Triple Negative Breast Cancer

We went back to meet with the medical oncologist, Dr. Goldschmidt today. He has the result of my Oncotype test. That test sent a sample of my tumor to a lab in California to study the DNA of it. That will verify the DNA of the tumor before we start treatments so that we don't treat it with one drug when it needs to be treated with another drug regimen.

The previous test results showed that I was hormone negative but HER-2 positive. The Oncotype test showed that I was both hormone and HER-2 negative. Dr. Goldschmidt did another test, a "fish" test or something like that, that verified that I have Triple Negative Breast Cancer. It is more aggressive and has a higher rate of reoccurance than the other types of breast cancer. Thankfully, it is still responsive to treatment so we will continue with chemo and radiation plans.

He said I would need to have a port put in to access my veins for the chemo and it would be left in for a year. The chemo treatments would be every three weeks, and I would have 4-6 cycles of TAC or TC. He gave me the option of a clinical trial and went over the paperwork with me. I'm not sure how I feel about the clinical trial because of the randomization, you wouldn't know until you start which drug treatment you would be in - TAC, TC, or the trial drug cocktail. He was very unbiased in his talk though so it makes a harder decision.

Dr. Goldschmidt briefly went over the chemo side effects, most of which I was fairly aware of by now through the reading I'd been doing. I'll loose my hair 2-4 weeks into treatment, nausea, low blood count, menopause, numbness in hands and feet, heart problems, etc. Although, now that we know it's triple negative, I really don't have a choice. I have to fight it.

Wake Forest - Fertility

My biggest fear since I found out I had to have chemo, and the severe side effects of that, is the risk of infertility. I'm 28 years old. Never been married, never had kids. I do want that opportunity, I want to be a mother. I just haven't found that person to be with... and ironically, I had joked before about "the back-up plan" or whatever you want to call it. Having a kid on my own, via sperm donor, since no guy has come along to commit.

I had been referred to Dr. Johnston at Wake Forest to talk to about my options. She was great, she's worked with a lot of patients like me before. Apparently the best option is InVitro Fertilization, in which they harvest my eggs, fertilize them, freeze and store them until after I am well. Then hoping I can carry a pregnancy after this they can do IVF. However, I know my best friend Lauralee had to do several rounds of IVF before she actually got pregnant. It is $8,000 not covered by insurance, and that it with Dr. Johnston waiving her fees and the cost of the meds. I get one go at it and there is a 25-33% chance it will work. The catch is since I don't have a partner, I would have to choose a sperm donor. They gave me a catalog. Yep. A catalog. All you get to go on is eye and hair color, ethnic background, education, and a couple of medical things. It's like speed dating for your kid's father.

The other options were less promising. You can harvest and freeze eggs, but there's only around a 3% chance that will work since eggs are mostly water. There were a couple of trial things but no proven pregnancies from that, so I wouldn't consider those. The other thing is just to have bloodwork pre-chemo, check your hormone and fertility levels, then do it again after chemo. It's more of a "wait and see" approach, since all of this can be overwhelming.

She said to think it over and let her know by the end of the week if possible.
Wow...