The call came this morning. I had been randomized. Into the third arm of the clinical trial. Good news, because the third arm uses both the proven drug (Herceptin) and the trial drug, lapatanib --Tykerb) in conjunction with Taxol (which is the chemo drug). I'll have 12 weeks of Taxol and Herceptin. Both of these drugs are administered through my port -- another good thing. The fewer injections the better. After the twelve week cycle, there will be a six week "wash out" period with no drugs. After those six weeks, I'll start the daily lapatanib pill and will take that for the remainder of a year. Radiation treatment will be after the 12 weeks of chemo. If all goes "well", I should be done with chemo and radiation by early July. Oh, that seems so very far away.
I was surprised to learn that the nurse from Legacy Oncology Research will come to each of my chemo appointments. Today, she had me fill out the initial "Quality of Life" survey. Some of the questions were difficult to answer, some not so difficult, and some of the questions I refused to answer. There is still personal privacy, and I am not interested in sharing some aspects of my life with cancer with the research team, or with you, for that matter, thank you very much. Now, I realize that you may be reading this and thinking "what??? She is worried about privacy? Has she read her own notes on facebook? She already shares too much information!" Surprise! I am NOT telling you everything. Nor will I begin to. And I am not sorry about keeping some things to myself. I know you're all in a twitter with curiousity. You'll always wonder....
Interesting interaction with Dr. Segal today. He called me before my appointment to tell me about the randomization. When I answered my phone "Drenda Howatt", he said, "Hi, Drenda, this is Jerry". Ok. So we're on a first-name basis now. No more Mrs. Howatt or Dr. Segal. I knew we'd get to be great friends.
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