Thursday, October 12, 2006

Now that the Breast Cnacer is treated it's time to prevent Ovarian Cancer

So Pace had a meeting today with Dr. Rami, her oncologist and he had a couple of things to discuss. On one hand, he thinks that she is recovering well but he is concerned about her reproductive system restarting again and releasing more estrogen into her system.

The Breast Cancer Pace had feeds on estrogen. Add to that to her 40% higher probability of Ovarian Cancer than the rest of the population and it’s apparent that we are not out of the woods yet. (Sigh!) So he wants her ovaries out and until that happens her menstrual cycle can not be allowed to start again. It's good to know the medical establishment wants Pace to live a long life with the wee one and I but there are times when it feels like they just love her as a case study.

Chemo-therapy has a side effect that I call “Chemo-pause.” It's real name is Chemical Menopause and it has all of the vestiges of the real deaal; hot flashes, phantom pain, night sweats and loss of libido. It’s a demonstration to the power of the chemotherapy drugs. The last course of those drugs stopped in July and she’s yet to have her menses.

To chemically induce menopause the normal prescription is for Tamoxifen. But dear reader as most people have observed, Pace is often the exception to the rule. Dr. Rami had to take her case to the tumor board because there is an increased chance of TIAs with Tamoxifen. The board has ruled against using tamoxifen and suggested that we use Zoladex.

Once she is well enough than Pace goes under the knife again to have an Ovasectomy. Dr. Rami said that due to the cost of Zoladex that we’ll probably do it sooner than later.

I feel the hands of the drug company are about to pick my pocket again.

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