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​CANCER CHRONICLES

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Today is brought to you by the letter....P!

8/10/2017

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Today is officially PORT day! I get my port put in at 10:30am, however since it's a surgical procedure and I'll be going under again I have to get there an hour and a half early....yippie. This will be my 5th time going under since February...surely I should get some sort of award for that?! The procedure should take around 45 minutes and then I'll be in the recovery room "coming to" for about an hour or more so they can monitor me etc. Depending on how I feel we will then go get my last pedicure for my P day later in the afternoon!

Yesterday, I also had my full body scan to check for any other masses that may have spread. I should get those results today or Monday even though they don't really matter because one huge mass or 10 I'll still be getting the same aggressive chemo for this particular cancer. They also put me back on steroids earlier than planned because my health was going backwards again and I was looking and feeling pretty rough. One of the many symptoms for my cancer is a swollen face and neck....I currently look and feel like Quasimodo...it's quite lovely and oh so comfortable! So hopefully these 10 steroid pills a day will make me feel a little bit better!

I also had my info session with my PA yesterday going over...well pretty much everything. I will sum up what I learned in one sentence: I WILL BASICALLY BE LOOKING AND FEELING LIKE DEATH FOR THE NEXT 5 MONTHS. Should be quite fun! I guess I should get over my "I'm only posting pictures I look good in" motto because that is apparently going straight out the window. 
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At least the nice CT scan guy color coordinated me this time : p
Fingers crossed today will be my last IV when getting my port in today!

Port Update

So things didn't go quite as planned today. Got all ready for my port surgery, they hooked me up to iv's, put me under, and bought me back to the surgery room. My oxygen levels were extremely low even with the oxygen mask on high so the dr called it because it was too high risk at that point. Even though this sets my port back, it was the right call....I surely didn't envision myself dying on the medical table getting my port in before I even started chemo! So now the plan is to get a picc line put in early Monday morning at Seton right before I start my chemo at 8. So between getting that in at the hospital, several appointments with the dr and labs, on top of starting chemo which lasts 4-6 hours the first day it's going to be quite the long Monday! As for the picc line, after doing a week or so of chemo they will then be able to put my port in since HOPEFULLY the chemo will start to shrink the mass and my oxygen levels will get better since I'll be able to breath a little more. So even though not what I had planned, I will still be on track schedule wise to start Monday. On the plus side, I got to get my last pedicure today....so at least one of of my P's for P day worked out! (On a funny note, I also make fun of Diana's "gothic"/dark polish she always gets...I've read that the darker the polish during chemo the better....so I'm turning into Diana for the next several months apparently...I know she'll love that lol) 
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    "You either get bitter or you get better. It's that simple. You either take what's been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you."
    ​~Josh Shipp

             

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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
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