One the first appt he told me that I wouldn't be loosing my hair but it appears with this cocktail of drugs yes I will be. So as much as my hair has been the bain of my of my life it still makes me and Ive worked hard to grow my fringe/bangs out and get my hair all one length and now I'm told it will be gone within a week of the chemo so this is a little sicking but if it saves me I don't care as long as I live till I'm 100 take the hair.
So my Chemo starts on the 8th November 2010 but first I need to have a Muga Scan:
The MUGA scan (MUltiple Gated Acquisition scan) is a noninvasive test that produces a moving image of the heart. From this image, the health of the heart’s major pumping chamber (the left ventricle) can be assessed.
A MUGA scan is performed by attaching a radioactive substance, Technetium 99, to red blood cells, then injecting the red blood cells into the patient’s bloodstream. (The level of radiation to which a patient is exposed during this test is considered minimal.) The patient is then placed under a special camera (a gamma camera), and with some fancy computer manipulation, a “movie” of the beating heart is made. From this moving image, the MUGA scan gives an accurate and reproducible way to measure the ejection fraction of the left ventricle.
The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is an excellent measure of overall cardiac function. The ejection fraction is simply the proportion of blood that is expelled from the ventricle with each heart beat. So, for instance, if the left ventricl ejects 60% of its blood volume with each beat, the LVEF is 0.6. (A normal LVEF is 0.5 or greater.)
While there are other ways to measure the LVEF (such as the echocardiogram), the MUGA scan measures it more accurately than any other method. In situations where it is important to detect minor changes in a patient’s LVEF – such as in following patients receiving Adriamycin – most experts believe the MUGA scan is the best test available.
This I will be having Monday 1st and then Chemo starts following Monday 8th 2010
The drugs I will be taking will be Herceptin along with Docetaxel (Taxotere) and Carboplatin (Paraplatin)
These will be inserted through the Medi-port and will take 3 hours at a time.
Once the doctor had finished with us we were taken to seen the Nurse and was given leaflets and a lovely booklet full of old lady wigs and hats not really my style. Not sure they would be anyones in this 21st Century. She also tried to give me a book on how to apply make up....Ive not worn make up for years and at the end of the day why would I dress up a bald head that looks like a Boiled Egg, only at Easter should this be done.
As I was sitting there and looking around the room there couldn't have been anyone under the age of 70 I was the youngest thats for sure.
At the moment we are at All Children's Hospital waiting for my son to come out of surgery so until he is all ok I'm not thinking of me my son comes first.
Ill post some more over the weekend once Ive done some reading.
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