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A Discouraging Development.....5th PET scan

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(Photos in today's blog are from my walks at our local park--Oxbow County Park). Virginia waterleaf All those ducklings move as one! Things had been stable for almost a year... However, the cancer never was in remission and my oncologist told me last year I would be living from scan to scan. Because I have been so stable, he and I agreed to push the PET scan from every three months to every four months, so this month's scan was at four months from the last time. The results came back very quickly, within a day. The cancer could be spreading into my bones. I have a very small possibly cancerous lesion at T10 in my thoracic spine. The cancer appears to be active again in my left breast. It has not increased in size but is showing metabolic activity. There is metabolic activity in the skin in the left breast that increased from last pet scan. A lymph node is also showing activity. I knew this was not going to be a good scan as my body has been fighting much more significant fatigu...
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A New Development....

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Things had been going rather smoothly until the last weekend in January. One morning I woke up and felt like my left ear was blocked. I didn't notice how it was going to affect me until my daughter called and I put my phone to my left ear as I always do. I couldn't hear anything but a sqawking, like in that Charlie Brown holiday movie. I even told her, "Something is wrong with the connection! You sound terrible and really far away." Then just for the heck of it, I switched ears and I could hear her normally. But my voice sounded so strange to myself, very muffled and there were odd reverberations like my voice was being distorted. I was so disoriented by this, I thought I'd better go to the urgent care center, so I did. I didn't have any infection, there was just a small bit of fluid in my ear. The nurse practitioner diagnosed it as Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss,  or SSHL.   The NP said to try and get into an ear, nose and throat doctor soon, but didn'...
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Fourth Pet Scan....It's Been a Year, and I'm Still Here!

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  At last report, I was having trouble with bad leg cramps in the large leg muscles, not just calf cramps, but inner thigh cramps, which were the worst, because there really isn't a stretch that will make those go away quickly, like the "shove your toes upwards" to release a calf cramp. I was having major leg cramps almost every night for a couple of weeks. The doctor thought it might be the Exemestane, the hormone blocker, and he was ok with me going off of it for awhile. I went off it for two weeks. Slight improvement. Since the aromatase inhibitor (Exemestane) blocks estrogen and my type of breast cancer, (invasive lobular carcinoma stage 4, ER positive, PR negative, HER2 positive ) feeds on estrogen, I didn't like the idea of only a two pronged approach (herceptin and perjeta), missing the important third component-the estrogen blocker. Back on it I went. I did some more research about diet and supplementing with magnesium. I switched my magnesium supplement to a ...
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Third PET Scan, Hanging in There...

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  I had my third PET two weeks ago....I was worried about a spot on my collarbone that was growing, and so was my oncologist. The results were that the spot has shrunk a little bit! But there is an area of activity in the breast that has the cancer, that is showing activity. So they will continue to watch any spots of activity by continuing a PET scan every three months, indefinitely. I worry about what the radioactivity is doing to my body, it doesn't stay in there very long at all, but it can't be good, having this many in such a short period of time? What does my meds regimen look like?  I switched from herceptin and perjeta infusions which took hours to administer, to an injection that combines those two meds and it is called Phesgo. It is a slowly administered injection in the upper thigh, and it burns like heck when it goes in. If the nurse is careful, and does not hit any scar tissue from previous injections alternating in each leg, the pain is very minimal. Last m...
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Second Scan Results and Not-So-Good Bloodwork

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My latest bloodwork came back with VERY negative kidney results. Without going into a bunch of numbers, my kidneys were showing distress. I knew that I have not been drinking enough water and that dehydration could be the culprit, but they were scary numbers. After seeing the oncologist, he said, because of the way the numbers related to each other, or the pairing of numbers on the kidney functions test, that he was 99% certain that I was dehydrated. He said the numbers were high, but he was not worried. This was a brand new development, my kidneys had not shown any problems previously in all my bloodwork, which is done every three weeks. I'm terrible about drinking water or getting fluids. I probably was drinking less than 24 ounces a day, and that was through the summer. I've been getting leg cramps more lately, and that is an indicator as well. So-o-o-o...get that water bottle going, Sparky, and you should have better numbers next visit. He also told me to drink 5 little bot...
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First Scan After Chemo Ended

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If it's one thing I am learning over and over again, it's that in this cancer journey, there are going to be highs and lows continually.  I had my first PET scan since ending chemo three months ago. I will be having PET scans every three months for quite some time, maybe indefinitely. If there is no new activity, then the PET scans will stretch out a bit more to every 6 months. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best news but it's good news. No tumors are actively present in the breast area or armpit nodes, BUT the cancer has grown a little bit in the clavicle area. This is NOT a new area but an existing one that showed up when I was diagnosed. The doctors are not too worried right now, but I am. I am still losing weight and not trying to do that. The final statement on the PET scan report says, "No evidence of metastatic disease" but I want to shout-"HEY! THERE'S A SPOT GROWING!" What are we going to do about that one? At this point, I do not know.......
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A Consult with a Breast Oncology Surgeon

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Today is a big day in my life as a cancer patient. My oncologist wanted me to have a specialty breast oncology surgeon look at my case. Because of my robust response to chemo, and the lymph node improvements, he wanted a specialist surgeon, not just a regular breast surgeon to look at my scans and results. He suggested a surgeon at the University of Chicago, rated in the top 12 of cancer care centers in the US. I asked why I couldn't just go with the breast care surgeon here locally, as I really liked her, she has excellent credentials. He basically said the difference in training and background was critical. All righty then...off to the Crown Point University of Chicago location for a consult with Dr. Betty Fan. The Crown Point location hospital is a small one, with 8 beds in the receiving patients for surgery, and 8 beds in the emergency room portion. It's only been open for one year. It's a beautiful facility and right off the interstate. With my initial lymph node invol...
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