Week 62

Hello All - Long time no Blog

Hope everyone had a great holiday and will have a Happy New Year!!! Been so busy with work and the kids and the holidays over the past two months. Medically there wasn't too much going on until the last few weeks. The shot they gave me a couple months ago is finally working to put me into menapause and the hot flashes have started. They're not too bad yet so I hope it doesn't get much worse. I've also been having terrible headaches which I thought at first was just the change in weather but it's everyday now for about a month and I'm really pretty fed up. If not the weather then I'm thinking hormone levels but my doctor wanted to be sure and ordered another brain MRI which showed everything good in the brain but the small spot of cancer the the base of my skull is increasing slightly. Still waiting to talk to the doctor and find out what he wants to do next.

I'm supposed to start a new hormone pill to stop and kill the cancer and I just met with another doctor and scheduled to have my ovaries removed January 12th which should also help stop the cancer from growing. Until my Oncologist tells me otherwise I'm still planning and try the pill and surgery for another month or two and not go back on chemo right away but obviously I have to do what he recommends. I just went back to work 4 days a week and the additional money coming in would really be nice. :(

On the positive side, we just got back from Disney World in Florida - our first real family vacation. Due to the cancer we qualified for a trip thru the Memories of Love Foundation where they generously provided tickets to Disney, Universal Studios and Sea World and a 5 night stay at a hotel in Orlando. There is no way we could have taken this trip without this assistance, we are so thankful!!! It was a little chilly but Wonderful!

Love to All!!!!

Week 54

Hello to All!

Not much new going on - work, kids, etc. Feeling good, healing well. Had an appointment with one of my surgeons today and he said everything is looking really good. So far no side affects from the shot they gave me a couple weeks ago and my next appointments are the 16th and 18th. I will start new medication that week and see what my tumor markers have done over the last month. Will probably have scans again toward the middle of December to see if the new meds are working.

Can't believe it's November already and they're forcasting snow - yuck!! Kids are doing good

Hope everyone is doing great!!

Love to all

Lynn

Week 51

Hello All,

I want to say "THANK YOU" so much to everyone who was able to attend the fundraiser last weekend or sent cards or said extra prayers, etc. I honestly cannot express how thankful I am, a HUGE stress is lifted knowing if things take a turn we'll be ok for a couple of months if I am unable to work at all. :)

I went back to work last week for a few hours a day and am still pretty sore and tired but feeling better everyday. The bone scan came back clear which was great but my tumor markers continued to go up and were higher than before I began chemo (they're up to 201, they were 157 before chemo started) so my doctor had me to another CT scan which shows two spots in the liver have increased about 1 cm.

Although I'm pretty sure he wanted me to go right back on chemo he agreed to try a different hormone treatment to see if it might work before making me go back on. He gave me a shot to turn off my ovaries and I will start a new medication in 30 days. So if this works that would be fantastic, if it doesn't work at least I should be able to stay off chemo until around December. :(

Hope everyone is doing well!!! Love to all!!!!

Lynn

Week 49

Hi,

Surgery went "ok" a few complications but I'm feeling better everyday. I was supposed to go home by Friday but due to a reaction to one of the medications that caused my hands and arms to swell so bad I couldn't bend them, then my blood count continued to drop instead of increase so I had to have a transfusion. I slept from Wednesday night until Saturday afternoon when I finally started feeling better, was able to eat and get ready to go home. :)

I stayed at my mom's until last night and had lots of peace and quiet but I missed everyone and am so happy to be home. Having a hard time with my inability to do very much but hopefully if I can get myself to rest I will recover more quickly and get back to some sense of normal. Very, very hard for me not to run around in 20 different directions - I honestly don't know what to do with myself. I can't sleep now that the hospital meds are out of my system, I feel like I'm on steroids again. Aghhhh. Tonight will be better.

Have doctor's appts all day tomorrow and will be getting this lovely drain out of my back - yuck! Keep the prayers coming for the quick recovery from this so I can move on again. My tumor markers are back up and I had another bone scan almost two weeks ago but still haven't heard back from that doctor so I don't know if that's good or bad. I dread him telling me I have to back on chemo. :(

Girls are doing great in school according to the progress reports, Nicholas on the other hand is having a hard time again. We'll continue to do everything we can the help him focus on school and not all this other "stuff".

Hope everyone is doing great, love to all!!!

