Mostly okay. I have been taking Talazoparib every day for almost two weeks now. I had some nausea, I was tired, but mostly I just feel okay. I will absolutely take that. I know it’s still early, but I will happily take the feeling of ‘fine’ over anything else that could be happening.
I’m doing everything I can to eat mostly good. Eat my fruits and veggies. Protein. Whole grains. Yes, I’ve added ice cream and chocolate, but I feel like extra calories are okay at the moment. I’m currently down about 1.5 lbs. I’m hoping that’s just because I’m eating mostly better and assuming that is all it is because that’s such a small number.
Next appointment is Tuesday morning. Just a checkup and blood work. I’ll take a look at those numbers when they show up on my portal so I can see how I am doing compared to last month. After that the next appointment is my one month checkup and an ultrasound. My hope is that we will already see progress on tumor shrinkage. Not going to hold my breath, but that is why we are doing this treatment. To see progress.
Most breast cancers are treated with surgery first and then chemotherapy and perhaps also radiation. This is called adjuvant therapy. I’ve never been one to follow the easy path, of course. Because of my cancer being triple negative, studies have shown that if the tumor is shrunk first, prior to surgery, there are better outcomes. This is neoadjuvant therapy. This is due in part to the aggressive nature of my cancer. By showing that we can treat it with these therapies, we have something to fall back on if it decides to randomly appear elsewhere at a later date.
The particular PARP (poly ADP - adenosine diphosphate - ribose polymerase) inhibitor I’m on is approved for metastatic cancers of this type. Metastatic meaning it’s spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes. I’m in one of the initial clinical trials to see how well it works on lower stage cancers. Should work. I’m going to say it’s working unless proven wrong by medical tests.
I did chop my hair. I used to have really long hair. Just over a year ago I chopped it to my shoulders. It was easier to care for when traveling. Now it’s chopped the shortest it’s been probably since I was a baby. I actually like it a lot. It’s very easy to take care of, and I honestly don’t have to brush it. Even if it doesn’t decide to fall out (side effects, yay!) I think I’ll keep it short through my treatment and surgery. So much easier to take care of.
That’s it for now. Just hanging out, waiting for the scary boom storm to pass to take my doggos for a walk.