Other than a bulging disc or two and some continuing issues with my ribs, my scans showed that my bone mets are stable and nothing else is new. Dr. Yamada had not seen the reports but viewed the films, so I'll have to discuss the disc and rib issues with someone else. He doesn't need to see me again for six months, so that is very good news.
My CT scans have been showing a fractured (fourth or fifth) rib since January, and no one has shown any concern about this. The bone scan refers to "fracture deformities" in the front part of my left fourth, fifth and ninth ribs, but I find it difficult to believe that I could possibly have a fractured rib (or ribs) that hasn't healed for eight months. I'll discuss it with Dr. Windsor, my NJ oncologist, since he is the next doctor I see (on September 4).
So, there seems to be no impediment to my scheduling surgery with Dr. Flores (the thoracic surgeon) when I see him on September 23. The only scans I have left are CT scans, which Dr. Flores wants to review before I see him, so I'll have those done the week of September 14.
I'll be back after chemo on September 4. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of August and don't worry if I don't write before then.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
It just never ends
As you may recall, I had my annual physical back in mid-June. My doctor ("Dr. Gout") gave me a prescription for bloodwork and I didn't go until last week because I had to fast beforehand. Well, I got the results today. While almost everything was good, my cholesterol is 249 (the limit is now 200) and my bad cholesterol is 157 (the limit is 100). My eating habits have been admittedly poor over the past eight months, but the last time I had my cholesterol tested -- which was several years ago -- it was around 175. Guess I need to make some more changes.
Dr. Gout wanted to put me on medication to prevent cardiac disease (like I need that to worry about), but we're going to try a better diet and exercise first. I have to go back in four months to have my blood checked again. Has anyone out there successfully lowered their cholesterol through diet and exercise? Please tell me yes...
Dr. Gout wanted to put me on medication to prevent cardiac disease (like I need that to worry about), but we're going to try a better diet and exercise first. I have to go back in four months to have my blood checked again. Has anyone out there successfully lowered their cholesterol through diet and exercise? Please tell me yes...
Monday, August 24, 2009
Hardest part is over
Just wanted to let you know that I managed to live up to my license plates (which read "Toughie")! I made it through the total spine MRI, which required me to lay on my back in that little MRI tube for an hour without moving, followed by the bone scan, which was another 40 minutes of laying on my back, but this time in open space. Tomorrow I only have the brain MRI left, which is good news. I don't think I could handle another 3-1/2 hours of scans.
I'll be back with a report following my appointment with the radiation oncologist on Wednesday. Sorry for sounding so freaked out earlier, but I was very nervous. I feel a little calmer with two of the three scans completed.
I'll be back with a report following my appointment with the radiation oncologist on Wednesday. Sorry for sounding so freaked out earlier, but I was very nervous. I feel a little calmer with two of the three scans completed.
Really nervous
I've been dealing with a low-grade panic all weekend in anticipation of today and tomorrow's scans, and I got absolutely nothing done -- no housework, no phone calls, nothing. This morning I'm having the total body bone scan done, and it was last year at this time that the bone scan uncovered the metastases in the skull, clivus and pelvic bone. There is no reason to fear that something else will show up, but I can't help but worry that something will. I also will have two parts of my spine scanned by MRI this morning, and the brain and last part of the spine MRIs will be performed tomorrow morning. The good part is that I see the radiation oncologist Wednesday morning, so I don't have to wait long to get the results. I just hope he has nothing to tell me.
I almost feel like I'm going to faint from nerves, and I haven't felt this way since my ankle surgery. I'm trying to calm myself down but it's not working very well. Please keep your fingers crossed for me and send me those positive thoughts. Right now I could use a hand to hold -- and some extra oxygen!
I almost feel like I'm going to faint from nerves, and I haven't felt this way since my ankle surgery. I'm trying to calm myself down but it's not working very well. Please keep your fingers crossed for me and send me those positive thoughts. Right now I could use a hand to hold -- and some extra oxygen!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Barely hanging on...
