Day 3

This morning we all left the house at the same time again.  The kids walked to the bus stop and we took Chewie for a walk.

Today, I had a consultation with a plastic surgeon.  My implants are now more than 9 years old and I remember the doctors telling me they last around 10 years.  Morry came with me and we talked to the doctor about my options.   Within 1-3 years I need to have these implants removed.

The boys were a little later coming home.  It was a different bus again for some reason.

Morry and Evan went to baseball practice.  They came home a little after 8pm and we had dinner.  They had pasta and I had fish.

Then, Evan and I worked on Hebrew.

Now Evan is finishing his homework.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well, I’m starting to see a light at the end of this tunnel.

I was in Dallas earlier in the week for doctor’s appointments. I had my last expansion at the plastic surgeon’s office. Now, we can schedule the implant surgery for May. The breast surgeon removed my PowerPort (where my chemo was injected). When I had the port put in, I saw a surgeon here in Austin who gave me general anesthesia. To get it removed, the breast surgeon only numbed the area and I was awake the whole time. The procedure took about 45 minutes. She put in dissolvable stitches. I was ok at first, but later in the day I was really hurting and had a rough night. I’m feeling a lot better now. I still hurt where the port was removed, but it’s getting better.

I’m really starting to feel better and get back to normal. Like I said before, I started tutoring again. I see 4 students during the week now. I wanted to start back slowly. We are trying out a few gyms. We got a 2 week trial at 24Hour fitness and I did a few group classes (Yoga, Latin Dance aerobics, aqua class). The gym has a childcare. At first, Noah wasn’t too happy about us dropping him off, but Evan was fine. After a few times, both boys were having a great time there. We are going to try Lifetime Fitness next and compare the two gyms. I really want to get back in to exercising and I think it will be easier going somewhere with a childcare rather than trying to push both boys in the stroller. I tried running for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I had Evan (40 lbs) and Noah (30 lbs) in the double stroller and was only able to run about 10 minutes.

My hair is starting to grow back. It’s somewhat patchy right now, but it is filling in. The color seems to be a light brown. It’s too early to tell whether it will be straight or curly. Attached are some pictures of my hair growth after chemo. It’s been about 2 months since my last chemotherapy.

Next weekend Evan and Morry go to baseball Spring Training in Florida. Noah and I will stay at home. My parents plan on coming to Austin that weekend to help me out. Noah has really been a handful lately. He demands a lot of attention and it’s hard to get anything done.

The weekend after that I go to Chicago.

We have been looking forward to these trips for a while and it’s hard to believe they are almost here.

Well, just wanted to send out another update. Things are good for the most part. I do have some bad days, but overall, things are going well and I feel we are all starting to get back to how we were before all of this. There are times where I get frustrated because I just don’t have the energy to do everything I was doing before. That’s my main complaint now. Physically I feel decent, but I get worn out very easily. I can tell it’s getting better though.

Hope you all are doing well. Have a great weekend.

Bye Bye Port

Last night Evan didn't go to sleep until midnight. The boys were up early again this morning. I was really exhausted.

For lunch, I picked up McDonalds for the boys.

Tricia, my parents' neighbor, came over at 11:30 to watch the boys.

At 12:30 I had an appointment with the plastic surgeon. I had my last expansion and he said it was ok to schedule the implant surgery in May.

At 1:30, I met with the breast surgeon and she removed my port. It was about a 45 minute surgery. I was not put to sleep. She just gave me lots of numbing medicine around the area.

It feels good to have my port out, but I'm really hurting right now, now that the medicine wore off.

For dinner we ate at Rockfish.

Noah is asleep right now, but Evan is here with me and won't go to sleep.

Update – Dallas Doctors

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Last week, I had my endoscopy. My mom came to Austin to help out and take care of the boys during my procedure. Everything looked good. The biopsies were benign.

My mom, Evan, Noah, and I drove to Dallas on Tuesday. Morry stayed in Austin to work, but drove to Dallas tonight. Then, we (The Belkin family) will drive back to Austin on Sunday.

Wednesday I had an appointment with the plastic surgeon. He was pleased with my progress. I got another expansion. It wasn’t too bad. I’m just a tiny bit sore.

Thursday was a big day for many reasons. It had been 3 weeks since my last chemo treatment. My treatments were every 3 weeks, so it would have been another chemo day if I hadn’t had completed my treatments. It feels great to be finally done and be able to actually recover from chemo without getting hit again when I just started feeling better.

Thursday, I had three more appointments with the breast surgeon, oncologist, and gynecological oncologist. We brought Evan and Noah to Grandma/Bubbe’s house. Sherah (my cousin) watched the boys including her 2 boys, Nolan and Court. We were gone from 9:30 am until about 4:15 – a very long day for all of us.

