Ready or Not, the Party Officially Starts TODAY!

8/13/2017

It's going to be one long day (and only got abut 3-4 hours of sleep), over 12 hours of fun which includes 6 or so hours of chemo. First, I'm getting my picc line put in at Seton at 8am (we have to be there 2 hours early, coming from San Marcos, so we will be getting up at 4am to head to the hospital). Right after the picc surgery, I will go straight to my oncologist to meet with my Dr and then do labs to see where my levels are to figure out what strengths my chemo drugs will be (they will adjust the levels literally daily depending on what I need). I will then start my first chemo treatment at 9am. I was told the first one always takes the longest because they slowly drip the meds in you to see how you react etc. and typically Monday's are when I get the most combination wise of drugs. So after picc surgery, my oncologist meeting, labs, and then up to 6 or so hours of chemo, it is going to be one long day!

Thanks to the many, many amazing people, my chemo bag is officially packed and ready. Here is what it looks like and it's contents that will hopefully keep me occupied and feeling ok for hours on end!

Current contents of my chemo bag...I obviously have no idea what I need or will want until I have done a full week. I may be starving, bored, cold....or I may be nauseous, not hungry, and hot! It will literally just depend what drugs I'm getting that day and how long my treatment lasts. For now though, here's what I'm starting with:
~softest blanket ever
~magazines and a book
~Chromebook : )
~coloring and game books with markers
~nausea drops
~planner
~comfy socks
~neck pillow
~snacks
~lemon drops
~yeti
~scarf
~phone charger
~eye cover and earplugs if I actually think I may get to sleep
~headphones
~chapstick
~pig...guess I should think of a name tomorrow : )
~not pictured- small cooler filled with drinks since you are supposed to try to drink as much as possible during chemo treatments

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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