Starting Chemo May 2008

oops...I mean thank you for the great cards.

Kerri - I asked my onc what was up with my furry face.  She laughed and told me to wax.  She stated that it should only take a couple times to discourage the hair from growing back.  By the way, the high in Minnesota tomorrow is 4 F.

Sue's note about "Sclerotic focus" made me feel better, I hope you do as well Rock.

Cris - I am not sure that the list I pulled had your name on it.  Can you PM me with your address and I will send a card?

Goodnight all!

Jean

Rock, I loved the photos from your book signing. Wish I could of been there. Tomorrow's my bone scan, not sure what to expect.

I think I fecked up and didn't put enough postage on some of y'alls cards. Shite, now what! I was so happy to have them out. Might need to re-send a few.

Love to all... 

PS. I get my ovaries out Wednesday and have hercepting tomorrow night. Only a two hospital visit week.

I miss RanD 

I am mammo and herceptin on Tuesday, oh... and I buy my first house. I already live here, but on Tuesday I buy it from mom's estate. In exchange for roughly 100,000 donation to mom's education fund for the 3 grandsons and $10 I get to keep this house.

 I have decided my prayers today are for 3 things. RanD's return, Rock's bone focus thingy to be nothing, and for Eddie and Adrienne to meet soon. Those are just things I want to happen. Cris.. me too for your address SVP! 

Oh, I forgot to mention My friend Rachel got to meet Pam at Rock's party... it was me.. one step closer to Rock. Loved hearing all about it! 

I had today off and got to work in the garden finally putting away all the summer furniture and bikes and such. I feel all cruddy and hot and yucky. Hot Flashes and Period pains( no, I have not officially had it yet, but it threatens regularly) sore fingers and sinus pressure... 

 I watched my kid in my churches Charlie Brown Christmas play tonight. It was a Jazz vespers at church and they had the kids read the Charlie Brown Xmas lines in between tunes. I wanted to see him, but I did not want to see any of the old church gang ( my dad was the organist there, I basically grew up in the building) and answer questions about cancer.. they said a prayer for me in the service and for another woman ( when she was a little girl I used to babysit her)  who is dying of BC mets to the brain.

Then I got a glass of sherry in the parlour ( not sure when they started this, maybe I should go to vespers more often) and was ok. 

 I am off to bed. It is going to be a long long week. Our seasonal help conveniently is leaving town on the 18th, so cannot help us during the busiest week of the damn season!! 

 I am blethering now. 

 Night all. 

 Notter

Good luck on wednesday. I'll be thinking of you. And Kristy, good luck as well for you on Tuesday.

P.S. Miss you too RanD 

Busy Busy ladies!

Rock~ LOVED the pics! Thank you so much for sharing them :O)

RanD~ Where are ya daulink???

Eddie~ my prayers and thoughts are with you this week. <squish>

Adrienne~ I read somewhere on these boards people say it does eventually come out itself. I did wax a small spot just to see what it would do and I'm glad that I did. I didn't like the grizzly adams look on myself.

Kerry~ it depends on what area you are if you can wear a tshirt or not. Where rock is, only the very brave go without a coat right now. But this past week or so has been unseasonably warm.... in the mid 60's in some areas. Now if you live down south near florida..... it is definately tshirt and shorts weather in the winter.

Me~I'm fighting off a cold. I kept thinking yesterday, damn it I made it all the way thru this past summer with all that crap but yet a head cold knocks me to my knees. I feel a tad perkier today, head still stopped up though. I think a nice hot steamy shower is in the works.

OK, here goes:

rock, so you have a "sclerotic focus" in the medial wall of your right acetabulum, and a "small focus of fibrous dysplasia" in your left iliac bone.

First of all, here's the regional geography:  Your acetabulum is the socket of your ball-and-socket hip joint; and your iliac bone is the "hip bone" that you can feel when you put your hand on your waist (on the side) and slide it just slightly lower.  Feel that bone jutting out there--the one we all call our "hip bone"?  That's the ilium, or "iliac bone."

A "sclerotic focus" is a well-defined place (a "focus") where the bone is a little bit odd, compared to the bone that surrounds it.  In the case of "sclerosis" of bone, the bone in that spot is especially dense (thick, non-porous).  The most common reason for such a spot is that it has been there all your life--as in, congenital or developmental.  Such things are often seen "incidentally", or really, accidentally, when the docs are looking for something else.

"Sclerotic foci" of bone are almost always benign.  The "sclerotic focus" is what the radiologist sees on the films.  He/she then has to figure out what it really is.  Sclerotic foci end up being lots of different things, one of which is a "bone island," also called a "bony island", or, technically, "enostosis".  Here's what one radiology review article said about "bone islands":

"Typically asymptomatic, the lesion is usually an incidental finding, with a preference for the pelvis, femur, and other long bones, although it may be found anywhere in the skeleton, including the spine."

Got all that?  Okay.  So, although the majority of "sclerotic foci" are asymptomatic, benign, and therefore harmless, it is possible to have a formation like that in a bone and have it be caused by ... ahem ... a tumor.  I know that is not what you are wanting to hear, but I know it's what you are thinking when you allow yourself to think about this...which you shouldn't be doing, BTW.

