Journal entry by Mona Higley —
Hi. I'm Mona Linda's daughter. I live in Grass Valley about a 7 hours away. I would like to help her through this journey,. but at this point she has expressed that she would rather be alone. I know from experience she's going to need a lot of help. I'm starting this so I can keep everyone who's interested in Linda's journey on kickin cancers ass. This 1st blog will be long one, a lot has happened in 2 weeks. My
mom went to the doctors on Aug 2nd for what she called an Alien on her breast. It was a large lump that to me looked like an infected cyst. Her Doctor thought the same, but thankfully sent her for an ultrasound which led to a biopsy. Of course, she kept asking if it was a cyst or boil & surprisingly the doctor said it was cancer right then & there. She had more tests that week, and the following week she had a PET & CT scan, 3 more biopsies, blood work and more doctor appts which confirmed that it was in fact, breast cancer, called invasive infiltrating ductal carcinoma HER-2 positive. At this point they think it is stage 3 (she doesn't want to know whether its stage 3 or 4?). That type of cancer is typically a younger person's cancer, its Estrogen driven, of course she was very proud of that, lol! Mom refused to take calls so she has all the doctors and her cancer liason texting her, only Linda! She hasn't missed 1 of her 20+ appts.
Her first chemo was last Thursday Aug 26th they also include steroids which helps with nausea & allergic reactions but does not have great side effects for her. Fortunately, the steroids flush through in 24 hours, and thankfully she was back to her charming self. She felt tired & weak, not up to eating much so she drank 2 of her fancy chemo shakes.
Mom has her port scheduled for this Tuesday. A port is is a device that is threaded into a large vein above the heart under the skin, used for chemo mostly which can be very damaging to veins. At this point the plan is to have Herceptine & chemo every 3 weeks with a total of 6 times to shrink the tumor then they will discuss surgery.
I plan on updating her journey 1-3 times a week so check back & I promise it will be much shorter 😊
mom went to the doctors on Aug 2nd for what she called an Alien on her breast. It was a large lump that to me looked like an infected cyst. Her Doctor thought the same, but thankfully sent her for an ultrasound which led to a biopsy. Of course, she kept asking if it was a cyst or boil & surprisingly the doctor said it was cancer right then & there. She had more tests that week, and the following week she had a PET & CT scan, 3 more biopsies, blood work and more doctor appts which confirmed that it was in fact, breast cancer, called invasive infiltrating ductal carcinoma HER-2 positive. At this point they think it is stage 3 (she doesn't want to know whether its stage 3 or 4?). That type of cancer is typically a younger person's cancer, its Estrogen driven, of course she was very proud of that, lol! Mom refused to take calls so she has all the doctors and her cancer liason texting her, only Linda! She hasn't missed 1 of her 20+ appts.
Her first chemo was last Thursday Aug 26th they also include steroids which helps with nausea & allergic reactions but does not have great side effects for her. Fortunately, the steroids flush through in 24 hours, and thankfully she was back to her charming self. She felt tired & weak, not up to eating much so she drank 2 of her fancy chemo shakes.
Mom has her port scheduled for this Tuesday. A port is is a device that is threaded into a large vein above the heart under the skin, used for chemo mostly which can be very damaging to veins. At this point the plan is to have Herceptine & chemo every 3 weeks with a total of 6 times to shrink the tumor then they will discuss surgery.
I plan on updating her journey 1-3 times a week so check back & I promise it will be much shorter 😊
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