I figured it would be good to share my moms perspective in all of this.
"This is not all right. That’s what I have to say about my daughter having breast cancer. It’s just not okay. Yes, I am certain that she will fight it and have a long healthy life with a family and a great career she loves with all the adventure that comes with it but having cancer is never okay.
Getting to the point where Carina started chemo was absolutely indescribable. There was so much fear, emotion, disbelief that we held each other through that the day of chemo was just the apex of the huge mountain we had already climbed in a few short months. Days have all blended together for us. Her first of eight chemo days I couldn’t make my mind realize that I was on my way to Santa Monica again to voluntarily deliver my beautiful baby to have a needle stuck in a port surgically implanted in her chest and let red and white poison drip directly into her vena cava that shoots into her heart. My role in Carina’s fight has been to research the disease, drugs, chemo agents and their effects, side effects, and exactly why she needs these to survive. At least we could explain how and why she went to near death and back over the next four days.
Carina was ready to bolt out the door just before we started after a weekend of pain and fever post egg retrieval. Doctor Fischer assured us and took us back to the poison room. Carina’s oncology nurse gave her a shot of Ativan that sent her to the moon. We got her chemo hats on her and off we went. A series of shots and IV’s went into her for a few hours with several changes of ice hats, a long list of medicines she had to take for the next three days, and so much insurance garbage to sort through. I couldn’t believe we were heading home and it was in her. Immediately the Adriamycin and Cytoxin attacked her intestinal system. Nausea ensued like you wouldn’t believe. A few hours of fighting it led into two days. Once she calmed down enough to sleep the chemo took over her little body. She was this waif of a woman lying on her side in her bed and could look up with only enough energy to say “Hi mama” and back to sleep. Not knowing that one day had turned into the next or whether it was day or night, she just existed. On the third day the nausea subsided a little but the abdominal pain, head ache, and emotional roller coaster started that were all menopause symptoms from the Lupron. The chemo affected her bones, mouth, eyes, head, and skin. She was truly taken to hell and back and I couldn’t stop it. Feed her and comfort her was all I could do. On day 3 her roommate text me to say she wasn’t doing very well. I was already on my way there. That night she rested her head on my stomach while I tickled her hair for hours. Her resting heart rate was close to 100 because her little body was fighting to clear the poison out and start recovering the cells chemo had killed. She woke up and asked what time it was and her only concern was that I needed to sleep. That’s my girl.
The next morning I knew she was going to make it and that the poison wasn’t going to kill her because she called me in a rage over something that, in retrospect, wasn’t worth the energy. I smiled on the other end knowing that the next two weeks were going to be good.
Thursday is the next “treatment” or what ever we call it. Like everything in this process that is just not okay, it’s easier to take when we know what to expect. We have heard countless stories of chemo infusions and how the first one is the worst, or the second one is the worst, but we live this as if Carina is the only person dealing with it because it is her fight and hers alone. Over the past two months I have researched every aspect of this disease and it’s treatments. It’s been like a required course for a degree that everyone dreads but we have no choice. I’m shooting for the best outcome for Carina with the last treatment somewhere in July."
-Lari Bright
3/13/12