March 20

To the Wild Women who created my hairless chemo hat, please note me wearing it to Monday's chemoblast with the lovely Carmen!

March 19 Chemo #2

Apart from half an hour looking for a good vein, my second blast of toxic chemicals went well. I look forward to getting a port installed which will mean they can mainline straight into an artery under my collarbone for the next year. The anti-nausea drip beforehand and pills taken for 3 days afterwards have that problem well under control. The 45-year-old getting her Hercedtin shot beside me looked the picture of health, she has finished chemo and now having no problems with immunotherapy, so I plan to follow her lead.

March 18

A visit to Willow Park Hair and I am now brunette again. With a nip and tuck here and snipping away, the wig looks and feels like my own hair. Even Tikal approves.

Bye Bye Hair

My hair starts to fall out so I do a Britney without the rehab – buzzed it off. Looks not half bad. I have a loaner wig from the Cancer Society, and a short dark one which makes me look as I did 20 years ago – yippee!

March 15 – Hello Perfect Boob

Almost fully healed I get fitted for a new right boob which perks up nicely just like it was 30 years younger, putting the other one to shame. At $500 a pop, it should be good. It’s climate controlled with a removable pad next to the skin made of the same material as space suits which stays cool or hot according to my body. You can even put it in the fridge in summer...

Feb 28 – Chemotherapy Begins!

I started chemotherapy (FEC program) Feb 28 and have had no downtime, no problems, and no side effects. What a change from the treatment in the past! I have made contact with several women taking or having taken this treatment and all are faring very well. My support group is huge and strong and giving me the information I need to beat this beast!

Jan 24 - Drains out

The drains and grenades I’ve had for two and a half weeks come out! Unfortunately, a slight infection in one needs antibiotics and after that I develop a nasty throat yeast infection, thrush, which aids my weight loss program but stops me eating for about a week. Nystatin clears it up and I stay it on for a month.

Jan 2 – Not a Happy New Year

My year got off to a bum start when I was diagnosed out of the blue with breast cancer Jan 2. On Jan 8, six days later, I had a mastectomy of my right breast and 12 lymph nodes removed, and was home from hospital in two days. As I had a ski trip organized in those 6 days, I went to Lake Louise with 15 others from my ski club (Ted wasn’t scheduled to come) and skied for three days. This got my body in shape for the big chop and I have bounced back really well from the surgery. My right arm has almost full range of motion and I am having physiotherapy once a week to get it back to normal.
I am also having lymph therapy as my right arm is marginally swollen, hopefully just from surgery, and I wear a pressure sleeve for a while each day to help that along. Hopefully this will resolve on its own with regular exercise.

My Care Team
I have had the most amazing care from my doctors and health professionals and we have one of the most advance breast cancer centres in the world here in Calgary. My oncology doc is a Scotsman, Dr. Sandy Paterson, trained in Edinburgh and Barts in London, who is a world expert on the treatment I am receiving. I feel very fortunate to have hit this hurdle at this point in my life, when we are retired and can spend the time to recover.

New Immunotherapy
I have a fairly unusual form of cancer (20-30% of women) which is HER2 receptive which means I will have immunotherapy to eradicate the cancer and give me another 30 years to live! The immunotherapy drug will be a shot every 3 weeks for a year, with little downtime or side effects expected. A slight risk is heart failure but I aced my cardiac test and they will test every 3 months to monitor me. The cost of this drug is $54,000 so we are fortunate to live in a country and province where it is part of our health system.

Where did it come from?
Like many women, my breast cancer developed without any signs – no lumps and only tracked once it had hit lymph nodes and was more like a muscle swelling than a lump. Regular mammograms since age 40 did not track it, including one in June 2006. In a family with two sisters, 3 aunts one side, 4 the other and 26 first cousins, we know of no breast cancer in the family at all. The diagnosis was made only after ultrasound found messy growths all over the breast, and core biopsies found the rather aggressive cancer itself, already metastasized into the lymph nodes. Fortunately, these tests - started Dec 14 and culminating in surgery Jan 8 - were done very fast before any further spread. I have to credit my GP Paty Waymouth and my surgeon she referred me to for fast work – Dr.Robert Lui.

IttyBittySheila

Welcome to Sheila Foster's IttyBittySheila Blog

Named New Year's Day by great pal Michal Patterson who sent an email to her pal - "for the bright wee bitty who soon will lose a titty." Her forecast was correct, because on Jan 8 I had a right mastectomy and removal of 12 lymph nodes. This blog will record my journey back to perfect health!

Mar 17, 2007
History and Update

Jan 2 – Not a Happy New Year

My year got off to a bum start when I was diagnosed out of the blue with breast cancer Jan 2. On Jan 8, six days later, I had a mastectomy of my right breast and 12 lymph nodes removed, and was home from hospital in two days. As I had a ski trip organized in those 6 days, I went to Lake Louise with 15 others from my ski club (Ted wasn’t scheduled to come) and skied for three days. This got my body in shape for the big chop and I have bounced back really well from the surgery. My right arm has almost full range of motion and I am having physiotherapy once a week to get it back to normal.

I am also having lymph therapy as my right arm is marginally swollen, hopefully just from surgery, and I wear a pressure sleeve for a while each day to help that along. Hopefully this will resolve on its own with regular exercise.

My Care Team

I have had the most amazing care from my doctors and health professionals and we have one of the most advance breast cancer centres in the world here in Calgary. My oncology doc is a Scotsman, Dr. Sandy Paterson, trained in Edinburgh and Barts in London, who is a world expert on the treatment I am receiving. I feel very fortunate to have hit this hurdle at this point in my life, when we are retired and can spend the time to recover.

New Immunotherapy

I have a fairly unusual form of cancer (20-30% of women) which is HER2 receptive which means I will have immunotherapy to eradicate the cancer and give me another 30 years to live! The immunotherapy drug will be a shot every 3 weeks for a year, with little downtime or side effects expected. A slight risk is heart failure but I aced my cardiac test and they will test every 3 months to monitor me. The cost of this drug is $54,000 so we are fortunate to live in a country and province where it is part of our health system.

Where did it come from?

Like many women, my breast cancer developed without any signs – no lumps and only tracked once it had hit lymph nodes and was more like a muscle swelling than a lump. Regular mammograms since age 40 did not track it, including one in June 2006. In a family with two sisters, 3 aunts one side, 4 the other and 26 first cousins, we know of no breast cancer in the family at all. The diagnosis was made only after ultrasound found messy growths all over the breast, and core biopsies found the rather aggressive cancer itself, already metastasized into the lymph nodes. Fortunately, these tests - started Dec 14 and culminating in surgery Jan 8 - were done very fast before any further spread. I have to credit my GP Pat Waymouth and the surgeon Dr. Robert Lui she referred me to for fast work.

Feb 28 – Chemotherapy Begins!

I started chemotherapy (FEC program) Feb 28 and have had no downtime, no problems, and no side effects. What a change from the treatment in the past! I have made contact with several women taking or having taken this treatment and all are faring very well. My support group is huge and strong and giving me the information I need to beat this beast!