GOOD NEWS! And a little bad but I'm hanging my hat on the GOOD!

On Tuesday I had my chest xray and my chest CT to have a look at how things are going and to assess whether or not the Gemzar chemo I am on, is doing its thing.

Jeff and I sat with the Dr. yesterday for the results and here's the good news: My tumor markers in the blood tests have gone down significantly, yay. AND, the best news evah is that the majority (I'll circle back to this) of my tumors in my lyphnodes in my chest have also significantly gotten smaller! Dr. C said that my largest tumor was 4 centimeters and it's now 4 millimeters! This is all unbelievable news and I'll take it!

There was a little bad news and that is that there are a few stubborn (in true Tracy fashion) tumors that are not responding to the treatment.  The are trying to escape out the back door so Dr. C has to come up with a plan that will continue to work on the tumors that are responding while also tackling these little bastards that are not cooperating.  They've also noted that there is more fluid around my heart (pericardial effusion) so I had another echo cardiogram today that will give more information and determine whether or not I will have to have this fluid drained.

As far as my treatment plan goes, I'm waiting to hear from the Dr. on next steps but the options are:

1. Stay the path with Gemzar and add hormonal therapy (Lupron & Tamoxifen) OR
2. Stay on Gemzar but add another chemo med OR switch completely to another chemo med all together

I am waiting to hear back on what the next steps are.

As for non medical updates,  I was given the green light to go ahead and go to Bermuda with Jeff next week! We couldn't be more excited as we haven't had a vacation this year (if you don't count running around with Big Dipper for the shows this winter) and we could really us a change of scenery for a few days.

Thanks for reading and caring and for continuing to send as many positive thoughts that you can all muster up!

More to come.
xxoo

Treatment #6 behind me

This was another rough week.  My nurse thought we'd try something new to see about taming my nausea and power vomiting on the night of treatment.  We tried this patch that is supposed to be able to keep the side effects at bay for 7 days.  The patch was off by 7pm Tuesday night.  So much for that. One of the side effects of the patch was a migraine. Check, I got that. I thought I'd stick it out to see if maybe the migraine would subside with tylenol and the patch would take over and manage my vomiting. Nope. Didn't do that either. After what seemed like hours of emptying everything in my stomach (which wasn't much to begin with) I proceeded to sleep it off from Tuesday night until around 430pm Wednesday afternoon. I finally got something in my stomach and it's stayed there, thank goodness.  

I've lost a total of 19 pounds since sometime in April. Not the ideal way to lose weight but I'm keeping an eye on it.  I was up for some weight loss before this all started so I'm good there, but I just hope I can stop it when I hit the ideal weight that's healthy for me.

No pics of me effing off cancer this week. They all came out crappy so not worth sharing. 

So here's the update:  I have an off week next week, YAY.  Instead I go for some labs, a chest CT and a chest Xray to see what this chemo is doing to these little bastard cancer cells.  I am going with my gut, but trying to not get my hopes up too much, that this is actually working. When I started this, my pain was about a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. I would say at worst, my pain is about a 2 most times of the day. This means something's working! Between the meds and my medical cannabis that I am taking for pain and nausea, everything is working hand in hand to get me to the point of living somewhat of a normal life.  I really want to get my life back soon. Or at least something that resembles what my life was. 

My doctor is adamant about me getting off of chemo as soon as I possibly can.  What does that mean? It means that my results have to be positive AND at some point I am going to have to endure another invasive biopsy to try to see what this cancer is exactly to see if I can switch over to a hormonal treatment orally and not IV chemo. Won't that be nice?  

Here's the rub. My cancer is made up of all sorts of small tumors in all sorts of places as mentioned before: my abdomen, my lung, my spine, my lymph nodes. So the issue is that without one decent sized mass, they are having a hard time getting a sample large enough to tell them what they need to proceed with another type of treatment. I have had 2 inconclusive invasive biopsies for NOTHING! My big question next week is how the heck they plan to get a sample large enough and where will it come from? Stressing me out? You betcha. 

Visitor update:  We just had an amazing time with Jeff's cousin Sharon and her two beautiful little girls. I was so glad they got to get out and about and see some of what Arizona has to offer. I even felt well enough to spend one night up at the Scottsdale Princess last Saturday night and it was a welcome change from our 4 walls.  I am starting to go stir crazy for sure. 

Well, not a very riveting update but just wanted to check in for those that have been asking.

This past week I received some fun books, some wonderful CDs to help calm me, plants for my yard and a hummingbird feeder, an awesome bracelet and today I received an adorable ceramic kitty all the way from Japan! Thanks everyone xoxo

Big thank you's go out to all of our friends and family who have continued to send me all kinds of sweet cards and gifts to cheer me up and keep me going! I love you all and I absolutely could not make it through this without all the love and support.