Re-Ported

We had a great trip to Michigan. The first round back on Tykerb went pretty well. I definitely had some downtime when I felt crappy, but nothing scary. The house we rented was great and I especially liked having a window seat and a wood burning stove. The weather wasn't as snowy as I was hoping for, but I still feel like I got my winter on. We got back last night and this morning I went and got my new port. I was relieved to have the same doctor putting the new port in that took my old one out. It just makes things easier when the person you're dealing with knows the story. We got there around 8:15 and were out of there by 11:15. Not bad really. Now we're back home and I'm resting comfortably. Once the numbing meds wear off I'll be sore, but hopefully it won't be too bad. The doctor recommended Advil, so clearly he isn't expecting terrible pain. Fingers crossed!

Relief.

I had my scan yesterday and my oncologist called me today at 11:30 (she's great!) with the news that there is nothing showing up in my chest or abdomen (my liver and lungs are still clean!). Yipppee! What a great thing to hear on my first day of the holiday vacation. Merry Christmas to me!!

This doesn't mean I'm cancer free of course. There is most definitely some cancer in my breast and it is growing, so (and I can't believe I'm saying this) I'm looking forward to getting back on treatment.

OK TO GO

I passed my tests and everything looks good except for low white blood cell counts (stay away from me if you're sick). I am good to go ahead, get my CT scan tomorrow and start treatment up again next week.

Port Free and All Scheduled

I went in on Thursday to have my port removed. I was a little nervous about them doing it with just local anesthetic, but it ended up being pretty easy. It was really surreal to have someone cutting into me and pulling that thing out while I was wide awake (no, I couldn't see anything). I was really happy to be leaving with a clear head, not the weird fuzziness you feel after more significant sedation. It is a little sore and pretty bruised, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty good. Now I just need to wait and heal up before I head in for my new one on the 29th.

In the meantime I've gotten scheduled to start back on the trial, finally! Unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to- The drag is that I start back on Tykerb on December 22. Since it is a 5 day on, 9 day off kind of thing, I'll be on treatment over Christmas while Keith and I are up in the UP. Urgh. This was not how I wanted it to go. I was hoping to start the week before, but no such luck. I went around and around with the trial coordinator (who is wonderful) trying to figure out another option, but there just isn't anything to be done unless I want to delay getting started by 2 more weeks (NO THANKS). I'm just going to suck it up. I'm hoping that maybe it will be slightly easier than I remember it since I have had a nice break from treatment (and I don't have a brain tumor!). We'll see...

So this week, I've got a bunch of appointments on Tuesday to make sure I'm still eligible for the trial. Really they're just checking out my heart and liver. All the HER2 targeted drugs are hard on the heart muscle, so they need to make sure mine is still going strong before I start the trial. I'm not too worried, but it'll be nice to hear that things are a definite go! If things are good, then on Thursday I'll go in for a CT Scan to get a baseline of what things look like before I get started (please cross your fingers and toes and send good vibes for a good clean, or close to clean, scan).



Red and Keith and I got out for a nice hike today in Marin County. It was brisk and windy but it sure felt good to get out.