Clean Lungs

I saw the pulmonologist today. I was cranky because she was running late by 45 minutes or so. I know I complain about this a lot, but I just can't get over it. I understand emergencies, but I can't imagine there are this many emergencies. Anyway, my crankiness went away when I finally saw her and she told me my lungs are clean. Whatever showed up on my PET/CT in December is gone. I guess I really did have pneumonia. So after waiting 45 minutes we talked for 5 minutes and I bid her farewell. My pulmonolgist is very nice, but I'm hoping I won't see her for a long time!

Otherwise I'm doing fine. My gullet has finally gotten back to normal (just in time to get fucked up again!). My energy is decent, my hair is almost all gone. I'm actually anxious for the rest to come out because the bits that are left are like little prickers when I put my head on my pillow at night. I don't remember it being like this last time, maybe I just blocked it out. Wearing a hat helps, but I take my hat off in my sleep (maybe I get too hot...).

I'm hustling at work to get things pulled together for next week. I got most things squared away today, but there is more to do!

Second Opinion

Keith and I headed to UCSF Thursday for a second opinion. The doctor we saw specializes in HER2+ breast cancer. We arrived early (traffic was good) and she was running late, so we waited around for quite a while. When she finally came in she took her time with us. She was really quite positive about my prognosis. I believe her words were "not curable, but highly treatable". Apparently my flavor of cancer (HER2+) is generally very receptive to chemo and my particular cancer certainly seems to follow that trend.

She thinks my current regime is good and she agreed that it seems to be working (I'll spare you the photographic evidence). So I'll continue along with treatments and get a scan after 5 or 6 rounds. I never completely recovered from last year's chemo, so there's concern that I won't be able to complete all 6. Regardless, if things look good, then she'd advocate that I consider surgery and radiation to get rid of whatever is left.

It feels good to have another doctor evaluating my case and I'm looking forward to being able to run things by her when I come to the forks in the road.

Otherwise I'm feeling pretty good, some gullet issues are still hanging around, but I think I'm turning the corner. Right now, I'm enjoying a rare Sunday night without work tomorrow!

Second Round Down

My drip took almost six hours on Tuesday! Urgh. I got home and was completely wiped out. It was a mix of them running late and a slight change in my pre-medications. I'm hoping it won't take that long ever again!

I'm feeling pretty good, a little tired, a little oogly stomach-wise, but nothing terrible. Red and I have been doing my prescription walks and today I even got some schoolwork done! I've got a CT scan tomorrow afternoon. It is a followup to check on my lungs. I'm thinking it will be all clear since my nasty chest cold seems to be a distant memory at this point.

I guess that's it for now.

Coming Up on Round Two!

I thought I'd have a doctor free week last week (my only doctor free week until the middle of March, yikes!), but no such luck. On Wednesday night I noticed that the bruise I had from an unsuccessful IV stick from my MRI two weeks ago had doubled in size and had a fresh blue hue to it. Yikes! My vein was leaking! I called the doctor and was told to come in the next day at 10:30 (urgh, this meant I had to get a sub at work). Well, better to get it checked out; I'm figuring my platelets are really low and I may even need a transfusion. So I head over to the cancer center at 10:30, blood is drawn, and I head upstairs to see the nurse practitioner. When I finally saw her (1.5hrs later) she said my labs looked fine (woo hoo!). She looked at my arm and I retold the story of the bad stick by the radiologist. She said it sounds like this whole thing is just a result of poor technique and me bumping it just right. She even apologized for having me come in. What did I learn from all this? I'll be going to the cancer center before my future scans to get my IV started- they're experts at starting IVs!

In other news, my hair is starting to fall out again. I was trying to put off shaving my head as long as possible but tonight I gave up. I was shedding everywhere and my scalp really hurt, so it's hat time again!

The weather here is completely gorgeous so Keith and Red and I went for a really great hike up in the hills today. It was so nice to get out and feel the sun!

Tuesday is round two of chemo. The upside (and downside) of skin involvement is you can see it. It looks to me like it's working.....so I must say I'm kind of looking forward to chemo. That's fucked up!