Category: RumorsAndTumors

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…

I’ve been advocating for a return to the use of the word fortnight to clear up the confusion between twice a week and every other week. I was hopeful that the Taylor Swift/Post Malone collaboration might help bring it back to regular use, but so far I haven’t seen it re-emerge in daily usage. So,…

A recent update. So, because the tumor was of the size that was a close call between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy, the surgeon told me it “my choice!” I’m not sure that’s exactly a definitional Hobbesian choice, but it feels a bit like one. My desired choice is neither, but obviously that’s not an…