7-21-09 And We Start Again

I had a regular 3 month checkup with my oncologist this morning. Dr. Brooks is the one who always tells me that I am BORING. I did the blood test stuff and sat in the little exam room waiting for him. After much waiting, Dr. Brooks opens the door and asks how I am. I told him that I was great! To which he said, "Well, what's the deal with your liver counts if you're great?" That's when I heard the proverbial other shoe hit the floor. He showed me my blood test results. My ALKPHOS (translated liver) is at 502, with the normal range being 25 to 150. For the previous 4 tests it has been at 139/129/141/134, so that was a red flag to him.

He asked all the questions: Have you been around anyone with hepatitis? been sick? started new medicine? No, no, no. Then I remembered a little 'catch' I've had the last 2 weeks in my right side, so I told him about that. He examined me and poked especially up and under my right ribs. Ouch! yes, that was tender. Dr. Brooks immediately left the room and went to order a CT-scan to see what's going on inside me.

His nurse came in and put a syringe thingy in the top of my left hand and brought me two tall glasses of that barium junk to drink in the next hour. They were squeezing me in between 11 and noon. The barium settles where the cancer is and lets them see it, as was explained to me, from the top of your head downward. His nurse then walks me down to the CT-scan place.

Everything was going just fine until the CT-scan tech has to give me the COLD dye stuff through the syringe in my left hand. When he did that, I yelled because he hurt me!!! He apologized profusely and said that the line came apart on him. The top of my hand is still swelled up from that damage. Hope they don't have to do that again tomorrow. . . . I'm not supposed to have any blood drawn or anything on my right arm because of the mastectomy.

About 4 p.m. Dr. Brooks called with the results of the CT-scan and told me that it looks like the breast cancer is back, that there are multiple large tumors in my liver. To be absolutely sure that's what kind of cancer it is, we're doing a biopsy tomorrow at Medical Center. David & I have to be there at 9:30 and the biopsy is at 11. I don't know the time frame we're looking at for the results. Dr. Brooks told me that whatever it is wasn't there on April 29th when I saw him last and now it is huge, which is exactly how my breast cancer was. So it is almost 100% sure that it's the breast cancer again, that has travelled to my liver. He said that from there he will decide what treatments we need, that he will be very aggressive with the treatment.

Emotions of all kinds have ran through my head since this morning. Fear---of the known and the unknown. But also strength that I've done this once and I can do this again. Regardless of what we face, God is always there to carry us in His hands. One of my favorite quotes from my last treatment was from Sir Winston Churchill:

Success is not final, failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.

I pray that God will give me the courage to continue.

I'm Just Boring & We Like It That Way

I had a regular 3 month checkup with my oncologist Friday morning. Had my typical one hour wait to see him, even once you're in the little room. So I read for a little while and then proceeded to take a nap. I was asleep when he came in. Dr. Brooks is really the only doctor I have cancer-wise who has a sense of humor, so he laughed. He checked me over, I told him about the "incidental atypical cells" from the pathology report and he asked to no one, "Atypical cells, I wonder what that means?" He said that the tumor marker test they do on the blood work could come back positive if it finds anything. Other than that, he told me I was boring and to come back in 3 months. That's exactly what you want your oncologist to tell you!

A Cure for the Common Cold

Yesterday at work I just knew I was getting sick. I was sneezing, coughing, felt sluggish, my voice was gravelly. You know, I could have done a Nyquil commercial! It just made me mad. Here I went through everything last year going through chemo and never once got sick.

Luckily, I had an appointment to see Dr. Brooks, my oncologist. He asked how I was when he walked in the room. I told him that I was trying to get a cold, to which he told me that I wasn't "trying" because I already had one. He recommended Mucinex DM at 1200 mg a day and Claritin D. He said that we've had a really bad cold epidemic going around that is staying with folks for 4-5 weeks. So I picked up that stuff on the way home.

Today I am so much better than yesterday. Now the trick is, to keep taking the medicine he said, for 4-5 weeks. It will control the symptoms and let you cope and get over the cold better. And he was right. It is amazing. Make sure your medicine chest has some of this stuff inside!

Oh, and Dr. Brooks doesn't want to see me for 3 months now. He said that Dr. Hodges could probably remove my mediport when he does the implant surgery and that he will write a letter to Dr. Laidley and Dr. Hodges about that. I asked what I should be looking for as far as the cancer coming back. He said if I notice anything unusual, mark it down on the calendar. If it's still unusual in 2 weeks, call his office and come in.

Tennis Elbow

For the last week my left elbow has been giving me twinges. Last weekend it was giving me fits. One time I reached over to the end table by my recliner to get my glass of tea with my left arm and it just said "NO!" It hurt so bad, I had to just put it down. So I nursed it the rest of the weekend and called my oncologist to see about it.

The Herceptin I'm taking can cause arthritis, as can the other poisons they gave me during chemo. They told me to take Tylenol brand placebos or Motrin and if it swells or gets worse to come see Dr. Brooks.

But I'm feeling stronger every day and the radiation areas are healing great. I was prepared to have tanned, orange-peel skin. I do have some extra freckles now that I didn't have before, but other than that, I am so thankful for how the radiation went!

Two. . . .

I got wonderful news today at the radiology lab!!! Starting today they only do the 2 side-angle burnings---they don't have to do the one right over me that goes for so long on my neck and the upper part of my chest above the breast. That area is really sore. Plus I was in and out of there even faster today.

I have a Herceptin treatment Friday, so I changed my last radiation treatment to 2:30 and then the Herceptin at 3:00 p.m. to get it all done at once. Got to remember to ask Dr. Brooks how many more Herceptins I have left. . . .

Herceptin Treatment

I had radiation at 11:20 a.m.

I had my Herceptin treatment at 3 p.m. David didn't go with me, I didn't see the point. But both Dr. Brooks, his nurse and the chemo nurse asked where my husband was. This was the first treatment he hadn't attended and it was noticed.