My Cancerversary, Inspired to Design and Recent Tests Results

On March 17, I will be celebrating my one year cancerversary's life-saving double mastectomy with modified radical mastectomy removing both my breasts, 2 large cancerous masses and 21 lymph nodes of which 6 were cancerous. 

I celebrate this moment because it saved my life. Although it was a long and hard fought recovery, continued on to chemotherapy and radiation, I live now, one year after, a full life and able to enjoy every single day with my 3-year old son and loving husband, my family and friends.

I searched and found strength in many survivors before me. Those who have also fought and still surviving. Knowing that they have been there and its possible to get through it no matter how hard it may seem. And now I vow to become one of those who can share my stories and give inspiration to those who are about to fight the battle.

I have created this series of designs to help raise funds to donate to Young Survival Coalition, a group of young women who have had breast cancer at a young age and survived it. They have inspired and pushed me to go on because I know they were also young as I was. Every purchase will contribute $3 to YSC. It will help young women with breast cancer learn more on how to cope during diagnosis, treatment and getting back on their feet.

click to buy the Black "I Fought I Survived" Iphone 4 Case
 $19.99

click this button to buy the Brown "I Fought I Survived" Iphone 4/4s case
$19.99

If you're a survivor, carry it as a badge of honor.  

If you know someone who is a survivor, give it as a gift of praise and encouragement.

If you know someone who was just diagnosed, give it as a gift of inspiration, 
that she too, can survive it. 

One doesn't have to be alone in the battle.  I wasn't and that's how I survived.  

P.S.  As I celebrate my one year anniversary, I was given another gift of survival.  My PET Scan, Brain MRI, CT Scans and blood works show no signs of metastasis or spreading of cancer in my brain, bones, liver or lungs.  Although 1 out 3 tumor markers were elevated, my oncologist is running more tests such as thyroid blood tests to determine what is causing this tumor marker (CEA or CarcinoEmbryonic Antigen) to be elevated.  I am also taking a break from my cancer medication Tamoxifen for two weeks to see if it is what's causing my tumor marker elevation and bone pains.

After two weeks, I need to get back on my medication because it is the only shield I have right now against cancer from coming back.

My scan also showed that my right lung was scarred by radiation which has been causing prolonged periods of cough and shortness of breath.  I have yet to see a pulmonologist to help me recover from this.

I will continue to write the progress as tests come in.  Thank you for thinking of me and for the prayers.

Finished Radiation and Hopefully On To Remission

I apologize for not being able to blog for a while.  Aside from tiredness from the daily radiation, I have been anxious about what's next after treatments.

On October 10, I finally graduated from radiation.  Daily doses of 200 cGy (Centigrey) of radiation made me very tired but generally well.  I tolerated the treatment better than Chemotherapy.  I had 25 rounds of daily treatments , Monday through Friday and 10 days of treatments of booster, high doses of radiation.

Only my right breast was radiated because it is where cancer was and because cancer has invaded my lymph nodes.  Radiation was meant to kill remaining cancer cells that has travelled through the lymph and the local areas (breast tissues, skin, chest and armpit).

I did not feel any pain during treatments.  In fact, it felt like I was getting xrays for longer periods everyday.  The effect of radiation started along the 4th to 5th week of treatments.  My skin started to itch a lot which were not alleviated by scratching.  Once I scratch relentlessly, the skin started to come off and bleed.  It was like a third-degree burn.  I took a lot of pain medications, benadryl, hydrocortisone cream  and radiation cream to ease the side-effects.

Click here to see the after effects of radiation 

(warning: actual picture of breast after surgery and radiation)

Two weeks after I finished radiations, my skin started to heal.  I still feel the itching and pain until now (one month after the last treatment session) but it is subsiding little by little. I'm still feeling the side-effects of chemotherapy, like nausea and bone pains.  But I was told that it can take up to six months for the side effects to totally go away. 

