WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING BREAST CANCER
19 Procedures,
13 Treatments,
38 Complications and Side Effects,
and 16 Ways of Minimizing Side Effects
by
​
Katie Snyder, Ph.D.
​
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Disclaimer
Prologue
June 20, 2020: Discovery
June 23, 2020: Fine Needles
June 26, 2020: MRI questionnaire question for Ben
Part I
Poke: Diagnosis
June 23, 2020: Kind Friends
June 30, 2020: MRI
July 1, 2020: Update: Zoom Meeting With Surgeon
July 2, 2020: I’ve Been Cored
July 8, 2020: More Bad News
July 8, 2020: Re: Sending Love
July 9, 2020: Katie’s Posse
July 11, 2020: Update—Good News Bad News Version
July 13, 2020: The Not-Much-to-Report Report
July 15, 2020: The Big Day (Don’t Worry, This One Isn’t so Bad to Read.)
July 15, 2020: I SPY With My Little Eye…
July 17, 2020: Seneca
July 18, 2020: Of Cold Caps and Competence
July 18, 2020: The Cancer Chronicles: Pet Edition
July 20, 2020: It Never Rains but it Pours
July 23, 2020: News I Can Use
July 24, 2020: It’s Nothing but Sugar and Light
July 27, 2020: Is it Really all in My Head?
July 28, 2020: Details, Details, and Ewww, Bowels
July 31, 2020: Better Living Through Chemistry
Part II
Poison: Chemotherapy
August 2, 2020: INFUSION EXPEDITION MATÉRIEL
August 5, 2020: Better Living Through Chemistry, Part 2. Piece of (Refrigerator) Cake
August 5, 2020: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop…
August 7, 2020: False Pretenses
August 9, 2020: Taste Buds
August 10, 2020: Not Brave, Folks
August 12, 2020: No Port in a Storm
August 14, 2020: The Wonderful World of Antacids
August 15, 2020: Miscellaneous
August 16, 2020: Grudgingly Giving up My Grudge
August 19, 2020: More Port Fails
August 20, 2020: Not Great News
August 21, 2020: Breast MRI #2
August 24, 2020: The Scientific Method
August 24, 2020: Another Port Report
August 26, 2020: It’s About Time
August 28, 2020: Waiting for Nausea (Hoping it’s Godot)
August 30, 2020: Birthday in the Time of Cancer
September 1, 2020: OK, This Isn’t Cute or Funny Anymore
September 1, 2020: Shhhh…Don’t Tell
September 2, 2020: Forgotten Factoids
September 2, 2020: Trip to Cancerland
September 5, 2020: Ptui
September 10, 2020: A Mixed Bag
September 11, 2020: Communication is Not Their Strong Suit…
Part III
More Poison: Immunotherapy and Complications
September 16, 2020: Not the Night I was Hoping For
September 18, 2020: Circling Back
September 18, 2020: Follow-up: The Worst Part
September 23, 2020: All Gone Funny Bone
September 28, 2020: No News is Not Good News
September 30, 2020: The Best Laid Schemes o’ Mice an’ Men/ Gang Aft Agley
October 1, 2020: Good Medical Care ≠ Good Medical Communication
October 2, 2020: Version Two Baa Baa Black Sheep
October 2, 2020: Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow
October 7, 2020: Short Report
October 9, 2020: Another Short Report: Dog Days
October 10, 2020: A Real Report
October 11, 2020: Vala Going in for Surgery Now
October 11, 2020: Vala’s Out of Surgery
October 12, 2020: Itching to Death
October 14, 2020: If Only I Had Been a Girly Girl…
October 16, 2020: Some Good News…Some Bad News
October 17, 2020: Strong Women
October 21, 2020: Subject: Catching up to the Rash
October 27, 2020: The (Re)Port Before the Storm
October 29, 2020: Infusion, Day and Night
November 1, 2020: AC Ain’t Gonna Beat Me
November 8, 2020: A lot of Nothing New
November 11, 2020: Coast is Clear Almost Until Thanksgiving
November 20, 2020: Couch Power for the Quaking Aspen
November 29, 2020: In the Thick of it Now
December 7, 2020: Scary Week, Better Ending
December 9, 2020: An Unexpected Couple of Days
December 14, 2020: Glam Birdies (the Kindness of Strangers)
December 19, 2020: Your Phone Call is Important to Us
December 25, 2020: Anemia: A Play in 3 Acts
Part IV
Slash: Surgery
December 28, 2020: Jade Lee (the Surgeon) Answers My Questions
January 4, 2021: Simultaneous Stories
January 6, 2021: Katie’s Surgery
January 9, 2021: The Day Where Nothing Went Wrong
January 14, 2021: R.I.P. Tilly
January 18, 2021: Divestment
January 24, 2021: Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
February 4, 2021: How Did Twine Get Under My Skin
February 8, 2021: Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Part V
Burn: Radiation
February 8, 2021: Nuclear Energy
February 10, 2021: What Will My Superpower Be?
February 24, 2021: X-Rays and Electrons
February 24, 2021: In Season
March 4, 2021: Girding My Loins for the Capecitabine Campaign
March 12, 2021: The Week in Review
March 21, 2021: A Week of Triage, and Four-Ointment Nights
March 28, 2021: The Calm Before the (Potential) Storm
Part VI
Poison by Mouth: Oral Chemotherapy
March 30, 2021: Decisions, Decisions
April 6, 2021: Capecitabine Compliance
April 15, 2021: From Now On: No News is Good News
April 24, 2021: So…I May Have Been the Teensiest Bit Wrong
May 13, 2021: Guinea Pig Again
May 30, 2021: Hair
May 30, 2021: Mortality and the Other Shoe
June 19, 2021: Unqualified
June 19, 2021: Non-Cancer News
June 25, 2021: More Pretty Good, Minor News re: Unqualified
July 14, 2021: These Are Not the Droids You’re Looking For…
August 7, 2021: Fat Toes
August 24, 2021: I’m Udderly Irresistible
August 24, 2021: Holy Hairdo, Batman
September 6, 2021: Was I in a Basement Pod on July 7? What Did the Aliens Do With the Real Katie? Why Don’t I Remember?
September 27, 2021: How Many Vaccine Sequels Can There Be? And What do They Have to do with Cancer?
October 3, 2021: Final Muster: Merely Mini-Momentous Meeting
October 23, 2021: And the Seasons, They Go Round and Round
November 2, 2021: Ave Atque Vale (Hail and Farewell)
INDEX