No chemo today

Yesterday I went for my pre-chemo doctor appointment. After hearing my symptoms from the past 3 weeks of a tight chest, arm pain, tired and nauseated the doctor poked and prodded. Enter doctor #2. More poking and prodding. A collective shrug summed up what they thought had created my past three weeks of troubles. Unfortunately they had very good imaginations for things that were possible candidates. I walked out requiring a chest x-ray and an ECG for my heart and with instructions of what to do if certain past symptoms reappeared. I thought it was just another day of using all the cancer center's fancy equipment.

The phone call in the afternoon let me know that the chest x-ray showed a dark area in the upper portion of my left lung that could have been residual effects of pneumonia (maybe that was the chest tightness but I never had any coughing). It was getting better but this likely explained a bunch of my symptoms. It could also be that my port is leaking but he didn't think it looked like cancer. For me, it's nice to have something that regular people get. Unfortunately that means no chemo tomorrow. That'll be the first one that I've missed but it's going to be delayed until after the CT scan next week. The doctors will take a closer look at how things are going in my liver, and then decide what to do next for chemo. As for the pneumonia, it's getting better on its own so I don't get anything for it.

I called the Tom Baker this morning to see if I still go in for Herceptin or not. Looks like chemo is off but Herceptin is on. They want to keep that one on schedule. Looks like I am supposed to see my doctor again as well. I'll update the blog when things are less confusing.

This weekend might be more enjoyable than I had expected (if I don't sleep through it).

Love
Carolin

a little tired and nauseated...

I am a little tired this weekend. Friday I slept until 2:30 in the afternoon until Sandy made me go for a walk with the dog. I felt a little better after that. We were supposed to go out that night to celebrate my brain tumor being gone and the approval of Sandy's thesis but I wasn't feeling good enough to go. My tummy is a bit off. There are very few foods that do not cause me to be nauseated when I think of them. Things are either too sweet, too salty, too dry or too something else. I quite like soup, cereal and popsicles.

I hate to jix things but I think my hair is starting to grow. It is feeling a little stubbly. Some of you may know already that Sandy, Jessica and I are going on a cruise in December. We are going from Miami to Panama Canal and back to Miami. From there we are flying to LA to have Christmas with Sandy's Dad and Mona. I was really really hoping to have hair for the cruise. It may just happen yet.

This week looks pretty quiet. I have a lab and doctor appointment on Thursday and Chemo on Friday. Number 4 of 6. The following week I have a CT of my liver to see if this chemo is actually working. If it is we continue, if not we switch to something else.

Thank you to everyone for there wonderful and support Emails in reponse to me brain tumor. I feel very lucky and very blessed for this good news.

Bye for now.

Love Carolin

Fantastic News !!!

My catch-all cancer doctor is great at pulling all my specialists together and explaining to me what is going on. She also takes the time to go into things in detail and answer the questions that I come up with long after I've left those specialists' offices. (Not that those guys aren't great too. They just can't wait around all day while I think about what they've said)

In a visit to Dr. Taylor yesterday she was very pleased that my brain tumor was gone. GONE???!! I calmed her down and explained that the radiation oncologist had said the latest scan had just shown it had shrunk. Dr. Taylor is not one to be put off. Her interpretation of the radiologist's report on the CT scan was that there was "no lession".

So she talked to another of my doctors the same day. Together they went over the report and then went directly to the scans themselves. Their verdict - no tumour!!! They hastened to add that there still could be tumours present that are too small to be detected.

As I've said, Dr. Tayolor is thorough. She'll close the loop by talking to my radiation oncologist in Banff this weekend to see if there's something they are all missing. But at least for the next few days, I'M missing a big old ugly lump of cancer in my head.

On this crazy cancer rollercoaster, this would be one of the high spots!!

Little glitch..

I have been feeling fine lately. I went to the gym on Monday and did my weight class. Yesterday Rylie and I did a small (very small) run. We have increased our time to 3 minute run and a 2 minute walk for 35 minutes. Not much to some of you but lots for me. It was challenging but attainable.

I hit a really tired period around 2 pm yesterday when I was out doing errands. I think I will try to stay home in the afternoons for an hour or so before Jessica gets off the bus to recharge my energy.

