Hey there, it’s her, Kathy. Kathy Golemiec, a weekly columnist for The News, receives a newly approved intravenous drug that attempts to slow or stop the growth of cancer cells. Golemiec was the first in the province to receive it outside of the trial period. AMANDA JESS – THE NEWS
She’s tried 10 different drugs to try to combat her metastatic breast cancer, the latest being Perjeta (pertuzumab), a newly approved drug in the province.
Golemiec was the first to try the intravenous drug since its approval.
“I’m excited. I feel privileged to be able to do this,” Golemiec said while she sat in the hospital earlier this week receiving the drug with little reaction. “I have really high hopes it’s going to work.”
She said it’s a “woo-hoo,” a trademark expression from her weekly columns in The News.
The Westville woman started chronicling her cancer-battling journey over the past decade a month ago.
When she was first diagnosed in May 2004, she had been working for Weeks Construction. She was given two years, and to that she said, ‘Yeah, right.’
She went on to work as hard as ever that summer.
Every time she goes past the predictions, it feels like a sigh of relief.
“You can’t get rid of me.”
The new drug seeks out a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which is found on the surface of some cancer cells.
HER2 stimulates the growth of the cell, and Perjecta attempts to slow or stop the process.
She’s on it in combination with Herceptin, which also fights HER2.
Every 21 days, she’ll be back in the Aberdeen Hospital receiving the treatment, until it’s no longer needed.
It’s only one of many treatments she’s undergoing.
She’s also on bone filler and docetaxel, a separate chemotherapy treatment.
The worst part for her is leaving the hospital, she said.
It leaves her feeling alone.
She says she’s treated like a person in the hospital, not just a patient, which isn’t always the case in the outside world.
“All they see is the sick,” she said. “You have to be a special person to work in a cancer unit.”
Her nurse says the unit isn’t just ‘gloom and doom.’ Though they share tears, they laugh and joke, too.
Golemiec’s columns run in the paper and on ngnews.ca on Fridays.
On Twitter: @NGNewsAmanda
