Chemotherapy Plan

We arrived back home from Boston this evening. It is a long drive to go over and back in two days but Robin and I enjoy our alone time during these trips.

This morning we met with the medical oncologist at Dana-Farber. She explained that the cancer is HER2 negative, based on the more extensive pathology testing that we were waiting on. It's nice to finally put this issue to rest. Remember the initial pathology results from the biopsy looked like it was HER2 positive. The difference is that they were able to look at a larger sample with a more advanced test.

She also told us that Robin had the option of not getting any chemotherapy based on all of these results. However, she advised that the most aggressive approach is to get a 2-drug regimen. Robin decided that this is what she needed to do. The chemo will be once every three weeks for a total of four cycles. Earlier we thought that she may need eight cycles over six months, followed by an additional six months of Herceptin. Now getting just four cycles and no Herceptin, we are down to just three months! Chemotherapy also does not have to start as soon as we initially thought. It will probably start in the first week or so of May.

After this appointment we went over to the plastic surgery office to get the first fill of saline for the tissue expanders. Robin was pretty nervous about this and was worried it would be painful. To her relief, it went very smooth and she had no discomfort at all.

Given that the cancer was throughout the breast and not catching it very early, we feel like we now have the best case scenario going forward. Robin was excited to explain to Cader how she may be done with all of this, including her final reconstruction surgery, by his birthday in September.