This week, the first week of November, I saw my doctors for follow up.  My oncologist took a blood test which will determine my tumor marker CA27.29 and other blood levels.  Most important is the tumor marker because this will indicate if the treatment has been effective or not and if the cancer has spread to other organs. 

Depending on the result of the blood test, I may go for further tests (PET Scan, MRI and CT Scan).  For now, my oncologist's diagnosis/impression is NED (No Evidence of Disease).  This is one of the better news a breast cancer patient wants to hear!

I will regularly see my oncologist, breast surgeon and radiation oncologist every three months to monitor my condition.

My oncologist has put me on hormone therapy Tamoxifen, an estrogen blocker to prevent the spread of breast cancer cells and prevent recurrence. I will be taking it for five years.

With 5 years of being NED, I will be considered in remission and with 10 years of NED, I will be considered, "cancer-free"!  I look forward to that day!

I will have my 2nd stage of reconstruction surgery on November 22.

The battle continues but life goes on... with more prayers and a lot of courage and faith, I am hoping for weeks to turn into months, into years and finally be free from the "C".

Help us in this fight against breast cancer. If you can , please help in raising funds for Krissy's Breast Cancer treatment:

 

I Graduated from Chemo, On To Radiation

My loving nurses (L-R) Maria, Nancy, Sudra & Flora)

Two lumps, 6 six affected lymph nodes, 21 removed lymph nodes, two mastectomies, three surgeries, 4 successful embryo preservation, 6 chemotherapies later, I have graduated from Chemo and I am on my way to finish 35 radiation therapies.

So many things have happened since I first found out the small lump that progressed to two lumps and then proliferated my lymph nodes from 1 to 6 in a matter of 5 months.

Even though my cancer stage is 3, I am still lucky to be alive.  Had it not been excised from my body that soon, I am not sure if I would still be around writing a blog right now.

The cancer was aggressive.  From one lump in October, it became 2 in December.  From one lymph node affected and detected in February, it became 6 in March.  I'm pretty sure the cancer would not have stalled any longer attacking the rest of my body if it wasn't removed right away.  I am glad I decided to have the surgery first and did not think twice. Sure, the recovery was rough and hard for me and my family but it was necessary.

I almost thought twice about having chemotherapy because of the horror stories I have read.  True enough, the experience was not one to forget.  It was a roller-coaster of emotional and physical pains. The anticipation of getting sick every other week was tough to deal with but I made it through.  I have attempted to quit so many times, cried to husband begging him to let me quit.  But his persistence and support held the ropes for me.  The loving and kind words from all my friends and families gave me strength to fight every three weeks of infusion.   It felt like being poisoned slowly, ironically, it is something that should heal me.

The loving and caring hands of all my chemo nurses Nancy, Flora, Maria and Sudra was a blessing.  They made sure that I am comfortable during chemo, with warm blankets, snacks, medicines infused to relieve side-effects and hydration.  They took me at an hour's notice when I feel too sick and needed to be rushed to the hospital for hydration.  When we get there, they are all ready waiting for me.  They are the souls that nurtured patients at our hardest points of treatments.

On my last day of chemo, I made 24 pink cake pops (i wish I took a picture of) and gave it to them as a token of gratitude for their care.

Even though chemo is over, I will still have side-effects for as long as six months after, because the chemicals are still circulating in my body.  My nurses have told me I am always welcome to come back and get hydration or infusion of medicines to alleviate the side-effects.  And of course to drop by just to say hi and that if I am feeling better. These people are the embodiment of the true sense of the word "nurse".

Now that chemo is over, I am on to another challenge.  35 rounds of DAILY radiation.  I am confident that I can do this as long as I have the love and support of people who care about me. On to the next phase of this fight....

Help us in this fight against breast cancer. If you can , please help in raising funds for Krissy's Breast Cancer treatment:

Post Surgery Updates

I'm back on the blog!  Thanks to everyone who sent their prayers and thoughts our way.  It meant a lot whenever I get to read a message from all of you.  Each one of them kept me stronger everyday.

