Today I met with another medical oncologist- mine had an emergency and was out of the office for two weeks. He explained that there was a new study done showing that this kind of cancer "triple negative" responded to a regimin of two different drugs over a 6 month period. It would be a cycle of three weeks in a row of chemo and one week off. I was set to be on Fridays so it wouldn't interfere with my work schedule too much. The Dr. asked me if I had made any decision about what I wanted to do about my hair, when it starts to fall out- that's my cue to start crying. He told me that his wife had breast cancer and lost all her hair, but she had a lot of fun with the different wigs she had. I'm pretty sure he was just trying to make me feel better because I don't know anyone who would chose to lose their hair so they can wear a wig! He wanted me to go to a "Chemo Orientation" today, but the chemo room was really busy, so I would come back later in the day for that.
When we came back for that, the nurse put us in one of the treatment rooms they use for chemo with a video playing. The video was very cheesy, went through all the side affects of all kinds of chemo. I tried to keep the tears at bay when they were talking about the 'emotional' issues the come along with going through chemo, not just for the patient but for the caretaker and family members. After the movie, the nurse came back in with two printouts for me and Mom. It had the name of the two drugs I would be taking, and all the side affects that come along with each one. As we went through some of them, I started in crying again, and so did mom. It was becoming all to real that I was really going to have to do this. It was horrible but the nurse was super awesome! She started tearing up at one point too.