Week 46

Hello All,

Surgery has been scheduled for September 22nd and I am expecting to be in the hospital about two days so I should be out by Friday the 24th. Hopefully, I will feel good enough to go to the fundraiser Kim is having in Wood Dale on October 10th. :)

Had pre-op testing today and an xray of my hip that's been bothering me lately. Good news is my hip looked fine, bad news - my tumor markers came back high - they're at 144 - they were at 157 before I started chemo so this is not what I wanted to hear. I have to go for another bone scan because now my doctor is concerned that even tho the hip looks ok on xray there may be new cancer growing. If not there, it's somewhere. :( I hope he'll just switch my pills before making me go back on chemo but I doubt it.

In any case, I'm going to try and enjoy my last couple of weeks of freedom while I'm still in one piece.

Kids are doing good, Nicholas has been doing great in football.

Hope everyone is doing good! Love to all!

Lynn

Week 43/44?

Hello All,

Been a very busy couple of weeks again. Kids are back in school, lots of supply shopping and running around. Shauna started Jr. High - please all say some extra prayers for that too. :)

The biopsy from Aug. 16th didn't go very well, the new area of concern tested postive for cancer so at this point I will need to do a mastectomy instead of lumpectomy which will involve reconstructive surgery and a much longer recovery time then my first option would have given. At this point my Oncologist isn't planning to put me back on chemo yet but wants to remove and reconstuct first. I will be out of work for at least two to three weeks from what they tell me. I met with the plastic surgeon today and he will now coordinate with my other surgeon and the surgery will likely be in the next 3 weeks or so. I'll know more in the next day or two.

I want to thank everyone for their continued prayers and support and to my friend Marcie from cancer group who has put together a fund raiser on Sept. 18th in Dixon, IL and just completed a bake sale for me to help with some of my financial fun. Also to Kim who is working on another fund raiser which will be closer to the Chicagoland area for our friends and family out that way. There just are not words to express how grateful I am to all!!

Enjoy this beautiful week - love to all!!
Lynn

Week 40

Sorry, it's been so long - hope everyone is having a great summer.

Had another fun few weeks, tooth pulled, jaw locked shut - apparently I grind and clentch my teeth something that can become significantly worse with trauma to the area (infected tooth) and stress. Fun, fun, fun - I couldn't eat anything but yogurt, applesauce and oatmeal for about two weeks - ugghh. I am feeling MUCH better now, just on one type of medicine with no real side affects at the moment, knock on wood, but latest MRI showed 2 new areas of concern in the same breast so now I have to have an MRI guided biopsy to find out if these are new cancer growing or not. :( They are very small which is why the MRI is needed to help pinpoint the spots for the biopsy and they are not near my original tumor which is no longer showing up??? Surgeon says this is very unusual which is why I am holding out just a little bit of hope it's not more cancer.

The biopsy is scheduled for August 16th and based on those finding I will know if I will have the planned lumpectomy or have to do a full mastectomy and who knows - more chemo, radiation??

School starts in 2 weeks - I can't believe it! The kids are ready to go back but I know that won't last long. We didn't get a chance to get away at all this summer with all the dr. appts., work, etc. but hopefully we'll sneak away soon before my surgery.

Hope everyone is doing great! Love to all!!

Lynn

Week 36

Well, my latest scans didn't show too much improvement but the largest spot in the liver is down to 1 cm which means my doctor thinks it's time to stop chemo and switch to hormone theraphy and start surgeries. While I'm really happy to be done for now, the medicine he switched me to has made me sick immediately since starting it last week. So now we have eliminated one type of medicine and hopefully I will feel better soon.

Had a very rough couple of weeks but hopefully things will be getting better now. Kids are enjoying their summer, softball is almost done and football will start at the end of summer.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!!! Hope to be out and about soon.

Love to all,

Lynn

Week 33

Hello All,

Still plugging along. Had another Dr. appt. on June 3rd, tumor markers went up again slightly, Dr. again tells me "Don't worry, it's very common - last time when they went up we did scans and they showed improvement not progression, don't focus on one method of tracking". Uh huh, so I continue to try and listen to him and stay positive. Despite my best efforts he hasn't agreed to give me a prolonged break starting next week and wants to do scans again next Friday to see if we have further improvement or if we've hit a plateau. If we're still seeing measurable improvement we keep going with chemo, if improvement is minimal we might be ready to switch to hormone theraphy and start scheduling surgeries. Please keep the prayers coming. :)

Kids are doing great, wearing me out. So far with softball we're 2 wins to 3 losses. They're all getting better with each game. I'm trying to cut back at work, so far that isn't going well. I need to plan some outings so we're can get the most of of the summer while I'm awake.

Hope everyone is doing great!!!!

