Wait and See...

Not much new here. I'm feeling pretty good all things considered. My heart rate is back down to normal this week, so I'm chocking up the racing heart rate I was having to the chemo (or even more likely the steriods I get around the chemo time) not the Herceptin. What a relief!

Keith and I went to see the breast surgeon today. He showed us pictures of the two CT scans of my liver and the change is really pretty impressive. We had only read the report, we hadn't seen the pictures before. I hoped to get a better feel for what is to come, but didn't really learn much. He seemed reluctant to speculate before he sees the scans I will get after my 6th round of TCH (the chemo cocktail). So I guess there isn't much to do but wait and see how things look at the beginning of July. I'm not really a fan of "wait and see", I'm a planner and this is putting a real crimp in my style.

Back when Keith first came out here and we were looking for a place to rent, we looked at a place in Berkeley owned by a woman named Lily. I liked her; she was quirky and she would have been a difficult land lady, but she told me I was a "life surfer". I didn't really feel like one at the time, but I do these days. I'm just riding this wave, not sure where I'll end up, but trying my bestest to enjoy the trip.

The long weekend means no chemo for me until Tuesday. Hopefully that will go easily (fingers crossed by blood counts are good enough to go ahead with it!!). It will be a busy day over there with all the Monday folks squished in with the Tuesday folks.

Three Lovely Years!

Three years ago Keith and I got married and I love him more now than ever! Despite this cancer crap I'm a lucky fucker (well at least in some ways).

I had another Herceptin drip today. My heart rate is still a concern, but we're just going to monitor it for now. The good news today is that my tumor markers are down (they're down to 67 from 133). This is still higher than normal levels, but it is going in the right direction.

I'm feeling really pretty good after the last round. I started taking an iron supplement and it is making a huge difference (that and all that beef broth I've been forcing down). Red (the dog) and I went for a 3.5 mile walk today. I usually get between 2 and 3 miles in, but when I'm tired we do several short walks. Doing a "full pull" is something that I haven't felt energetic enough to commit to in a while.

There are however, a lot of little niggley side effects. I have crazy twitching muscles (right now it is a little muscle right below my right eye), hot flashes (hello chemical menopause), taste buds that don't taste much (therefore I eat more, urgh), my GI tract is always messed up in some way no matter what I do. Now, none of these are terrible (somedays the hot flashes are really intense - I'm trying to find a pattern there, but no luck so far) but they are pretty annoying. The reality is, if these are my only problems, I'm doing pretty well.

4th chemo down!

Keith and I are enjoying having his folks out for a visit. We're showing them the sights and just simply loving spending time with them. I can't tell you how fun it is to show them our neck of the woods. We never in a million years thought they'd make the trek. It's been so nice having them around. What a treat!! Time has flown and we can't believe they're leaving on Thursday.

After last week's great news I was actually looking forward to my cocktail this week. Everything went smoothly yesterday (a little bit of delayed start, but that seems par for the course). I was reveling in the 'comprehensive' part of the cancer center in Berkeley. While I was getting my infusion, I met with the dietician who gave me some great things to help with my anemia (which is getting progressively worse). One of her suggestions was to cook up a batch of beef bone soup (essentially beef broth). I did just that and will be slurping that down with some veggies and maybe even some noodles too.

After the dietician stopped in, I saw the doctor who was filling in for my oncologist (that was just a quick check in) and then I met the social worker. She is really lovely. She sympathized with my frustration at the amount of wait time at the Berkeley facility (and I didn't even bring it up). She gave me suggestions of support groups to try- both at the center and a couple of other places. She also gave me permission not to go to any if I don't feel like it, since the most appropriate group for me would be a metastatic cancer support group and I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. She also reminded me of all the other programs they have going on there like qigong, yoga, meditation, stress reduction workshops, and more. It's tricky for me to fit everything in while I'm working, but I'm hoping to explore more of these when summer vacation rolls around.

Today I went for my neulasta shot (to keep my white blood cell counts up) and I went to see the cardiologist for an echocardiogram. Turns out my heart looks fine (maybe slightly larger than last time, but it is so slight it may just be differences in measuring). What a load off my mind! If my heart didn't look so good, I'd have to go off the Herceptin (not a good thing!).

In other news one of my friends sent me a care package of several books and a couple of the cutest (and softest!) hand knit hats. One of those books is the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It's the first in a series of books (and I'm a huge fan of series at the moment). I loved the book so much that I went out and bought the next couple of books in the series. I'm loving them too. Thankfully there are a 11 books in the series, so I won't run out too soon.

This cocktail seems to be working!

My normally stoic oncologist was borderline giddy today as she went over my CT scan results. My liver tumors have shrunk a ton!!! The big tumor in my liver that had a volume of 36 mL now has a volume of 5 mL. This is cause for celebration!

Assuming things keep going this way, my doctor predicts my liver may be "resolved" by the end of this round of chemo. I won't be done with cancer, I'll still need some surgery and I'll still be getting Herceptin, but it will be a huge step in the right direction!

good news!

Eileen just called me from the infusion center as she awaits her next Herceptin drip. She spoke with the oncologist, who said something to the effect of "if it wasn't bad for your liver, I'd suggest champagne". Her liver tumors have shrunk markedly- they're 85-90% smaller than they were!!

Whew. Things are going in the right direction. Whew whew whew!

Thanks for all the good vibes.

Scan Day...

Went in at 7:30, drank about a liter of mocha flavored barium sulfate drink (I still like the plain better, but mocha is definitely better than banana, yuck!), waited an hour and 45 minutes, got stuck on the first try (yippee!), was injected with radioactive iodine (note: if you ever get this done- the iodine will make you feel like you have peed on yourself, you haven't...thankfully the radiologist that did my first CT scan warned me) and five minutes later my CT scan was done. I went home, ate a little breakfast and went on to work. My stomach has that lovely barium gurgle, but otherwise I'm fine. Hopefully the doctor will have results to go over with me tomorrow afternoon, as my next dose of Herceptin drips in.

In other news the insurance company has finally started to pay my oncologist! I knew they would eventually, but it certainly took a while.