Huevos Rancheros

Well not really rancheros, but this is a post about eggs. Sigh. Ok so for all of my breasties, new breasties, breastie supporters, husbands, friends, sanchos, and younguns this post is about fertility and the big C. Now keep in mind, I AM TALKING ABOUT MYSELF! I am talking about breast cancer, but more importantly hormone negative, her 2 + cancer.


Ok, so D-Day (aka diagnosis day) came on the 3rd of November and chemo started about 11 days later. When I met my oncologist a whopping two days before I started chemo (Dr. Le was not about that waiting life) I wanted to talk fertility and she wanted to talk shake and bake, as in shake that shit out of you and bake that body to within an inch of it's life so that you survive but the cancer dies. In her defense this is what she does for a living. She didn't sugar coat shit, my type is aggressive, so aggressive it's chemo before boob chop. Freeze eggs? That process takes a month usually, depending on when your cycle falls. It involves waiting, pumping your body filled with hormone, harvesting/retrieving, all of which a breast cancer survivor doesn't really have time for. Waiting a month? Ain't NOBODY got time for that!

Enter Lupron.

If birth control is a gal's best friend then Lupron is that bitch's evil stepsister. To any of my previvors and survivors that have been on that shit YOU KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. In retrospect it's hard to determine what was chemo and what was lupron, but the more I read about hot flashes, headaches, and acne the more I think this red headed stepchild was to blame.

Why Lupron?

My onc is a masochist! LOL. Not really. It's purely experimental really. Chemo fucks with active cells. A megadose of Lupron puts the reproductive system to sleep. Without getting too technical in the discussions of gonadotrophic hormones, menopause, and dormant ovaries, it basically is a chance that chemo will not interfere with your system because it is asleep. Now the benefit of being erpr- and her2+ was that my chemo choices were less toxic.....HOWEVER, given that my diagnosis came at the ripe ol age of 30, I had a greater chance of maintaining my fertility than those diagnosed in their lates 30s or 40s. Chemo choices+age=greater chance of fertility. Another benefit was that chemo pills like tamoxifen which halt hormone production in a similar manner were not an option for me since hormones didn't feed my tumor. Women usually have to stay on these for five years, sometimes indefinitely. I had three mega doses of Lupron, and by mega I mean 3X the recommended dose of the three month injection. So for those of you that hate the mathematics, one shot usually is enough to keep things all good for three months, for me one shot kept things good for 9. 9 X3=27, which in terms of years and months meant two years three months. I didn't find this out until I saw a specialist.

6 dense chemos, 12 diet chemos, one double mastectomy, one blood clot, one reconstructive surgery, and two new nipples later....NO PERIOD. Hmmmmm.

My last injection was August 2014. I assumed that around November Andres (el que viene cada mes) would be making an appearance. Nothing.

November.

December.

January.

February.

March.

April.

By this time it has been 8 months since my last lupron injection, and I finally decide to call a much recommended RE/Reproductive Endocrinologist/Fertility Doctor to have them test my ovarian function. I figured I'd be off in the summer and schedule an appointment for then...WRONG. Can you come in tomorrow? Um NO! I don't think you are understanding me....there isn't urgency I just want to know if everything is ok. She then tells me that Dr. R likes to see his survivor patients ASAP.

Holy Nervousness.

The hubs and I go in on our anniversary...thinking that would bring us luck! The Dr is awesome, he's going to run tests and then call me. One week later the fertility bomb drops, NO OVARIAN FUNCTION, NO VIABLE EGGS, IN MENOPAUSE. Um....DAFUQ!? Call my onc, um this is not what you said would happen? She tells me to calm down, I'm young, I'm healthy (minus the whole cancer thing), I have nothing to worry about.

Now let's get something straight, we never wanted to have kids right away, but this was looking like NEVER. The plan (because the onc would not allow any medication to be given, and I really didn't want to take anything anyways), was to retest me in three months to confirm that my reproductive system had been destroyed. If the numbers got worse or remained the same, the chances of fertility were slim. If the numbers improved, the Lupron did it's job, and protected my reproductive system. For those of you that know me, I don't take things lying down. I got off my ass and researched natural remedies. I did acupuncture, Castor oils packs. fertility massages. I drank disgusting teas, tinctures, and took loads of supplements like CoQ10, vitamin D, prenatals, omegas, etc etc etc. I ate healthier, only organic meats, less dairy, hardly any alcohol (one a week, if at all), and water water water. I started jogging, then added more workouts to the mix, which helped me drop weight and add muscle. When I went back in three months I needed to know that I did everything that I could to naturally improve my situation.

June comes around, still no period, but having some period like symptoms. Cramps were off the charts and then BAM, Aunt Flo came back. I called the RE because they told me to call if I got my period so that I could come in for testing. After an expensive blood test and a two week wait, they called to confirm that I was WITHIN NORMAL RANGE!

But.....because there is AWLAYS a BUT

My thyroid is out of whack. GREAT! Since then I've had another round of testing which I am waiting on results to see what my dosage will be for my thyroid. I've had an ultrasound to confirm that it's follicle and egg city up in thuuurrrrrr, and we've been careful because I'm not a year out from diet chemo.

I wrote this because fertility is a question we all have, especially when we go through this process. I encourage my breasties to get a baseline screening to check to see how things are doing. Also, remember that LiveStrong has fertility programs for survivors, should that be needed at a discounted rate.

I like my eggs boiled, but viable was a good thing too :)

xoxo,

The Boob Chica