Thanks to my better half Jim, for keeping the blog going for awhile. Despite his very busy days, he found time and stayed up till 5am to write the entries.  And still have to wake up early at 8am to attend to Jcube and me for the rest of the day.  Thanks to my sister too who's been on top of everything I need help with, from waking up to going to bed, she was like an extension of me.  Seems like she never rests.

Its been 10 days since I got out of the hospital.  Nothing is better than being home with family.  The love is overflowing and I know they are there every minute to support me. I cant thank Jim and Mhae (my sister) enough. Also baby James for the entertainment all day long. Although I have a lot of rough days physically and emotionally, they still continue to help me in every way possible. 

I can barely remember anything while I was in the hospital.  My memory seems to be from the few seconds I was in the operating table while the anesthesiologist was counting down to make me sleep then it jumped to about 5 days after the surgery.  I was told that because of the long 12 hour surgery, the anesthesia was significant and the strong pain medications given, a lot of things were blurry.  I remember though I was having rough times while I was on morphine drip.  I was having hallucinations, nightmares and chills.  My appetite was also nonexistent while I was on I.V. pain medications.  

When i got home, I had drains in my chest to get fluids out of the surgery sites, to avoid seroma.  The body tends to fill up with fluids where tissues have been removed.  I had two drains in my abdomen too but the doctors had to remove it while I was still in the hospital, way earlier than it should be, because it was pressing on nerves which were causing a lot of pain.  The fluids had to be emptied frequently and monitored in terms of volume.  The goal was to remove the drains when the output was lower than 30cc.  I had my chest drains removed on Friday, March 25, two days after I was discharged.  It was a whole lot of relief because the tubes were between the skin and chest muscles that ran across my chest to the armpit.  Everytime I moved, it gets painful.  Even turning my head became painful on the chest.  I was so afraid of getting it removed because of the thought of having tubes sliding out of my chest, awake and sitting upright without anesthesia.  But I made it!  Thanks to Jim holding my hand the whole time.

I feel lucky to have it out in 10 days after surgery because some people have it for almost a month.  The longer you have it, the more prone to infections you are, plus the irritation to the muscles is tough.

On Tuesday, March 29, I had my first follow-up visit with my breast surgeon Dr. Helena Chang and plastic surgeon Dr. Jaco Festekjian, who are both the best doctors in their fields.  They both said my wounds are so far healing good!  I was so glad to hear it.  It will take 8 weeks though before I can return to normal daily activities. 

I was also given the reports of what was done in the surgery and the surgical pathology results:

- simple mastectomy was done on the left and it was clear of cancer

- modified radical mastectomy was done on the right and two cancerous lumps were removed, one was 5cm and one was 2cm.

- 20 lymph nodes were removed from the axilla (armpit)  and 6 were cancerous with the largest cancerous deposit measuring 2.6cm.

- The cancer cells have a histologic grade of Grade 3 (out of 3)

-  The tumor biomarker Ki-67 is 50% (anything more than 20% is high)

- The hormone receptors of the cancer cells are 90% Estrogen positive, 3% progesterone positive and HER2 negative

- the margins were clear

Given all these, the cancer stage is now Stage 3  and TNM staging T2N2aMx

The five-year survival rate is 67% and the eight-year survival rate is 40%.

These results will determine the cocktail of chemotherapy drugs and radiation that I will be receiving. I will be meeting with the Oncologist - Dr. Glaspy of UCLA on April 7 to discuss these with him. 

My surgeon also ordered to get physical therapy sessions to start four weeks after surgery and lymphedema massages for the right arm. 