So, the radiologist makes an assessment of the "sclerotic focus" and suggests what it might be, based on what it looks like and what he/she knows about the patient's history.  If there is a history of cancer, especially the kind that likes to hide in bone, the radiologist might mention that and recommend follow-up procedures, like additional scans, biopsies, or just a look-see after a few months have gone by.

One good way to distinguish between sclerotic lesions that are benign and those that are not, is a bone scan.  Here's what that same radiology review article says:

"A distinguishing feature of bone islands is that they are usually "cold" on skeletal scintigraphy.  Thus, bone scan has been and continues to be the means of differentiating bone islands from the more aggressive entities."

Now, I need to mention that the article I'm quoting is from 1995, so it's pretty old; there might be newer stuff out there.  Also, the author of that paper cautions that sometimes even bone islands (which are benign) can masquerade as bone mets if, for some reason, they take up the radioactive tracer during a bone scan.  The author said it should be possible for a radiologist to distinguish between a benign sclerotic lesion and an "aggressive" one by close examination of the "plain" radiographs and CT and MRI scans.

Then, you also have a "small focus of fibrous dysplasia" in your iliac bone.  That one is a bit more confusing.  There is a genetic disorder of bone that's called "fibrous dysplasia," but that affects multiple bones at multiple sites (usually) and the onset of symptoms occurs in children or adolescents.  It's not inherited, BTW--it's a spontaneous genetic mutation.  A "small focus" of fibrous change in a large bone that is otherwise healthy?  I would like to say that's incidental, too, but I really don't know.

That's otter's report on funky bone things.  Please don't grade me too harshly.  Feel free to offer other suggestions.  My own suggestion is that we don't do scans unless they're absolutely necessary.

Hugs to everybody, but most especially to those of you who are having yucky procedures or surgery this week (Kristy?  Eddie?), those who are getting/starting Herceptin (who isn't, besides me?), those who are having scans or dealing with the aftermath of scans (rock? roxi/Mary? Gracie?), those who are suffering the SE's of those danged drugs (Kerry?), ... Heck, I guess that's  pretty much everybody, plus RanD who we are all worried about.

Big hugs all 'round...

otter

Sue, Good luck at the wedding! You must be so excited. Will it be local or are travel plans in order? I love weddings.

Otter, you amaze me. 

Loving the cards. Ditto for all, good luck to all tomorrow and throughout the week and to all a good night.  

Nancy, I would love to share our 8" of snow we had but it all melted in our 50 degree weather yesterday. Now today it dropped to 10, all ice now. Hoping for a white christmas. 

P.S, Results of blood work came back. Need to watch my chlosterol. Its higher than normal but I haven;t been working out like I should either. They're sending me a low fat diet to try. Yeah, just in time for the holidays. Piece of cake, right? Cake, did I say cake? 

Okay, there's nothing like coming in 3 days after a scare and catching up!  Don't do that, Rock!! (Just kidding, post anything/any time you want - btw, loved the pictures!)

Otter - You are amazing!  And I am not on Herceptin, either.

I need to say, Jen did not leave me off - I didn't give her my address because I knew I wouldn't be able to get cards out to everyone.  Heck, the five people who will be here Christmas morning will be lucky to have more than coffee cake!  This is not to say I am not willing to give out my address - just not sure how to do it now.  Although my intention is to do a New Year's thang, so if you can wait until then, cards will happily be dispersed! 

So here's my BC stuff for the week...and then some.  I had my first follow-up with the med onc today. He wants to see me again in 4 months and have another PET scan beforehand. He also mentioned the possibility of having my ovaries out (even though I was triple neg) if I don't go into early menopause. (Eddie - I may be right behind you).  I'm seeing my OB/GYN next month and will talk to him about it, too. I have a follow-up with my surgeon on Thursday. Apparently he is now in charge of my mammogram schedule (who knew?!), so I should find out when I need to have one of those again. I'm also going to talk to him about my shoulder/arm and the issue of lymphedema. I have another follow-up (geez!) with the rad oncologist, in early January. Hopefully by then, I'll be done for awhile with them all.

Thoughts go out to all having STUFF this week.  And Roxi, you're hair is cute!

OK ladies - jumping over from the Aug. 2008 board for some "experienced" input.  Started rads  x 33 on 12/1.  Rads onco told me not to start Tamoxifen until after rads is finished.  She said it causes some women to burn more than normal.  Anyone else advised to wait until after rads?  I hate not taking it as my er was 99%!  How are those of you on Tamoxifen doing with se's?  I am really worried as I am having monstrous hot flashes already and I am not on it yet!  Also, my bs is in charge of my mammo's too!  I thought that was unusual also!  Any input on the rads and tamox would be helpful!  Happy Holidays to you all!

Just popping in to say hello . . . I let the Christmas cards pile up, then sat down tonight and had the pleasure of opening all of them while sipping hot chocolate with peppermint sprinkles.  I loved them all . . . love you all.

Linda