May 2010 Chemo

Tess:  So glad to hear from u.  We were all wondering how things were going.

Barb: still thinking of u, too.  Glad things sound promising. 

I did a juice fast yesterday.  And then today I ate meatloaf and pizza until I was stuffed.  Yin/Yang

BARB!!!  I AM DOING THE HAPPY DANCE FOR YOU!!!  I am so glad on your behalf.  Now aren't you glad you didn't tell the kids?  You didn't, did you?

Jen

Ok, ladies, sorry I'm a little late with the update on the May thread too, but it's been crazy here this afternoon. Getting ready for what is called now a "Goliath" winter storm can make one worn out real fast. At least I was spared being in lines - my wonderful boyfriend did all that today - there weren't many things, just last minute little this and that, but he still had to brave staying in 50+ persons lines. And once we were done, I got me a cup of (decaf) coffee and started updating here, I got my thread on the other forum updated, then started writing in here, and about 10 minutes later my boyfriend came in the room and found me dozing with my head lollingand my handson the keyboard and a lot of zzzccccccmmmmmmeeeeiiiiizzzzcccccc in my post, lol. So he got me to bed and closed the browser. At least I didn't get qwerty on my forehead, haha!

Anyway, we managed to get to the hospital today and I got the MRI results.

There is nothing to the spine! That is, nothing cancer-related. I only have hypertrophy of the facet joints from L2 to S1. That is probably causing all this pain - not sure about the sacro-iliac joint (the one my onc was talking about) because they make no reference to it. My onc might want to ask about that. But the report says clearly: "unremarkable MRexamination of the lumbar spine. Specifically, there are no findings to suggest the presence of metastatic disease". Yay!

It also underlines the existence of the ovarian cyst (right ovary) that the PET scan has found - that is supposedly not growing or doing anything, and I have already decided to take out. I will only take out my right ovary, not both of them - I dont' want to run in other problems like heart attack and osteoporosis just trying to avoid breast cancer when already reducing to estrogen made only by one ovary (or maybe not even that as I'm in chemo-pause) should be low enough.

The MRI though also says "incompletely vizualized are small T2 hyperintensities within both kidneys, which may represent cysts. This could be confirmed with ultrasound, as they were incompletely evaluated on today's examination".

I researched online a little,  and found that there were very few, rare cases of metastasis of breast cancer to the kidneys, but, on the other hand, benign kidney cysts are quite common in people over the age of 40. I am sure that the onc will want to look into that more, but that will probably have to wait until this grand-mother of a storm passes. I hope everything will be good by next week, because I have my revision surgery!

 I am going back to bed. I'm really bad about cold, it fatigues me a lot, when I was younger I would even faint if I would be too cold for a long period of time.

Big big hugs to everybody!

Day

Day - awesome!!!!  Grrrreat news!

YEAH BARB and DAY...I told you ladies 2011 was going to be our YEAR!...took awhile to read all the posts that I missed. sorry if I missed anyone

Patricia: would love to see your pictures! glad you enjoyed
Daiva;  welcome back..You sound relaxed. that is a good thing

Barb: I firsthand know that scary feeling ..pit in your stomach...such a relief when you get the good news

GG: one year..wow.. we are all getting there soon and we can wipe out the nightmares of 2010

Tess: Glad your rad free. glad to see you here

Denise: I lose my balance alot. I am taking a scientific stretching class at the ymca this wednesday. I am hoping it helps me.  I really haven't excercised in a year. Even though I am feeling better, I am so afraid of having the wig fall off. Let's see what happens Wednesday

My new PS appointment is on good friday.. I am getting my nipples....I was told 2 more months after that and I can get tatoos for aerola. Anyone else had recon. surgery lately. Looking for your opinion on it.  I have been putting bio oil on the scars. Not really sure if it helps but will keep putting it on. Any other advice?

.

So I am thinking about changing onc.  I feel I want to go to my sisters onc. The dr. is a little far from my house but checkups are now only 1x every three months. My sister speaks to her about my case and she is astonished that my onc. never ordered a colonoscopy for me.She said standard practice after diagnosis. Did you all get that test right after diagnosis?  I also feel this onc. is more on the cutting edge. The one I have now is good and I like her but she is very cautious. She does not think out of the box. She prescribes status quo and basically so do all the doctors in the group.