It's 2:15 pm on my first full day back since June 16 and I'm trying to hang on for another hour. Had chemo yesterday, got home at 4 and went directly to bed. Got up at 6:30 for a bowl of cereal and was back in bed at 7:15. I couldn't believe it when the alarm went off at 4:05. Yikes! Thank goodness I have two days to recover before putting in my first full week since June 8.
Chemo went fine. Dr. Windsor ordered another shot of Arenesp. My hemoglobin is up to 10.9, but the normal low range for a woman is 12.5, so they are trying to get it up a bit higher. I'm off now for a week, so no shots for a while.
Dr. K contacted me to let me know that she spoke to Dr. Flores and that she's fine with his explanation. Even that didn't sound quite right, so on Tuesday I sent her a fax outlining every Dr. Flores and I discussed, including my treatment schedule, the scanning schedule and my follow up consultation date with him. I wrote that I was hoping for an October 15 date. Unfortunately, I just found out that he only does surgery on Mondays and Fridays, and since I don't want to be in the hospital over a weekend, I'm planning to shoot for October 19. I wrote that if anything disagreed with what they had discussed, one of them needed to contact me. So far, I haven't heard anything.
On Monday, I'm having a full body bone scan and two sections of my spine scanned via MRI. On Tuesday, I'll have a brain MRI as well as the third part of my spine MRI. On Wednesday, I see the radiation oncologist for my four month follow up.
Kudos to Ed. When I visited my hairstylist to have my roots touched up, he suggested a custom-made hairpiece to cover my thin spot -- at a price of $350. Since he didn't have one in stock and the photo made it look like a giant puff ball, Ed suggested we visit a wig shop at a local mall to see if they had something similar so we could see how puffy it was. Lo and behold, they had one in the perfect color, a little curlier than my hair, but it's fairly flat, so we bought it -- at $39.99. Ed has to put in on for me, since I can't see to hook the clasps onto my hair, but he's gotten the hang of it after only two tries. Now I don't have to worry about wearing the hat out in the sun -- which is about the only time I've been using it lately. I'm sure it doesn't blend perfectly, but how many people are going to look that closely at my hair? My boss thought it was real! That's one less thing to worry about. Yay!
Just wanted to say thank you for some recent visits from friends. Cathy (Spot's other mom) and her husband Bill were over for dinner last Friday for the first time and we had a wonderful time. I spent about three hours with my friend Kay and her family, and it was enjoyable as always just to have a chance to catch up. On Wednesday, our friend Sue sacrified one of her vacation days to spend the afternoon and evening with us, and it was a delight. Girl talk is good for the soul.
If Laura, the chemo nurse, is unable to prevent it, I'm hoping her husband-to-be will post an interesting video on You Tube. It seems that Laura was in a wedding party in upstate New York, and said wedding was held outdoors. During the ceremony, a large dragonfly, mistaken by Laura (a scaredy cat about bugs) as a rabid bat, tried to land on her bouquet. She smacked it away toward her sister, who started to get nervous and the flower girl, taking this all in, started to get scared as well. It ended with Laura running screaming away from the ceremony while the bride and groom wondered what was going on. We've all tried to reassure her that a dragonfly won't hurt you, but she remains unconvinced. If it ever makes it to You Tube, rest assured that the link will appear here.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Chemo went fine. Dr. Windsor ordered another shot of Arenesp. My hemoglobin is up to 10.9, but the normal low range for a woman is 12.5, so they are trying to get it up a bit higher. I'm off now for a week, so no shots for a while.
Dr. K contacted me to let me know that she spoke to Dr. Flores and that she's fine with his explanation. Even that didn't sound quite right, so on Tuesday I sent her a fax outlining every Dr. Flores and I discussed, including my treatment schedule, the scanning schedule and my follow up consultation date with him. I wrote that I was hoping for an October 15 date. Unfortunately, I just found out that he only does surgery on Mondays and Fridays, and since I don't want to be in the hospital over a weekend, I'm planning to shoot for October 19. I wrote that if anything disagreed with what they had discussed, one of them needed to contact me. So far, I haven't heard anything.