Last night I was not feeling well at all. I woke up all nauseated (sp?) and took 2 of my powerful anti-nausea pills. But that only lasted 2 hours until I was losing my supper and had to wake Sandy up to take care of me. I did sleep better after that though. I will watch what I eat this morning and make sure that I am feeling OK.

All other side effects are still at bay. Working my way down on the steriods and should be off this weekend. Hopefully I can stay off them for a longer period this time.

Love

Carolin

So far, so good

Good morning! This is Sunday morning and things are still fine. No side effects so far. Last time I had chemo on Wednesday and then slept all day Saturday and Sunday. This time I had chemo on Friday so my sleeepy days could still show up tomorrow or Tuesday. But hopefully not.

It has been rainy and cold here which is a good reason for me to stay in the house, scrapbook and relax and not feel like I should be getting anything done. Something I don't do very well.

Well just a quick note as I know people are concerned about how I am feeling.

Love Carolin

Chemo #3

This morning was chemo#3. My friend Karen came with me to keep me company. They put me in a bed rather than in a chair. It was much more comfortable for the 2 1/2 hours. The port worked as it should. One needle poke and it was done. I did have some shoulder pain on my left side this time and some tightness across my chest. This is the first time that this has happened but the nurse says that this sometimes happens with a port. It went away after I laided down flat and had a hot blanket put on. It was a disturbing feeling though.

Tonight I was very fortunate to have a hot dinner delivered to our family from a family at Jessica's school as well as many, many frozen meals for our freezer and lots of baking (someone is always looking out for Sandy). What a nice unexpected and truly appreciated generousity. No meal planning for me this week. I don't know what the side effects of chemo will be this time or when it may or may not show up. So far I am feeling OK. I plan to be in bed early tonight as not to tire myself out. It looks like it will be a cold and rainy weekend which is good for watching movies and reading.

Looks like I will have 1 more chemo's before my liver CT. My next chemo is Sept 30. The liver CT is scheduled for October 7. That will be lots of time to see if the chemo on my liver has been working. I sure hope so.

For those with a Dr.'s degree I will write exactly what the radiologist wrote about my brain tumor. For those without a Dr.'s degree get out the big dictionary.

"Marked interval decreased size of previously described superior vermian metastasis. No residual mass detected. No evidence of new interval intracranial metastatic disease."

That is great news. Now I need to get off these steriods and see if I can keep the headaches from coming back.

Have great weekend everyone!!!

Love Carolin

Back to a healthy lifestyle

Well I took the entire month of August off from going to the gym. Other than walking the dog and my big breast cancer walk, my body had a whole monh to lay about. So this was the first week back to working out. I have decided to start running again. My last run was back in February. I am starting out really really slow and running 2.5 minutes and walking 2.5 minutes for a total of 35 minutes. My legs have been fine but my lungs are burning. Rylie says that running is harder than walking too. On Wednesday was my first day back at the gym. I did a Body Pump class. It was nice to see all my friends again after the summer and it felt good to sweat hard in a class. Hopefully I can keep things up through this next round of chemo.

So Jessica is back at school and life is returning to a normal schedule. That works good for me.

I had a wonderful weekend in Pincher Creek. Got 19 pages completed without any pressure and that felt great. Now that I have a new scrapbook room upstairs I hope to do more pages at home in my spare time.

That is about it. I am going to try and wean myself from these steroids. I am quite disturbed but the weight gain. I am not having any other side effects other than my hands shake. But that is a small side effect.

Gotta run to get Jess from the bus.

Love Carolin

Tag team doctors

At the appointment today I had a radiation oncologist and a medical oncologist filling me in on what was going on. The brain tumor has shrunk which is very good news. There isn't any swelling, other tumours or ragged edges at the tumour site - more good news. They don't know why I have headaches that I need the steroids for. He won't do the "tactical radiation" on my head until the liver tumours are under control. When asked "why wait" he seemed to be saying that the seriousness of the liver problem meant that if it didn't get the liver cancer under control, there wasn't any reason to take the risks associated with the brain radiation. Gotcha - the liver problem will kill you first.

The third round of chemo (which is for the liver) is tomorrow. I'm hoping that I don't get the same side effects as last time. Otherwise I see a lot of pillows and toilet paper ahead for the weekend.