Update April 2, 2020

I want to once again express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who's donated to this. We've just crossed 2 months' rent and that is a huge weight off our shoulders. We honestly didn't expect any of this. Some of you I haven't really talked to in years and I'd love to rectify that but i'm awkward and anxious about that sort of thing in the best of times, and these are certainly not the best of times. At the moment i'm just so emotionally tapped out and drained from all this cancer business and all this Covid business, i can't even check my 60+ FB notifications. I'm not likely to check or respond to messages for a while either, and i'm sorry. I'll post an update below.

Amanda did not start chemo yesterday as we had initially expected. I guess we were misinformed? But also the orders haven't cleared yet? We're being told it will be by the end of next week at the latest. She's signed up for a clinical trial, testing an immune booster that's common with treatment of other cancers to see if it's effective with breast cancer. We were worried that would hold up the start of chemo, since the onboarding process for that was expected to take 3 weeks, but fortunately (we think) she finished all the pre-chemo testing necessary for that yesterday, weeks ahead of schedule, while as i mentioned the actual chemo start is going to be later. So hopefully that's working out, and hopefully she gets the treatment rather than the placebo. To clarify: she will still be receiving the usual chemo treatment, it's just this extra thing that may potentially be a placebo. But, it sounds like it's very helpful for other cancers, so we're hoping it's helpful for her too.

Yesterday we had 3 doctor's appointments. I've already been on the phone today scheduling more. We were told she'd be assigned a case manager, which we hoped would be a person who would, you know, manage the case, making phone calls and scheduling appointments and treatments for us. In fact she's been assigned two case managers, one from the insurance company and one from the medical group, and so far all either has done is call her and ask more questions that she's already answered a dozen times. So i don't know how that's helpful.

 

She had her port placed yesterday, which is great, it's easy access to her veins for blood draws and injections, but she's still getting used to having a titanium tube in her chest (she told me that earlier today she unthinkingly gripped something between her forearm and chest briefly and that did. not. go. well.). She hasn't even started the chemo yet and she's already having unusual body aches and pains. Particularly where the port has been placed. She says her chest feels tight, like her skin doesn't fit, and...well, it's probably because it doesn't, they just embedded a titanium tube in it.

 

I think that's all the news for now. Like i said i likely won't be checking my notifications for a while, but please don't let that stop you from leaving encouraging messages from her either on this post or on her own page.

 

We love you all. Thank you for supporting us through this. I know these are weird and rough times for everybody. Hope everyone is staying safe.