Roxanne Swanson

Thanks for visiting my mom's page. It seems our family is not unlike many, and has fallen victim to the scary term no one wants to hear, Cancer 😰. February 13th we received the news my mom's tests had come back positive for breast cancer and we started this journey immediately thereafter. I am her oldest daughter, LaReesa 🙋🏽‍♀️, and will be keeping this page updated on progress and treatment in an effort to communicate as effectively as possible.

The type of breast cancer she has is called ER-/HER-2+ and appears to be isolated to one particular area. On Friday February 15, mom, myself, Chip, and Bri visited the U of M's Masonic Cancer Center for the first of many appointments.   The surgeon 👨🏼‍⚕️had both good and bad news to share. He reported the cancer was thankfully caught early, they think primarily due to the size. He said there were two approaches to treatment, which included a mastectomy (removal of the breast and reconstructive surgery) or a Lumpectomy (a surgical procedure to remove just the tumor.) He reports the outcome is equally successful for either method, and either way she has to have chemotherapy first. He and mom thought it best to go the route of the lumpectomy when the time comes. So the proposed treatment plans at this point include chemotherapy💉for 12 weeks, then a surgery to remove the tumor and a major lymph node to see if the chemo shrunk or eliminated the tumor, finishing up with 6 weeks of radiation.  She will then have to have one of the chemo drugs administered once every 3 weeks until it's been a year. Despite the early detection, he reports this is a very aggressive cancer and she was extremely lucky to catch it so soon (they hardly ever see this type of cancer this early,) hence the intense treatment protocol. She will be on two medications for chemotherapy, one of which is Herceptin and the other Taxol. Her scheduled treatments will occur weekly, intravenously, and will take about half of the day to administer. The side effects should be tolerable with regard to upset stomach, but she will for sure lose all her hair.

The plan at this time is to focus on keeping things as normal as possible 🤪, expecting that things will not always be easy. She has been in good spirits about all of this, but of course is anxious and at times, scared. She is grateful and finds comfort having her family so accessible and supportive and feels blessed to have so many people's prayers, love, and positive energy 🙏🏽. She does get overwhelmed, so if you reach out and don't get a response right away from her, please know it is not personal. If you leave comments/well-wishes on this site, she will see those as well, so I encourage you to do that❤️. There really isn't anything she needs at the moment, but I know people often like to feel helpful, so I will update with good ideas on how to help from time to time ⏰.