Love to all,

Lynn

Week 30

80's by Sunday - yeahhhhhhh!!!! Hope everyone is doing great.

Scans are back and although they are "improving" the tumors in the liver are not gone and so my doctor doesn't want to stop treatment. While he understands my physical and emotional reasons for not wanting to do this anymore (7 months - weekly treatments) he has to remind me of the medical reasons to continue. While mentally I completely understand, emotionally I'm close to a breaking point. Doing better this week, trying to keep my rational/intellectual side in control and keep focused on the bigger picture than to allow the physical/emotional exhaustion to take over and give up. Not a smart move to quit treatment and leave cancer still sitting there just ready to grow again, better to get it all and hope it won't come back or at least not as quickly. Medically, common sense. :)

With the kids out of school as of tomorrow I wanted to cut back on work more to spend my time with them but financially I can't swing that one yet either but I am thankful for everything I still have and what we are able to plan and do treatment or not - we're going to have a good summer!!

My plan now is to finish my next 2 rounds which will end the third week of June and see if he'll let me take off for 3 weeks thru July 4th and then try 3 weeks in a row again to get rid of it!!! Wish me lucking in getting the doctor to agree and it being the end for a while. Then surgeries will be the end of the summer - fun, fun.

Enjoy your weekend - it's supposed to be beautiful!!!

Love to all,

Lynn

Week 27/28 - I've lost track now

Hope everyone is doing great. Sorry, it's been so long for the most part it's been non-eventful. Doing "ok", blood counts were a little low for about a month but have now bounced back up to normal. I'm a little concerned with my last tumor marker blood test showing an increase from 41 to 54 but of course my doctor tells me not to worry. Easy for him to say. :) He said this can happen sometimes and go right back down again. The important thing to focus on is my scans.

I have my final set of CAT scans, MRIs tomorrow with a doctor's appt. next Thursday to review the results. If the results look good I will be done with chemo for a while and start taking daily medicine and schedule my surgeries most likely for the end of June. If they don't look as good as he'd like I will do two more cycles of chemo (another month and a half) and decide from there what is next. I'm doing my best to stay positive but pretty nervous, I want so badly to be done and not to have to go thru this again!!! But what I want and reality may not be the same.

Kids are doing great and anxious for school to be over. The girls just started softball again so that will keep us busy.

oxoxo

Lynn

Week 23

So spring is officially here and my tulips are starting to come up - thankfully the weekend snow didn't kill 'em. :)

We're all doing well, the kids just finished 3rd quarter in school and the girls are doing fantastic -honor roll again! Nicholas is doing much better and on track for a great 4th quarter. They're all so excited that winter is over and school will be done in May. Just two more months.

At my doctor appt. last Thursday we discussed again the possibility to be off chemo by May - this will be pending scans that will be done the end of April. I'm feeling pretty good in general. Anxious to get outside and try to get some of this weight off before chemo is finished. I must be part of a select few that have gained weight on treatment, thanks to weekly steroids. Ugh! We also briefly discussed the next step which will be surgery to remove the primary tumor in my breast. The good news is he sees no reason for a full mastectomy only lumpectomy, the reason for this is since the cancer has already spread it doesn't improve my survival rate now to go thru a full removal. He is much more concerned about my liver so apparently once the primary tumor is removed that is where the focus will remain. Hysterectomy will then follow and so will early menopause - yeah!!! Still all better then chemo in my eyes so have to keep praying nothing starts growing back as soon as treatment ends. :)

Hope everyone enjoys all the sunshine this week!!!

Love and hugs,

Lynn

Week 20

Hello - hope everyone is doing good!

3 More weeks to Spring - yeah!!!!!

I've had a very busy couple of weeks between work, kids, doctors and surgery but hopefully this week will start to slow down.

My Port was put in last Monday and everything went very well, still a little sore but really not too bad. They used the Port on Thursday for bloodwork and it worked great so I'm looking forward to it being completely healed. It is nice not to have the PICC line anymore.

I finally met with my doctor to discuss the scan results in more detail and he explained that everything is shrinking and looking great but he wants me to stay on treatment until the tumors in my liver are gone. :( While I understand and know this is what is best - I really want to be done with this part. I'm so tired of being tired. He said I can "pencil" in May for being my last few rounds but he cannot confirm that will be it. Some of the tumors in the liver are already gone but the majority are still there just getting smaller. He didn't look at the bones right now, concentrating on the liver because that is the largest concern. If the primary tumor is decreasing (which it is) and the liver tumors are decreasing it is safe to assume the bones are too.

