[chrisy]

Dear Leslie's sister Lisa,
You are lucky to have each other - there is nobody like a sister. Except maybe a BC sister, of which there are many here as well as OUT IN THE WORLD living life to the fullest after surviving breast cancer diagnoses. Picture Leslie in this way! There is SO MUCH HOPE - and my prayer for Leslie is that she will begin to see that.

It is completely understandable and natural to be afraid, even paralyzed with fear, especially with concern for the kids who have so recently lost their father. That alone would be a lot to bear, even without the "new" challenge of fighting breast cancer. I might even wonder how a loving God could allow these things to happen, and I think He would be ok with that.

Although Leslie's husband lost his battle with cancer, that does not mean the same will happen with Leslie. She does not have evidence of metastatic disease and that is GOOD news! There is every reason to believe that Leslie can defeat this cancer. Getting chemo is not fun, but it is doable and with treatment, there is a very good chance of beating it back for good.

Re question #2 - does chemo get worse? I also had TCH and I was told that your first treatment is indicative of how you will respond to remaining cycles. This was true for me. I had weekly TCH for 3 weeks then 1 week Herceptin only. 6 cycles of this. I had antiemetics in my premeds - Aloxi and I think Zantac and never had any nausea problems. If Leslie is experiencing nausea, talk to the chemo nurses about this, they may be able to change her premeds to help prevent it. Also make sure she takes the Zofran or Ativan at the first sign of problems. It's much tougher to defeat nausea once you have it.

I also did NOT find that each chemo got worse. Each chemo was the same. What got worse was that I had mild fatigue that got progressively worse with the cumulative doses - and my WBC and RBC counts did not rebound as high as the week before. Sort of like watching a ball bounce and each bounce has a little less altitude. Then on my Herceptin only weeks, it would rebound "better". After the 6 cycles of TCH, Herceptin alone was a breeze.

Everyone reacts differently to chemo, this was just my experience.

You're a great sister, thanks for holding Leslie up until she can feel hopeful again. One foot in front of the other.

Take care,
Chris