We Made It!

Yay! We made it home this evening after a couple more pre-chemo tests (echocardiogram, EKG, and lab draws). Who would have known a week ago we would have been through so much. Lauren is doing great, still sore and a little fatigued, but doing AMAZINGLY well compared to what I was expecting. She is set to start her first dose of chemotherapy on Wed, may 19th (we should also have the official pathology report as well as the LOH testing back to see if she will need chemo for 25 weeks with 3 drugs vs the planned 19 weeks of therapy with 2 drugs). It now sounds like her cancer may be a stage 1-2 since the pathology is reassuring and so far they haven't seen the tumor penetrate the renal capsule (there is still a questionable area they will be looking at. . .they had to plate well over a dozen slides to study, a more involved process then I pictured).

Hopefully she will not have too many side effects of the chemo and will tolerate the therapy as well as she can. We will go weekly for the whole course outpatient, which we are glad for. She will have weekly lab draws to assess her cell count among other things and various ultrasounds and xrays too. I was also shocked by the follow up care she will need after her chemo is completed. . .she will be seen monthly for the first year, every 2 months for the 2nd year, every 3 months for the 3rd year. . .and be followed for about 8 years after her diagnosis/treatment. It is a much longer, more involved process then I had imagined, but we are definitely taking it one step at a time.

Now to have a week of normalcy at home (at least as normal as it can be) before therapy begins.