From now on, I will be at risk for Lymphedema of the right arm because numerous lymph nodes were removed.  The lymph nodes filter the lymph fluid, removing bacteria, viruses, cancer cells and other substances that could cause harm to the body.  Without it, fluids can start to build up in the tissues and it causes swelling, pain, numbness or infection of the arm.  There are many things I should do to avoid this such as:  not having blood drawn, IV, vaccinations, blood pressure cuffs on the right arm for the rest of my life.   I should avoid cuts, wounds, scrapes or insect bites on this arm.  No heavy or repetitive lifting on this arm.  Avoiding sunburns or burns on this arm.  Avoiding sauna or hot baths.  Wearing gloves when doing household chores like dishes, gardening etc to avoid cuts and infections.  Wearing compression sleeve and gloves in high pressure cabins or high altitude.

I just need to be aware of how to take of care of my arm from now on. It will be a bit of adjustment in my daily activities but I know its manageable. 

I am still wearing a binder on my abdomen to hold the long incision that stretches from side-to-side, where they took the fats, skin, veins and little muscle to place on my chest for the reconstruction.  I have to stand slouching to avoid stretching the sutures. 

So far, my chest is numb and it will take a while before the nerves will rebuild itself to get normal sensation.  The nerves usually grow back about 1 inch per month.  

The pain and sensation on my right armpit, shoulder and back will go back to normal in about 18 months.  

It will be quite a road to recovery but I am glad I got one step done in the list of treatments we have lined up.  I can't wait till I am up and about to hug, play rough with James and bring him to the playground again. I can't wait till I can have date nights with my honey-bunny again.

Next up..chemotherapy.

If you can , please help in raising funds for Krissy's Breast Cancer treatment:

The Biopsy Results

After what seemed like the longest four days of my life, I got the pathology result at the breast clinic.

From Friday to Tuesday, I armed myself with all the information I could gather about breast cancer. Even though at the back of my mind, i still cannot embrace it, I did not want to be caught off guard again and not be able to ask questions IF EVER the result came back positive of cancer.

I remember when I went in for the ultrasound, I was quite confident it would just be plugged milk ducts so I didn't prepare myself with questions to ask. This time around, I had questions written down like a news reporter.

As I was called by the nurse to take my vital signs, I wasn't aware that I was nervous until she told me that my heart rate was very fast, 119 per minute.

Jim was at home to take care of baby James so we agreed I will call him on speakerphone so he can hear everything the doctor has to say and ask questions too. I was very composed, I say. I psyched myself up that I cannot cry or breakdown because I need all the details I can get.

Melissa, the breast cancer nurse practitioner came in and started examining me again. She sat down and gave me the news: I have breast cancer, approximate stage 2B invasive ductal carcinoma with focal necrosis.

Okay. I was still calm. I started asking questions while jotting down the details.

1. How big is it: one was about 4cm in the 11 o'clock position. The other one was 1.5cm near the areola.

2. Is there lymph node involvement: yes. Based on the ultrasound and clinical exam, there is palpable gross lymph node involved. They will know more when they do lymph node dissection operation.

When lymph nodes are involved, it means cancer cells have spread outside of the breast and have possibly spread to other parts of the body.

3. What stage is it: stage 2B with the possibility to go higher depending on the results of the next series of tests.

Based on breastcancer.org, There are 5 stages of breast cancer:
Stage 0: used to describe non-invasive breast cancers such as ductal carcinoma in situ (in place) and Lobular Carcinoma in situ. In stage 0, there is no evidence of cancer cells or non-cancerous abnormal cells breaking out of the part of the breast in which they started, or of getting through to or invading neighboring normal cells.

Stage 1: describes invasive breast cancer with tumor measuring up to 2cm AND no lymph nodes involved.

Stage 2:
2A: no tumor in breast but cancer cells are in axillary lymph nodes OR tumor up to 2cm and has spread to lymph nodes OR tumor 2 to 5 cm and has not spread to lymph nodes.

2B: tumor is larger than 2cm up to 5 cm and has spread to lymph nodes OR
tumor is larger than 5cm but has not spread to lymph nodes

Stage 3:
3A: no tumor is found in the breast but cancer is found in axillary lymph nodes clumped together or sticking to other structures, or spread to lymph nodes near breastbone OR

Tumor is 5cm or smaller, spread to lymph nodes clumped together or sticking to other structures OR

tumor is larger than 5cm , spread to lymph nodes clumped together or sticking to other structures.