Also had a meeting with the Genetics department at St. Anthony and started the process for genetic testing to determine if I or my mom carry either of the "cancer" genes to better understand how this might have happened and the potential for any risk to my kids or my nieces. We should have the results of my moms test on April 1st.

Enjoyed being "off" this weekend and managed a little get away with Nicholas. It was fun and nice to have some alone time. I've gone away with the girls but never just me and Nicholas.

Hope everyone has a great week, enjoy the sunshine and warmer temperatures coming this weekend!!!! I'll be sleeping but enjoy it for me! :)

Week 17

Hello all!

Well, I had my scans last week which turned out not too be so much fun the barium I had to drink did not agree with my system at all but I was feeling much better after replenishing fluids all day Friday.

Due to the weather, I didn't go in for my doctor appt and was hoping to review all results and questions over the phone but that hasn't happened to my satisfaction. I have talked to the nurses who let me know the scans looked really good and the tumors on my liver are shrinking too so treatment IS working and they are all very happy. The tumor indicator blood tests that have been run monthly are only a preliminary indication and do not confirm on their own the treatment is working. After having these scans, they can visually confirm it is working. I'm very happy but I would like answers to how much longer I will be on this treatment, what's next, etc.

I have another appt with my doctor next Thursday to answer my questions and do an exam. :) I also meet with the surgeon next Tuesday for my "pre-op" blood work for surgery to install the Port on Monday, 02/22/10.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Week 16

6 More weeks of winter according to the ground hog! Yuck

It's been a good couple of weeks, knock on wood - I feel really good, all the aches and pains have subsided for the moment and I am enjoying it!!!!

The fogginess or chemo brain as it is affectionately known as is somewhat worse this week but I'll take that over pain for right now.

This Thursday is my scan day and they will finally be looking at everything to determine if in fact the treatments have been working as well as the blood tests have lead us to believe. I will have CT scans of my chest, abdomen and spine. With my next doctor appoint scheduled for February 9th to discuss the results so I still need the prayers and support for a VERY positive outcome. These tests should determine how much longer I will be on this type of treatment and what will be next.

I met with the surgeon last week regarding the Port being put in and the Picc line taken out, he will most likely be the same surgeon for future surgeries if all turns out good.

Love to all!!!!! Let's hope the ground hog is wrong!!!! Positive thoughts for warmer weather!

Lynn

Week 14

Hello all - hope everyone is staying warm and safe!! Only half way thru winter.

I've had a busy couple of weeks lots going on.

Good News: Cold is finally gone!!!, Blood counts have stayed good, I've been off treatment for 2 weeks this time around instead of 1 so I've been awake for 2 weekends in a row and got to take Kyla to tumbling this past Saturday - yeahhhh!

Best News: My tumor markers for this month have gone down again - from 86 last month to 49 this month. Normal according to Rockford is 0-38 so I'm going for zero. Different hospitals use a different number scale apparently - Loyola for example is 0 - 32 ( I think).

Bad News: The reason I've had two weeks off instead of one is my newest issue is my gums, teeth and throat are hurting so badly I couldn't eat solid or spicy foods at all. Since being off two weeks in a row I do feel better and can eat more but I just had another treatment today so it will likely get worse again. In reaction to this my doctor has changed my schedule from 3 weeks on/1 week off to 2 weeks on/1 week off and lowered my medicine by about 15%.

I'm also having trouble with my PICC line because my skin is so sensitive and now he wants me to have a PORT put in my chest instead to avoid any possibility of infection. This will be a surgery I am not looking forward to but in the long run it will probably be better. The PICC is in my arm and a pain - I was just hoping to stick it out and take it OUT!

That's the bulk of my two weeks - really starting to feel good but I know that is going to change now that I'm starting my 4 month. Have to keep remembering how lucky I am and keep plowing ahead.

Love to all - have a great weekend!

Lynn

Week 12

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year! Not too much new. Still fighting this cold but as of last week blood work still good, still no fever so hopefully with some extra fruits and veggies I can get rid of it! Feeling pretty good aside from the cold and looking forward again to this week OFF from treatment. This last month has been a lot harder than the two previous but I'm hoping next month without the added stress of the holidays will be better again.

Pretty frustrated with being sick and tired. Again, I have to remind myself how lucky I am to be doing this well - I know there are many that aren't as lucky.

Kids went back to school yesterday and so far are still happy about it. That will last till about Friday I figure. It's been so cold they can't even play outside. I can't wait for spring!!!!!! I know winter just started but I'm done. :)

Well, back to work. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year!! I'll try to figure out how to post some picture from Christmas.

Love to All!!!

Lynn