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
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
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
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
Thursday, July 1, 2010
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
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
Thursday, June 10, 2010
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
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
Thursday, May 20, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
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
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
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