Sunday, October 27, 2013

Tamoxifen is a sick joke!

It was decided that Tamoxifen would be the best thing for me to take in addition to the chemo to try to tackle the spine tumors where the chemo wasn't doing the full trick.   I've been on this evil crap for just about a month now and I have to say, I spoke to soon 2 weeks ago when I said that other than a couple more hot flashes than I was already having, it really wasn't so bad.

That was a big fat lie and the full side effects have taken over and I have resorted to sleeping on a beach towel draped from my pillow to my feet to sop up the sweat. Sounds delightful doesn't it? I'm not so sure how I am supposed to live my life like this for the next 5 years! I think I would rather have a tooth pulled with no Novocain.

Other than having to deal with the new side effects of this crap, I'm fairing much better after my chemo treatments which is a blessing. Because of the medical MJ and having come up with a routine each week, the nausea and the vomiting are finally at bay.  It took a while to work out the whole dosing situation and knowing what worked but I'm so grateful that I am able to have the alternative to all of the synthetic drugs that the doctors prescribe hand over fist.

I am happy to report that I am down to barely any pain medication and I'm basically taking a combination of synthetic anti-nausea meds along with my medical MJ which naturally takes the place of many of the others.

I just finished #11 last week and I have another treatment scheduled next Thursday. For November, I will start the month with another PET scan (I haven't had one since June when I was first diagnosed) so we're hoping that the tumors have all either shrunk or have been annihilated enough so that there is "No Evidence of Disease" or in our cancer world NED. Once I am declared NED, then I can stop the chemo and go on maintenance mode and pray the cancer doesn't return anytime soon. I read someone's blog who is also living with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer and she described the cancer as a quiet tenant in her body.  As long as the tenant remained quiet then that was fine, for now. It's how we want it to be so we can live the new normal life with cancer.




Having so much fun I forgot #10!

Clearly I'm joking but I did forget to post my usual chemo picture for #10.