Walking With Brenda

Yesterday, Brenda and I met with the oncologist for the third time. He’s a really nice guy and he works out of Burnaby General Hospital. We now have a little more information about the proposed treatment plan.

• The chemotherapy protocol is called “BRLATWAC” — named for BReast, Locally Advanced, Paclitaxel (TAXOL) Weekly followed by Doxorubicin (ADRIAMYCIN) and Cyclophosphamide.  BRLATWAC. Get it? Apparently that’s exactly what Brenda has. You can download more info here: http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/chemotherapy-protocols-site/Documents/Breast/BRLATWAC_Handout.pdf
• A lumpectomy.
• Radiation (maybe — the oncologist will make a recommendation after the lumpectomy).
• Hormone-blocking therapy.

Brenda is expected to be off work for between about 7 and 12 months. We’re not exactly sure when all this would begin, but it’s possible chemotherapy would begin the first couple of weeks of April.

As newbies, we’re not sure which will be hardest, but everyone knows chemotherapy can be pretty harsh. Like any medication, it’s impossible to say how it will be tolerated in advance. Some people do very well with it, some people don’t. Whatever the case, we deeply value the closeness of friends, so we expect to lean very hard on ya’ll during this difficult and challenging period.