My sisters onc. just came back from a conference and told her that she downgraded her stage of bc from 2b to 1E.. whatever 1E means. at the conference there was a discussion on tamoxifen and femara with women  who had NO node involvement.. The doctor is going to wait until the next conference and if infact the concensus is still the same she is taking my sister off the drug. Now I know this is one drs. opinion but I feel she has been right in many cases. She told my sis 5 years ago to start taking Vitamin D. Now all drs want you to take vitamin D.

okay that is my speel for the last two weeks..

weather here in northeast has not been kind ...snow snow and more snow....

have great day all

Hi everyone! I am also back from my skiing vacation in Idaho. It was wonderful. I skied for 5 out of the 6 days I was there and I was suprisingly able to keep up.

Barb - thank goodness everything is okay!!! What a relief

Day - great to here that you have good news too.

Tess - so nice to hear from you. It's been a long time.

Daiva and Patricia - welcome back from vacation as well. Yay for vacations!!!

Jersey - does sound like you sister's onc is cutting edge...but 1E does sound a little funny. Guess they are getting more granular with diagnosis now.

Leanna, PJenn, Magda, Denise, Paxton, Kim, Laura, LJenn - I'm so thankful that you guys remain active on the boards.I miss Summer. Guess I need to connect with those of you on facebook. I changed my settings so you should be able to find me - Ditah Rimer.

Beth - congratulations to us on making it to the one year mark and standing strong! I thought about the one year mark the whole week before and then when it got to the actual day I was so distracted by skiing that I completely forgot and didn't realize I missed it until I got home 2 days later.

Hugs to you all!!!

Ditah

Barb & Day - YIPPEE!  So glad for both of you that your news was good.  I kept checking my phone all weekend to see if either of you had heard anything.  I'm very relieved, as I'm sure everyone on here is.  Day, I hope that the storm isn't too bad.  We have had great fluxuations in our weather.  From a foot of snow one day, to sunny skies.  Today is is -6 celcius, yesterday it was -45 celcius with the windchill (-36 without.)  I am usually a winter person, but I'll admit I'm ready for spring!

Leanna - too bad about the Centrum contest.  I voted every day!  Also, I agree with you and Jersey - I've been having second thoughts about my oncologist too.  I know he is considered good, but he is such a Debbie Downer that I don't want to go back to him unless I have someone with me.  He doesn't do tests without reason either.  Although, I think that he would be fine with the MRI's.  I've only had one though, and it showed that the tumor hadn't changed in size , which was WAY not true (from 9x9cm to 2-3mm!)

Daiva - so glad that you got to get away for your birthday!  The pics on facebook have you looking relaxed and happy, good for you!

Patricia - Glad you had such a great vacation, I'd love to see pictures too!

Ditah- you sound like you've really put all of this bc crap behind you, I can't wait to do the same (and your skiing trip sounded wonderful.)

So,  I haven't been on here too much lately.  I had issues last week that landed me in the ER for the better part of two days, and a trip to see the surgeon too.  I had a spot of infection on the incision site from my surgery in November, and it seemed that it tunnelled down and infected all of the lymph fluid that hadn't drained since the surgery.  Really gross, really uncomfortable, and no fun at all.  I had a fever and was throwing up, but I thought that I had caught the stomach flu from the dh.  Not the case.  Perhaps I should have taken the hint from the fact that I couldn't move my arm or lay down without gasping in pain.  After four days, the homecare nurse said I should go to emergency as she thought the burns were infected.  They were 2nd & 3rd degree, so it was possible.  The lovely ER doc looked at it for about 5 seconds and said, yeah it could be infected.  NO freakin' kidding.  After 24h on antibiotics, the abcess burst through the incision and left a hole that is about an inch and a half wide.  There was at least 3 cups of infected fluid - so so gross.  Now it seems like my arm has really stiffened up again, so it's back to square one doing the exercises.  Now I have homecare nurses coming every day to change the dressing and the packing.  It's down to about a 5 in pocket (about 21/2 in deep) now.  My surgeon figured it would take about 6 months to heal, but it's already gone down from what it was, so I'm guessing it will be half of that.

