Yes it's a wig!

It felt good to have my head shaved today.  My hair actually hurt.  I was tired of shedding.  When I warned the boys about my hair last night, Brock said, "its ok mom you will still have the same smile."  That warmed my heart.

What everyone wants to know.........

How did you find out you had breast cancer?  My doctor found a small bb size lump at my yearly exam.  She said to watch it.  This was my first year for a mamogram and it came back fine in December.  A few months later due to dry itchy winter skin I accidently found my lump it was now the size of a small marble.  I'm forty it must be the hormones everyone talks about.  Not really sure if what I was feeling was really a lump I finally made an appointment.  I felt like a hypochondriac going to that appointment because I wasn't sick and avoided all the colds and flu everyone caught last winter.  I just had a lump I thought about waiting until my next yearly exam to have it checked.  May 9,2012 after the exam for my lump I was sent to have mammograms and an untrasound.  That lead to a biopsy of my breast and lymph nodes.  The next day I received the results.  Invasive Ductal Carcinoma with positive lymph nodes.  Later I found out my cancer is also tripple negative.  That means they don't know what feeds it.  There are many different kinds of breast cancer.  Some are fueled by estrogen, progesterone or HER2.  Tripple negative is aggressive and more likely to recur.

Chemo Treatment #1

This is Jen's friend Katie telling Chemo #1 from my perspective!  Jennifer and Pat were met at the Cancer Center by her friend Amy, Heather and me.  She was quickly ushered upstairs and had her labs drawn to make sure all her "levels" were where they needed to be before proceeding with her first treatment.  She said that it didn't hurt at all when they assessed her port, even though they had told her that it wouldn't!  She was pretty excited about that!  It took about an hour to get labs back, and they all looked good.  In the meantime, Jennifer talked with the nurse practitioner and signed her consent forms and asked any questions she could think of.  Chemo started at about 11, and Jennifer took it like a champ!  About half way through (maybe more), she started having an odd sensation about her nose.  She compared it to the feeling you have when you laugh really hard, and water or pop come out your nose.  It eventually got so bad that she kind of freaked out.  We got the nurse over.  Apparently this is a very common side effect to one of the drugs.  They stopped that drug for about 30 minutes while the strange effects wore off.  They started it again at half the rate, and about two minutes later, she was done!  PIECE.OF.CAKE!  Then, after a "short" trip to the pharmacy down the hall, we were on our way!  I (Katie) took Jennifer to Beresford so that she could reassure her co-workers and friends that she had made it through!  We also stopped to get some special mouthwash and toothpaste. 

Jennifer is now at home, and hopefully she has been able to get some rest.

I have known Jennifer for 15 years, and her attitude regarding this bump in the road has been incredible.  I feel so fortunate to be her friend, and I know that she is going to beat this stupid cancer! 

Please continue to follow Jennifer's Jacked Up Journey on this blog!  Who knows, maybe she will let me do a guest stint sometime in the future!

Amy, Jennifer, Heather, and Katie (The Fab Four!)

Our Hero!  Jennifer! 

Katie Hilfiker