On Monday, I'm having a full body bone scan and two sections of my spine scanned via MRI. On Tuesday, I'll have a brain MRI as well as the third part of my spine MRI. On Wednesday, I see the radiation oncologist for my four month follow up.
Kudos to Ed. When I visited my hairstylist to have my roots touched up, he suggested a custom-made hairpiece to cover my thin spot -- at a price of $350. Since he didn't have one in stock and the photo made it look like a giant puff ball, Ed suggested we visit a wig shop at a local mall to see if they had something similar so we could see how puffy it was. Lo and behold, they had one in the perfect color, a little curlier than my hair, but it's fairly flat, so we bought it -- at $39.99. Ed has to put in on for me, since I can't see to hook the clasps onto my hair, but he's gotten the hang of it after only two tries. Now I don't have to worry about wearing the hat out in the sun -- which is about the only time I've been using it lately. I'm sure it doesn't blend perfectly, but how many people are going to look that closely at my hair? My boss thought it was real! That's one less thing to worry about. Yay!
Just wanted to say thank you for some recent visits from friends. Cathy (Spot's other mom) and her husband Bill were over for dinner last Friday for the first time and we had a wonderful time. I spent about three hours with my friend Kay and her family, and it was enjoyable as always just to have a chance to catch up. On Wednesday, our friend Sue sacrified one of her vacation days to spend the afternoon and evening with us, and it was a delight. Girl talk is good for the soul.
If Laura, the chemo nurse, is unable to prevent it, I'm hoping her husband-to-be will post an interesting video on You Tube. It seems that Laura was in a wedding party in upstate New York, and said wedding was held outdoors. During the ceremony, a large dragonfly, mistaken by Laura (a scaredy cat about bugs) as a rabid bat, tried to land on her bouquet. She smacked it away toward her sister, who started to get nervous and the flower girl, taking this all in, started to get scared as well. It ended with Laura running screaming away from the ceremony while the bride and groom wondered what was going on. We've all tried to reassure her that a dragonfly won't hurt you, but she remains unconvinced. If it ever makes it to You Tube, rest assured that the link will appear here.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Surgery
We met with Dr. Flores at Memorial Sloan-Kettering yesterday. He started off by stating that there is no way to know whether the nodules in my lungs are actually metastases until they are tested and talked about doing a biopsy. He was then called out of the room to take a phone call. When he returned, he stated that had called Dr. K but wasn't able to reach her. (Apparently, she failed to call him prior to my appointment as she said she would.) He asked what she recommended. I said that she had suggested after my April scans (which showed stability) that he might want to do surgery to remove at least the largest nodule in my right lung, but that she had sounded less confident when I spoke to her after my July scans. I then said that Dr. Healey advocated removing them.
He asked me what I wanted to do, because he wants to know how agressive the patient wants to be. We then discussed the quality of life issue involving my cough, and he agreed with the pulmonologist I saw that the large nodule in my right lung was the likely culprit. Ed mentioned the other option, which was not to do surgery and try a more potent chemotherapy treatment, but Dr. Flores said the end goal of that would be simply to reduce the size of the nodules and then do surgery. Since the goal is to remove them (and find out what they are), he said that he would recommend surgery on my right lung to remove all the nodules he could find and then at some future date, he would do the same surgery on my left lung. We all agreed that this is a better plan than stepping up the chemo, which would damage my immune system and certainly not cure anything.
Since we have a trip to Las Vegas planned and a wedding to go to in mid-September, plus some work timing issues, I asked if the surgery could be put off until mid-October and he agreed. The plan is that I will either continue on Gemzar or be off chemo until mid-September and then have scans again. I will then meet with Dr. Flores again to schedule the surgery. He said that he would perform a wedge resection (where he removes the nodules along with some of the surrounding tissue) using VATS (video assisted thoracic surgery), but if he could not get to the nodules using VATS, he would have to open me up. (I told him that following the surgery I would want to know everything he did, but prior to it, I only wanted the basics. The details would only make me more nervous.) If he can accomplish the job using VATS, I would be in the hospital for about two days (and out of bed on the second day) and home for four weeks. During that time I believe I would be working to regain full use of the lung.
I asked him if there were anything I should be doing to prepare for surgery, and he suggested I "remain active and exercise." Music to Ed's ears! As you all know, I am not an exerciser -- never have been, never enjoyed it, and never will. However, I know that I need to get my lung capacity up prior to surgery in order to make the recovery easier -- which will, of course, involve more exercise. So in addition to all the other ways that cancer has changed my life, it looks like this is another one. Ed's thrilled and I am less so, but there are things one must do whether one wants to or not, and this is one of those things. Why can't eating chocolate be something one must do??
I need to discuss this timetable with the boss, who is away fishing this week, but I believe this is the schedule we will stick with. It allows me to enjoy the rest of the summer, take the two trips we planned, get my major work commitments out of the way, and wrap up some loose ends. In the meantime, I continue to take my pills, which have been reducing the frequency and severity of my cough. The prescription did not come with a refill, so I have contacted the pulmonologist's office to see if I can get a renewal.
I feel somewhat relieved to know this is practically a done deal, although I still have to get through the bone scan and MRIs at the end of this month. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the bone mets are stable and nothing new shows up, and then we can proceed.
I hope your August is going well thus far. It's hard to believe that my time home is almost up. I need to pack a lot of enjoyment into the next two weeks!
He asked me what I wanted to do, because he wants to know how agressive the patient wants to be. We then discussed the quality of life issue involving my cough, and he agreed with the pulmonologist I saw that the large nodule in my right lung was the likely culprit. Ed mentioned the other option, which was not to do surgery and try a more potent chemotherapy treatment, but Dr. Flores said the end goal of that would be simply to reduce the size of the nodules and then do surgery. Since the goal is to remove them (and find out what they are), he said that he would recommend surgery on my right lung to remove all the nodules he could find and then at some future date, he would do the same surgery on my left lung. We all agreed that this is a better plan than stepping up the chemo, which would damage my immune system and certainly not cure anything.
Since we have a trip to Las Vegas planned and a wedding to go to in mid-September, plus some work timing issues, I asked if the surgery could be put off until mid-October and he agreed. The plan is that I will either continue on Gemzar or be off chemo until mid-September and then have scans again. I will then meet with Dr. Flores again to schedule the surgery. He said that he would perform a wedge resection (where he removes the nodules along with some of the surrounding tissue) using VATS (video assisted thoracic surgery), but if he could not get to the nodules using VATS, he would have to open me up. (I told him that following the surgery I would want to know everything he did, but prior to it, I only wanted the basics. The details would only make me more nervous.) If he can accomplish the job using VATS, I would be in the hospital for about two days (and out of bed on the second day) and home for four weeks. During that time I believe I would be working to regain full use of the lung.
I asked him if there were anything I should be doing to prepare for surgery, and he suggested I "remain active and exercise." Music to Ed's ears! As you all know, I am not an exerciser -- never have been, never enjoyed it, and never will. However, I know that I need to get my lung capacity up prior to surgery in order to make the recovery easier -- which will, of course, involve more exercise. So in addition to all the other ways that cancer has changed my life, it looks like this is another one. Ed's thrilled and I am less so, but there are things one must do whether one wants to or not, and this is one of those things. Why can't eating chocolate be something one must do??
I need to discuss this timetable with the boss, who is away fishing this week, but I believe this is the schedule we will stick with. It allows me to enjoy the rest of the summer, take the two trips we planned, get my major work commitments out of the way, and wrap up some loose ends. In the meantime, I continue to take my pills, which have been reducing the frequency and severity of my cough. The prescription did not come with a refill, so I have contacted the pulmonologist's office to see if I can get a renewal.
I feel somewhat relieved to know this is practically a done deal, although I still have to get through the bone scan and MRIs at the end of this month. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the bone mets are stable and nothing new shows up, and then we can proceed.
I hope your August is going well thus far. It's hard to believe that my time home is almost up. I need to pack a lot of enjoyment into the next two weeks!
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