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All About Ellen

By Nikita

Ellen is a single mother of three wondrous kids, aged 10, 12 and 14. At the age of 39, two weeks after the birth of her third child, she was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma of the left breast with axillary metastasis. She spent a very full year of parental leave undergoing chemotherapy, mastectomy with axillary node dissection, and radiation therapy, and is currently on daily endocrine therapy. Her favourite past times include:

 (1) doting over her children
(2) blasting unknowing bloggers with puns, and
(3) kicking cancer to the curb, then swiftly backing over it with a dump truck 

This blog chronicles her experience in being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer immediately following child birth, or as she likes to refer to it, from kegels to chemo and beyond. 

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Cancer brings out the best in people

By Ellen
Your eyes are likely scanning up to the post's title right about now.  Go ahead, give it another read.  Yes, that's the best, not the worst.  Many feel that Cancer brings out the worst in people - and I can certainly see why - but I have observed first-hand that it really does bring out the best in people too. Conversation with my 4-yr old today:  Me: "My oncologist told me yesterday that the chemo is working really well, and that the tumour is shrinking!  Mom's cancer is going away!" My 4-yr old: "Yay!  I'm so happy!  Now, what about your tummy?" Me: <confused> "My tummy hurts sometimes, but that's normal." My 4-yr old: "No Mom, I mean, what is she doing about your big tummy?  Can she make IT go away?" Me: <sigh> "Right, I'd forgotten all about my post-baby bulge.  Thanks, sweetie.  I'm afraid Mummy has to get rid of that herself". Many of you know that I took a huge leap last week
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Isn't this a treat?

By Ellen
Things are moving muito rapido, just how I like it! The plan is to attack the cancerous cells with chemotherapy in hopes of (1) shrinking the tumour to a more manageable size prior to surgery and (2) ridding my body of any "rogue" cancer cells that may be hiding out elsewhere.  I'm to have 8 cycles of chemo, each treatment spaced 3 weeks apart.  This will take approximately 6 months.  The puck drops tomorrow (Thursday).  Wish it were game 7 already instead of game 1 but I'm just happy to have made it to the playoffs.  After chemo cycles have wrapped up, I may require surgery and possibly radiation therapy, depending on how the tumour responds to the chemo.  Hopefully it will be game over for the cancer after all of that - I know I'll be glad to retire my cancer jersey! Side effects of my particular cocktail of chemo drugs MAY include, but are not limited to: 1. fatigue 2. nausea 3. hair loss (2-3 weeks after the first treatment) 4. the giggles
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THE INCREDIBLE SHRINking boobie

By Ellen
Spoiler alert:   There are no pics to accompany this post.  Not that kind of blog! So it's Chemo Eve and I'm eagerly anticipating round three.  No really, I am!  You may be thinking I've completely lost it, and I would normally agree - but do hear me out and it will soon make sense. Yesterday at my pre-chemo oncologist appointment, the doctor asked me if I'd noticed any changes in my affected breast, to which I laughingly replied, what breast?  It has been shrinking at such an alarming rate that there really isn't much left to speak of.  I'd hoped this was good news but wasn't really sure what it meant; what if the tumour was simply eating up all my good breast tissue?  We looked back at my MRI results and noted that the tumour size a month ago had been 6cm (W) x 7cm (H) x 4cm (D).  She did a quick examination.  Well, you didn't have to be an oncologist to see that it had shrunk considerably.  She turned to me and gleefully exclaimed, "
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