Gotta dress the part...

11/5/2018

Getting ready...

I did my 3 days of chemo wed-fri last week to basically wipe out my immune system so my T-Cells will have room to show thier newly learned ninja moves. Unfortunelty, this chemo made me pretty sick...for several days....so needless to say I was ready for Sunday to get here to be admitted into the hospital. When doing Car-T (here atleast) they want you to be admitted the day before to make sure everything is ready to go the day of infusion the following Monday and no hold ups. So I got admitted, my port connected and then a CT scan done Monday morning for the before comparison.

Only time will tell...

I mentioned the other day that this last chemo would be my last ever, then was asked what if the Car-T doesnt work etc. Yes, this is a huge possibility (more probable than it working actually), however not only have I already done all that there is to do, but even if another chemo was offered to me, I would opt out. Going thru chemo the rest of your life is no life at all, you have to be ok with nothing working and coming to terms with dying and not being in pain anymore.

Yes, there are countless side effects to car-t. I could be lucky (ha) and just get the bare minimum, or I could get everything possible. Here are some things others have experieneced that may or may not happen to me:
~going into coma.....a day to a week or so
~temperature, flu like symptoms where youre sweating 24-7
~forgetting who people are, where you are etc
~forgetting how to walk/talk/write etc
~complete confusion and not knowing where you are
The "plus" to all the side effects are that none of them are lifelong and most people dont even remember any of it happeneing. However, the reason I have to stay in Dallas for a whole month is that any of the neuro issues could start at anytime and I have to be close to the hospital to be readmitted when it happens.
PS: No flowers allowed on the transplant and ICU floor!

ICU room

If you wanna be Wonder Woman....you gotta dress the part! Obviously cape included...

I'll post the Car-T infusion pics and fun later...

Also, thanks everyone for all the sweet and amazing texts, messages, prayers/good karma and comments. etc...no one could ever make it thru cancer without such awesome support and love!

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When Cancer Comes a Knockin'

Timeline

On August 2, 2017, Brianna was diagnosed with Mediastinal Large B-Cell Lymphoma. Beginning Monday, August 14, 2017, Brianna will begin chemotherapy treatments. She will be commuting to Austin for 18 weeks to receive treatments. This site is set up as a donation page to help Brianna and her family cover medical costs and living expenses, as well as a one stop shop to get updates on how chemo is going and even buy a shirt or two in support!

UPDATE:
After getting her final PET scan to confirm the aggressive chemo did it's job, we got the news that it hadn't and that the tumor was still active when it shouldn't of been. Brianna is now undergoing radiation for 5 weeks, everyday in Austin.

UPDATE March 2018:
Brianna begin having the same cancer symptoms as she did this past summer during spring break, except more painful this time. She was sent to get a CT scan which showed her cancer had returned. She then met with her oncologist who planned the next steps which include to do more chemo (a differnt regimen this time) followed by a stem cell transplant.
She thought she was done....she was done.....and now she is having to start the cancer journey all over again...including losing her hair that had just start growing back.

UPDATE
END OF MARCH - JUNE 25th
(at the moment....things have yet to even begin apparently.)
If I didn't feel like I was really dying or truly out of options to live....I do now. Remember I was basically on our plan F and everything was just getting worse instead of better. I really thought I was done these last couple weeks and being in the hospital for another little week vacay. I finally updated by blog since so many people were asking, so you can read the detailed updates.

October 2018 Update:
Insurance has finally approved all of the CAR-T procedure and I will be getting my T-Cells retrieved from my body next week. (Oct 10th if all goes as planned)

MARCH 2019
The first post CAR-T pet scan showed the main mass has shrunk in size, even though still active. Hopefully, the CAR-T will continue to work its magic over the next few months before the next scan.

To donate to Brianna's GoFundMe page, please make sure the donation is made on the GoFundMe Page found here:
https://www.gofundme.com/teambonnet

CANCER CHRONICLES