Author: Carmin

Well, I’m coming out of Round 4 (my final) of chemo so thought I would give a little update. Day 2 after chemo (Sunday), I pretty much just slept all day. Given my inability to sleep before chemo, it actually felt good to drift off frequently. Day 3 after chemo has generally been my worst…

I have a couple of longer updates and posts in my draft form, but I can’t seem to get them finished, so wanted to give you a quick update on how Round 3 of chemo went. Overall, I am getting used to the routine and the cycle of chemo and I have been handling it…

Just a quick note to describe chemo day. If anyone (say, any middle schoolers reading this) wants a video instead, the prep video from Northwestern is actually pretty good. But basically, I start off the day with labs. This is to make sure that I’m healthy enough to proceed with chemo. Everything so far has…

So, my hair is definitely gone! The materials said it would start to fall out around the 14 days after the first treatment and it did. (And so my playlist has been updated to add a few hair-related songs!) One quick note: there is a thing called cold capping that many women are successfully using…

A place to come for common questions we are fielding (aka FAQ): I’m new here: What’s going on? I (Carmin) have Stage 2 breast cancer. I was diagnosed shortly before turning 51. For more details on the type, it is ++- (ER positive, PR positive, HER negative). My Mammoprint score was a High 1, so…

Well, I am 8 days out from the first chemo injection (picture from my injection) and many of you have asked how it went, so wanted to give an update. Overall, the answer is fine. It cycles through a variety of aches and pains, but mostly it felt like a combination of the flu and…

So while I’m still riding the high of getting the “less evil” chemo and being excited to get going on this, I figured I would note that yeah, there is a lot of bad stuff here too. Also, this post was largely drafted while waiting to start chemo today. So, who knows how my mood…

Ok, I have a boatload to do in the next 14 hours, so a super fast update. (And yes, I am considering making all future post names pop song titles..) But the Mammoprint came back! And it came back saying that the tumor was risky (which was expected), but not super risky. So that was…

So an update to the lack of the update. So, neither the Mammoprint or Oncotype are back yet. As a reminder, this is the genetic testing on the tumor itself which gives a score as to the likelihood of cancer returning and spreading. And it uses that score to determine whether there is a benefit…