The breast surgeon said everything looked good and I see her again in 6 months. The oncologist confirmed I’m definitely done with chemo. She said I can now have my port removed. The breast surgeon will be able to remove it during an office visit. I just need to figure out when I will be in Dallas next and schedule it to be removed. Since I’m triple negative (the cancer is not affected by hormones) there are no further drugs I need to take. I will have follow ups every 3 months now. The gynecological oncologist discussed the ovarian cancer risk with me again. She believes I don’t necessarily need to do the hysterectomy or oophorectomy (ovary removal) next month as originally planned, but I should definitely have my ovaries removed by the time I’m 35. She ordered base line tests (blood and ovary scan), which my dad took me to today. Basically, as soon as I feel I’m ready, we should remove my ovaries. The risk of getting ovarian cancer by the age of 40 is only 2.2% (from BRCA1 mutation), but it goes up significantly after that. Until then, I will meet with her and get the blood test and ovaries scan every six months. Right now, I want to focus on feeling better and getting back to normal. Then, I’ll start thinking about when to have another surgery. Anyway, I walked out of the appointments feeling pretty optimistic about everything. I have been so pleased with all of my doctors and the whole UT Southwestern system. The doctors are very professional and knowledgeable. They also have great bed side manner. All of them have taken the time to sit and talk with us as long as we needed. I have never felt rushed. I hope you never need these services, but if you or anyone you know does I highly recommend UT Southwestern Medical Center and my doctors; Dr. Teotia (Plastic Surgeon), Dr. Leitch (Breast Surgeon), Dr. Harker-Murray (Oncologist), and Dr. Kehoe (Gyn. Oncologist).

I must have picked up a stomach virus or something. For about a week now I haven’t been feeling so great. The doctors weren’t concerned about it.

And in the meantime, Noah came down with a fever last night. That was after playing with Evan and Nolan and Court all day. We took him to the doctor today, who said his throat is very red. The preliminary test doesn’t show strep, but we’re waiting for the five-day results. He’s now on antibiotics, and is generally asking for even more attention than he normally does. Now that Morry is here we’ll have two more much-needed hands to help out around here. Evan and Noah were very excited to see Morry tonight. As soon as they heard Lizzy (the dog) run in the house they ran over to see Morry.

Overall, besides the stomach bug, I’m feeling pretty good now. I still have a few more procedures to think about in the near future. The next will be one or two more expansions and then the implant surgery. We are thinking that surgery will likely be in April or May. I won’t know until the last expansion.

We have a lot of fun times to look forward to. Morry and Evan will be meeting Jack (Morry’s Dad) in Florida for baseball Spring Training in March. I’m hoping to make a trip to Chicago in March as well for a cousin’s wedding. Evan and Noah’s birthdays are coming up soon and we’ll have a joint party for them the end of March.

I’m looking forward to moving on and getting all of this behind me. I have starting tutoring again. I really enjoy tutoring – not just for the extra money, but it gets me out of the house and doing something that helps others. I enjoyed seeing all of the kids again.

Well, I just wanted to update you all on what has been going on. I know some of the frequent readers of the blog were concerned when they saw I hadn’t updated in a while.

I hope you all are doing well.

Love, Rachel

Sleep…. Finally

We had a nice Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a great one as well.

I’m still in Dallas. Morry, the boys, and Lizzy went back to Austin yesterday. I’ll be flying home Wednesday.

I’m feeling a lot better. Last weekend was rough. Saturday was the worst. I was so achy I could hardly move. Sunday we shaved my head. It was both a physically and emotionally hard weekend.

Each day this week I started feeling better and better. I was able to eat some of the Thanksgiving dinner and enjoy Morry’s famous chocolate pie (cool whip and pudding).

Wednesday I had an appointment with my plastic surgeon. I had planned on getting expansions at that visit, but since I was on antibiotics and had a low grade fever earlier in the week he didn’t want to take any chances with infection. Everything looked good and the doctor was pleased with my progress. He asked how my skin was doing. I said great except the itchy scalp. The nurse suggested I shave my head completely bald. She said a lot of patients get relief once they do that.

My mom made an appointment for me with her stylist to get my hair shaved. When I got there he said he wasn’t licensed to shave, but could use the smallest clipper setting. It helped but I still wasn’t completely itch- free.

Later that night my dad shaved my head for me with his electric razor. I’m sure he never planned on ever needing to do that. Anyway, I’m feeling a lot better now.

Since Morry and the boys went home yesterday, we had a quiet relaxing evening, though I do miss having them around. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and slept until about 10:30 this morning. I can’t tell you the last time I was able to do that. I feel so much better today. I hardly have any nausea today and was able to eat a good brunch (my dad’s famous omelets).

Morry’s dad, Jack was here for Thanksgiving. Michael and Jen are still here and leave tomorrow. It’s been great hanging out with all of them. Evan and Noah really enjoyed playing with Zayde, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen.

Well, I hope I continue to feel better. My next chemo is scheduled for 12/10.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and weekend.

I just posted a video update with most of this info and a little more on YouTube here.