3B: tumor may be any size , spread to the chest wall and/or skin of the breast AND
may have spread to axillary lymph nodes clumped together or sticking to other structures. Cancer may have spread to lymph nodes near breastbone.

Inflammatory breast cancer is stage 3B

3C : No sign of cancer in breast or if there is a tumor of any size, it may have spread to the chest wall and/or skin of the breast AND
cancer has spread above or below the collarbone AND
cancer may have spread to axillary lymph nodes or to lymph nodes near the breastbone.

Stage 4:
Invasive breast cancer that has spread to other organs usually lungs, liver, bone or brain.

4. What do we do next: I need to get blood tests to check for tumor markers which will detect cancer activity in the body. Circulating tumor cells are cells that break off from the cancer and move into the blood stream.

Chest X-ray to check cancer in lungs.

Bone scan to check cancer invasion in bones.

MUGA (Multi gated acquisition scan) scan to test the condition of the heart, to withstand chemotherapy. One of the drugs used in chemotherapy, Adriamycin , can be toxic to the heart and can lead to heart failure.

Other tests to follow are estrogen-receptor, progesterone-receptor and HER2 tests to define the breast cancer further. These tests are crucial in treatment because being positive to these receptor means the cancer can be treated by not "feeding" it with these hormones.

I am also a candidate for the expensive genetic testing to find out if I have the BRCA 1 or 2 gene mutation (Breast Cancer Susceptibility gene) known as tumor suppressors.
Deleterious or harmful mutation of these genes greatly increases a woman's lifetime risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer.
This discovery, in case, will affect my treatment and will enable other family members to get tested too.

5. What do you do next for treatment:
I would need to be in neoadjuvant chemotherapy as soon as possible. We are looking at within 2-3 weeks.

Mastectomy. The whole breast needs to be taken out because the size of the lumps and the locations do not make me qualified for a lumpectomy anymore. Removal of both masses leaves the breast basically gone.

Radiation therapy. After mastectomy, I will be treated with radiation on the site of surgery. This will destroy cancer cells in te breast that may stick around after surgery. It decreases the risk of recurrence.

Hormone therapy. If the cancer cells is shown to be positive to estrogen, progesterone or HER2, I will be given hormones for at least 5 years.

She said they are pulling the big guns on my treatments because I'm young. I thought being young with breast cancer has an advantage. But it was otherwise. According to youngsurvival.org, compared to older women, young women generally face more aggressive cancers and lower survival rates. More and more evidence shows that breast cancer before age 40 differs biologically from the cancer faced by older women. A lot of startling facts can be found in this site that helped me learn more.

Despite the prevailing belief that young women cannot have breast cancer, we can and I did. I am even breastfeeding at the time of diagnosis. Even though breastfeeding has been known to decrease breast cancer occurrence.

Ok. These were a lot of information to digest. I was still composed and hoping Jim was still listening over the phone. We can hear James playing in the background so it was a good breather for me.

Finally she told me I can get dressed and wait for her to schedule these tests asap.

As I was getting dressed, it started dawning on me, I'm in for a big fight. A very big and long one.

It was comforting to know that I have a life long partner to go through this challenge with. I also have a son to push me to fight for my life. They are my source of strength.

But then I still cried. I cried hard than I can ever imagine. I cried to Jim over the phone for a good ten minutes or so. I was crying because I was sad he has to go through this too. I know it will be tough for the caregiver as much as the patient. Emotionally, physically psychologically. I was sad for baby James, although he still doesn't understand it, he may see me sad or weak at times. I'm his primary playmate and I love that. I'm sad that I might not be anymore at times.

But I had to console myself, bring my self together to drive home. The journey will start.

If you can , please help in raising funds for Krissy's Breast Cancer treatment: