Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and are ready for New Years!
Sorry, I haven't written in a bit but work and Christmas has kept me running a little too much and I haven't been feeling too good. Working on cold right now and hoping I can fight it with no major issues. So far no fever, so that's good. I'll keep drinking my tea and taking my vitamins and hopefully I'll be feeling better soon. So far my blood counts and lab results continue to look good, my next Treatment is this Thursday (New Years). The last one really hit me hard and I slept thru half of Christmas. :(
The kids on the otherhand, aside from the colds, had a great Christmas thanks to all the family, friends and "Secret Santas". I will post some pictures soon! There was so many wonderful gifts, clothes and games - IT IS SO MUCH APPRECIATED!
Stay Warm and Love to all!!!
Lynn
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Week 9
Had a very long day today but it got better this evening. I spent most of the day at the hospital again. Today was my monthly meeting with my doctor and they were backed up again. Everything was still looking good and since I am still having constant pain on my right side he gave me more medicine to try and help. To my surprise my doctor called me tonight to let me know my blood test results came back already and showed another large decrease in the "tumor indicator" - I still don't completely understand but what I do know is decreasing is GOOD. I started out at 154 (normal is 38 or less), last month it had gone down to 132, today it is down to 83. Yeah!!!! I start my 3rd month of treatment this Thursday which won't be fun but at least all your prayers are working.
I can't thank my family and friends enough for all your prayers and your donations. As hard as it is for me to accept help I don't know what I'd do without it - I am so blessed. It is appreciated more than you can imagine.
The rest of this week will be busy trying to get ready for the holidays at work and home - hope everyone is doing well!
Love and prayers,
Lynn
I can't thank my family and friends enough for all your prayers and your donations. As hard as it is for me to accept help I don't know what I'd do without it - I am so blessed. It is appreciated more than you can imagine.
The rest of this week will be busy trying to get ready for the holidays at work and home - hope everyone is doing well!
Love and prayers,
Lynn
Sunday, December 6, 2009
End of Week 7
Hope everyone had a good week. I'm glad it's over, haven't been feeling as good this week.
I've been having some pain on my right side under my ribs which made for a very long Thursday (thank you again Theresa - : P ). After getting a late start due to a very busy doctor's office, my doctor ordered a CT Scan of my chest to find out what was causing the pain and rule out any infection. After a good 5 hours at the hospital the scan came back good, my lungs and chest were clear and the pain is attributed to my liver swelling slightly due to treatment. I was very relieved because I was afraid it might be pneumonia with the way it hurt to breath too deep. Now that I know what it is the pain is barely noticeable. Easy to get paranoid with what is normal pain and what might not be.
Slept all weekend again but I'm finally up for more than an hour tonight and hope next week will be better. No treatment - whooo hoooo! I will have an appt. for blood work and an MRI of my neck (the only part of my body they haven't checked in detail yet) but I will be awake for next weekend and as silly as it sounds I'm looking forward to it.
Prayers and love to all!
Lynn
I've been having some pain on my right side under my ribs which made for a very long Thursday (thank you again Theresa - : P ). After getting a late start due to a very busy doctor's office, my doctor ordered a CT Scan of my chest to find out what was causing the pain and rule out any infection. After a good 5 hours at the hospital the scan came back good, my lungs and chest were clear and the pain is attributed to my liver swelling slightly due to treatment. I was very relieved because I was afraid it might be pneumonia with the way it hurt to breath too deep. Now that I know what it is the pain is barely noticeable. Easy to get paranoid with what is normal pain and what might not be.
Slept all weekend again but I'm finally up for more than an hour tonight and hope next week will be better. No treatment - whooo hoooo! I will have an appt. for blood work and an MRI of my neck (the only part of my body they haven't checked in detail yet) but I will be awake for next weekend and as silly as it sounds I'm looking forward to it.
Prayers and love to all!
Lynn
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Where am I at as of today?
I've been receiving so many questions and I thought it might be best to try to summarize the best I can with where I am at as of today and what I know and don't know. Hope you find this helpful.
Noticed a lump around March 2009 but thought it was just a gland, by June/July 2009 realized it wasn't going away but seemed to be getting larger. With no insurance I wasn't sure what to do but found assistance thru the Well Woman Program within my county - Free "female" exams to all women ages 35 to 62 regardless of income. This is an Illinois program so it should be available almost anywhere. Being 34 I was concerned I wouldn't qualify but since there is was now a history of breast cancer (my mom) I thought it was worth a shot. I was qualified and from there began many doctor's visits and testing. Initially I was told the cancer was a very common and curable kind and they were confident we found it early since I was showing no signs of it spreading.
After more tests we found they were wrong. It had spread to my lympnodes, liver and spine. The good news was all my blood counts and organ functions were normal and had not yet started to show the affects of the cancer, the bad news was I needed to start chemo immediately. Given the progression, Stage 4, there was no need at that point for surgery. The first doctor (Loyola)told me it was too late for that.
Weekly chemo meant trying to find somewhere closer than Loyola and I ended up at St. Anthony in Rockford with a highly recommend doctor. This doctor agreed with the first on almost everything except he changed my type of chemo medicine slightly and gave me a little bit of hope that if chemo went well he did want to remove the lump that started it all. So in October, one month after being told I had cancer, I started chemo. I go every week for 3 weeks and then I have one week off, it takes about 2 to 3 hours each time. I see the doctor once a month and just had my 2nd visit with him.
