Week 74

Hello All- Spring is hopefully here - yeah!! Hope everyone is doing great! Had scans this week and saw my Oncologist again - 30% reduction in tumor markers and size of spots in liver so this has brought me 2 more months off chemo. I'm sooooo happy. My doctor is hopeful that if the numbers continue to improve now that all the surgeries are done and the new meds seem to be working I can hopefully make it thru the whole summer without more chemo. I've finally lost all the weight I gained from the steriods and he said all I can do now is take are of myself, reduce my stress (ha) and exercise more. I'll see him again the end of May and I will have another brain scan in May and see the radiologist too but they figure if my markers are improving and the headaches are almost gone that is a sign. After an overnight stay in the hospital with Kyla following her appt. with the specialist (he wanted to evaluate the seizures for himself right away to determine the best treatment) she is doing really well with a higher dose of medication and feeling like herself again. She's really excelling at tumbling and so excited at all the new things she is learning. Shauna joined the track team in Jr. High and their first meet is Monday. It's a lot of hard work but she seems to enjoy it so far, hope she sticks with it. The girls will both start Softball again in May. So far nothing for Nicholas until the end of summer when Football starts again but we'll see about finding more to do for the summer. :) Hoping work will settle down so I can reduce my hours a little more. Financially not great but overall better for my health. Hope to be able to actually get out and see some of you in the near future now that the weather is getting better and I'm on a longer leash for the time being!! Love to All!!

Week 71

Hello All,

Internet at home hasn't been working and still working too many hours so haven't had the opportunity to update my blog. :(

Hope everyone is doing great - spring is coming - yeahhhhhhh!!!!

Doing ok at the moment - radiation was rough, somehow caught strep in the middle of it but at least the throat pain took my mind off the side affects of the radiation. It's been about 3 weeks since I finished and my hair just started falling out really bad last week but it's in the back underneath and I think it might finally be stopping now so I'm not completely bald again. :) My headaches are finally starting to get better - they're not completely gone but sooo much better.

I will meet with my Oncologist again at the end of March and have scans again on the liver but as of my last visit all was going ok - breast MRI came back clean. Now we just have to get rid of the skull and liver spots for good. I haven't felt this good probably since this all started so I am trying to take advantage of it and I hope the weather gets better quickly so I can get outdoors more with the kids.

Kids are doing good overall. Kyla has had some health issues recently which has been scary for all but we're meeting with a specialist next Wednesday and she is on some preventative medication so hopeful this will be short lived. For those of you who aren't aware I had adolescent epilepsy, something my father passed down to me and I have feared which of my kids might also get it. So far Kyla is the one. I was 13 when it started for me, she just turned 12 and my father was between 13 and 14. Since we know what it is hopefully since she is on medication right away we can prevent any further seizures and she will eventually out grow it just like I did. We'll see what the specialist has to add since I still don't know that much about it just that I was thankful it only lasted about 6 months to a year for me on while on medication I didn't have any further issues.

They are anxious to start Softball in the next few months and I promised Nicholas a hiking trip. :)

Love to All!!!!

Lynn

Week 66

Hi All,

Sorry it's been so long again but it's been a rough several weeks again. Ovaries are out and doing good now but it took a lot longer than I was hoping to feel better. If I'm not at work 9 to 10 hour days I'm at the hospital all day for tests, scans, prep now for radiation.

I was supposed to start radiation on Monday but the doctor called on Friday to tell me they're having "technical difficulties" and will start sometime this week or next Monday, Feb. 7th at the latest. :( Not giving me the warm and fuzzies. He tells me not to worry he just wants to make sure everything is 100% before shooting radiation at my head and while I appreciate that I don't like the potential for technical difficulties after we start.

The headaches are still constant so I am having to take medication 3 to 4 times a day. No fun. The hot flashes aren't bad so as long as they don't get worse that part is going good. :) I've started on the femar (new hormone/chemo pill) and other than some joint pain that's pretty good too. I have another appointment with my oncologist Feb.15th and another round of CT scans to check the liver. If the skull and liver aren't improving or at least stable by then I will go back on chemo no other options at that point.

Ohhhh - some good news - rest of the bone scan came back clear - the only cancer going on is in the skull and the growth in the liver is minimal but still growth is not great.

Kids are doing good - enjoying the blizzard and day off from school today.

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

Lynn

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!!!