April 17, 2015. Madison, Ms. Next Step.

Today I begin the next step of my chemotherapy but this one is oral. I say also for good or ill because this therapy has serious side effects which might mean canceling the program. But we are going to try. There are two parts to the medicine. The first and easy one is Letrozole, which I will take every day at bedtime. Then there is Ibrance, the fancy new drug that was just fast tracked to approval in the US a few weeks ago. So far, it is not approved in Canada so I must bring my medication with me. Before beginning, blood work was done. Then you take the medicine for 14 days when another set of blood work must be done. After 21 days of taking the one pill, you take 7 days off from the Ibrance. I am supposed to take the two medicines at the same time and always with something to eat, which will be a trick because I don't eat at bed time. The main problem comes from the cells of the blood. Red cells, white cells and platelets are all decreased so infection is an issue. As I have already had trouble with anemia, I suspect I will get it with these medicines too but you never know how the body will respond. This medication is new and we hope it works. It certainly has worked for others with my same disease so I hope it will work for me. But we are on the track to find out, which is a good thing. Now here we go.