Since they won't do any MRIs or CAT, Bone scans until January of February 2010 they are monitoring the lump by physical exam and blood work. Both as of 2 weeks ago had shone a reduction in the tumor meaning the chemo seems to be working. Yeah!! Please keep those prayers coming because I need it to work really, really well to get OFF! They are not giving me an end date for treatment, if it goes well 4 to 8 months at least and if it doesn't work as well I may be on it for the rest of my life. 4 months seems like more than enough time for me. With everything I have read and all the statistics I'm not supposed to pay attention to I figure I have about a 50/50 chance to make it thru this so I'm giving it all I have. I understand the chemo is helping kill the cancer but I'm concerned about what else it's killing.
As of today, I am in my 3rd week of my second month so I have treatment this Thursday and I'm off next week. My hair is gone but I still have most of my eyelashes and eyebrows for the moment. The other side affects have been mild compared to some other stories I have heard so I am very thankful. Besides the hair loss the biggest side affect has been the tiredness, I pretty much sleep all weekend. I have numbness in my left hand and foot, general aches and a little loss of taste and numbness in my mouth and tongue and a kinda foggy feeling about 4 days a week. For those who know me from work you know it's really had for me to be "foggy" and unable to do 15 things at once. Still trying to work at least 3 days a week, having two days to work from home or go to appts. and research how to get rid of this "naturally". Also, need to stay away from large crowds (too many germs) and take my temperature 3 times a day. Anything over 100.5 and I'll be put in the hospital. I'm not supposed to go shopping, go to the movies, etc.
The kids are doing well considering and we're getting ready for Christmas. Jeff and the kids put up the tree last night before I got home from work so that was a nice surprise. I hope I've answered some questions and didn't put anyone to sleep. I promise the rest of my posts won't be this long. If you have any other questions just let me know and I'll get back with you as soon as possible.
Have a great week.
Love,
Lynn
Noticed a lump around March 2009 but thought it was just a gland, by June/July 2009 realized it wasn't going away but seemed to be getting larger. With no insurance I wasn't sure what to do but found assistance thru the Well Woman Program within my county - Free "female" exams to all women ages 35 to 62 regardless of income. This is an Illinois program so it should be available almost anywhere. Being 34 I was concerned I wouldn't qualify but since there is was now a history of breast cancer (my mom) I thought it was worth a shot. I was qualified and from there began many doctor's visits and testing. Initially I was told the cancer was a very common and curable kind and they were confident we found it early since I was showing no signs of it spreading.
After more tests we found they were wrong. It had spread to my lympnodes, liver and spine. The good news was all my blood counts and organ functions were normal and had not yet started to show the affects of the cancer, the bad news was I needed to start chemo immediately. Given the progression, Stage 4, there was no need at that point for surgery. The first doctor (Loyola)told me it was too late for that.
Weekly chemo meant trying to find somewhere closer than Loyola and I ended up at St. Anthony in Rockford with a highly recommend doctor. This doctor agreed with the first on almost everything except he changed my type of chemo medicine slightly and gave me a little bit of hope that if chemo went well he did want to remove the lump that started it all. So in October, one month after being told I had cancer, I started chemo. I go every week for 3 weeks and then I have one week off, it takes about 2 to 3 hours each time. I see the doctor once a month and just had my 2nd visit with him.
Since they won't do any MRIs or CAT, Bone scans until January of February 2010 they are monitoring the lump by physical exam and blood work. Both as of 2 weeks ago had shone a reduction in the tumor meaning the chemo seems to be working. Yeah!! Please keep those prayers coming because I need it to work really, really well to get OFF! They are not giving me an end date for treatment, if it goes well 4 to 8 months at least and if it doesn't work as well I may be on it for the rest of my life. 4 months seems like more than enough time for me. With everything I have read and all the statistics I'm not supposed to pay attention to I figure I have about a 50/50 chance to make it thru this so I'm giving it all I have. I understand the chemo is helping kill the cancer but I'm concerned about what else it's killing.
As of today, I am in my 3rd week of my second month so I have treatment this Thursday and I'm off next week. My hair is gone but I still have most of my eyelashes and eyebrows for the moment. The other side affects have been mild compared to some other stories I have heard so I am very thankful. Besides the hair loss the biggest side affect has been the tiredness, I pretty much sleep all weekend. I have numbness in my left hand and foot, general aches and a little loss of taste and numbness in my mouth and tongue and a kinda foggy feeling about 4 days a week. For those who know me from work you know it's really had for me to be "foggy" and unable to do 15 things at once. Still trying to work at least 3 days a week, having two days to work from home or go to appts. and research how to get rid of this "naturally". Also, need to stay away from large crowds (too many germs) and take my temperature 3 times a day. Anything over 100.5 and I'll be put in the hospital. I'm not supposed to go shopping, go to the movies, etc.
The kids are doing well considering and we're getting ready for Christmas. Jeff and the kids put up the tree last night before I got home from work so that was a nice surprise. I hope I've answered some questions and didn't put anyone to sleep. I promise the rest of my posts won't be this long. If you have any other questions just let me know and I'll get back with you as soon as possible.
Have a great week.
Love,
Lynn
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