Sorry for the long post ladies, had to rant a bit.  I'm so disappointed that I'm not "done" but at the same time, I know that it's just a pain, and not serious. I'm also very glad that I postponed my return to work until the end of February!  Take care, Jenn

The woman who won is amazing!!    I'm glad it wasn't one of the other moms nominated by their husbands because I was totally more amazing than that!!  LOL

Oh Jenn, that sounds horrible.  Was this all from exchange surgery?  Did you have drains in?  I hope you heal quickly and LISTEN to your body from now on!

Well I had my first f/u with my Onc today.  She found a suspicious lymph node in my neck on my cancer side.  She's ordering a CAT scan.  It is probably nothing, but what really upsets me is that from now on this is how we will have to live our lives.  Any little thing that is wrong...waiting for the other shoe to drop. SUCK.

Jen

Jenn, I am so sorry for you! I hope it heals fast!  I hate it when you feelit's something wrong and nobody listens to you.

Here it's snowing again. They weren't even forecasting snow for today, only for Sunday. I hope it won't interfere with my surgery on the 9th or with my pe-op on the 8th.

Thanks for the caring words ladies.  Turns out the Onc ordered an MRI.  Come to find out I can't have an MRI due to the metal in my tissue expanders.  Kind of makes me wonder why SHE didn't think of that.  So now I sent her an email asking if I should wait for the MRI until after my exchange surgery in March or have some other kind of test.  OY.

I did feel better after working out today. I lost 3 pounds since yesterday!  At least 2 pounds in sweat and tears.

The good news is we just went to Costco and bought a big screen TV.  So the Superbowl should be looking good.

Jen

Sounds like a nice couple of days Paxton!!    DH and I just watched Mr. Brooks tonight.  I'm not a big fan of Kevin Costner, but this was pretty good if you like the murder/mystery type movies... different for sure!   And, I'll follow your suit and not respond to everyone!!    I've been so tired lately.... not sure if radiation fatigue finally hit me, or just working and trying to keep up with the family... my oldest boy has karate, basketball and baseball try-outs this week!

Magda - IF this is rad fatigue, it never hit me during treatment when is when you are going everyday... so, if nothing else, at least now I have the time to be tired (if that makes sense!).  It's not so bad! 

Ok ladies, I got my surgery rescheduled for March. It was supposed to be this Wednesday, and we are waiting for a repeat of last week's winter storm. I wasn't going to go to /from the hospital in 17F with blowing snow and drifts 2-3' tall!

ARGH!  Jen, I feel for you.  The waiting is the hardest part.  I don't know if it makes it any easier, but we will all be rooting for the next month to pass quickly for you!

Paxton, your date sounded lovely!  I need to do that with my DH, but it seems like a lack of $$$ always gets in the way.

Speaking about my DH, he went to our family doc yesterday to talk about the possibility of depression.  From her HOUR long talk with us, she concurs that he is struggling with it too.  He started something today.  This stupid XXXXing disease just doesn't stop messing with people's lives!  I'm sure that it's been harder on him than on me knowing that if something happens to me, it will be him that has to carry on.  Hopefully hearing the words "in remission" yesterday at the onc. follow up appointment will help him think about the positive things again.

So yeah, about remission...why don't they tell us!  I had to ask about it!  The onc (not my regular doom and gloom one) looked at me surprised and said "Yes, you are in remission. The radiation was just the insurance plan to keep it that way!"  Ah, so much better to have that thought floating around in my head versus the "it has a high chance of coming back" message that my regular onc. left me with

My abcess is doing really well.  It has lost that angry red colour and is starting to heal from the inside.  It's down to about 13cm across now and 3.5cm deep with only 1-2 deeper pockets. Originally it was about twice that size and was like a bunch of flower petals on the inside with deeper pockets. There is still an inch plus long hole in the incision line, but that will be the last thing to heal.

Well, I'm off to walk our new puppy (a five month old lab/husky/?? cross that was rescued.)  Have to bundle up though, it's -26 celcius here today (like -16 Fahrenheit?.)  Either way it's bloody cold!

Hope everyone is doing well, Love Jenn