the science.
Breast cancer has five treatment options.
Here they are least intense to most intense:
| Treatment | Details |
|---|---|
| 1. APT (easiest) |
Drugs: Weekly paclitaxel + trastuzumab (1 year total HER2 therapy). Used for: Node-negative, ≤3 cm tumors. Side effects: Mild fatigue, hair thinning, occasional neuropathy. Hair loss: Partial or minimal. |
| 2. THP |
Drugs: Docetaxel + trastuzumab + pertuzumab (no carboplatin). Used for: HER2+, node-negative or low-risk. Side effects: Fatigue, diarrhea, hair loss; fewer low blood counts. |
| 3. TCH |
Drugs: Docetaxel + carboplatin + trastuzumab. Used for: HER2+, larger or higher-risk tumors (no pertuzumab). Side effects: Fatigue, nausea, hair loss, low counts. |
| 4. TCHP |
Drugs: Docetaxel + carboplatin + trastuzumab + pertuzumab. Used for: Tumor >2 cm or node-positive. Side effects: Hair loss, diarrhea, fatigue, low blood counts. |
| 5. AC→THP (hardest) |
Drugs: Doxorubicin ("Red Devil") + cyclophosphamide → then docetaxel + trastuzumab + pertuzumab. Used for: Very large or node-heavy tumors, or aggressive biology. Side effects: Strong fatigue, nausea, higher heart risk, full hair loss. |
Her treatment is TCHP, which avoids the Red Devil chemo (the worst side effects), and we are grateful for that.
Side effects usually are worst from day 3 to day 5 post infusion, but differ for everyone.
Hair shedding starts day 14.
And so we cold cap.
I never heard of this either until last week.
We have two options: DigniCap or Penguin Cold Capping with Dry Ice.
DigniCap is an automated cooling system at the hospital.
However, it has lower success rates than the Penguin cap.
However, Penguin cap takes a ton of manual effort. Changing out the cap every 20-25 minutes for 8-9 hours on treatment days.
We don't need things to be harder. But we are team SAVE the HAIR.
And so, we will Penguin cap and will need a team of cappers to help on our 6 treatment days over the next 4 months.
A good overview video can be found here if interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMLV9KfwTv0
If you want to be on our SAVE the HAIR team, we'd love the help.
And we are learning to love the help.
Because we need it.
And that's not easy to admit.
Love, the Murrays