Back to radiation

Our first stop this morning was at the Tom Baker radiation department in the simulator area. This is where they marked me for neck radiation. After that we saw the radiation oncologist. I am going to have 5 sessions on my neck. They will do it from each side. This is to get rid of any tumor as the bone will not grow and heal until the tumor is gone. I will still have chemo on Friday if my counts are good. The only side effects of this radiation should be a sore throat. The radiation area will include both C3 and C6. The doctor says that I will still likely require a plate to be inserted later.

After that we had about 2 hours to go shopping. My sister arrived yesterday from San Frnacisco to stay with me for a week. Certainly good timing since I can't drive.

At 2:00 pm I had my first radiation treatment. There is no messing around with things where Dr. McKinnon is concerned. He only received my file yesterday afternoon.

So there will be radiation Wed, Thurs, Fri and Mon. Lab work, medicial oncologist, and plastic surgeon on Thurs and Chemo on Fri. Not quite the vacation my sister may have been thinking of. Oh well whe gets a first hand look at a portion of my life right now.

Oh I forgot to tell you that I am scheduled for reconstructive surgery on Feb 10. Hurray!!

Bad news is that we have had to cancel our cruise. We are still going to LA for Christmas. We will be leaving on Dec 21st and returning Dec 28th. Hopefully we can get away on a vacation in Jan when my health issues settle down.

Bye for now.

Love C

Spine Doctor says ...

The MRI showed that the third vertebrae was fractured and there was shadowing in the 6th vertebrae both looking like cancer. The result was me spending more time laying flat and not moving. “Same vertebrae that Christopher Reeve broke,” I heard.

By Saturday afternoon I got a room out of the emergency ward. On Sunday I talked with the spine doctor. He filled in a lot of blanks. Most importantly he felt that the extreme measures to keep me stiff as a board and immobile were overkill. He said I could go home!! I just had to wear this very fashionable neck brace collar and avoid strenuous stuff. Driving is a no-no (something about only being able to see straight ahead). As for the bad bone in my neck he said that what people are seeing may be where a tumour had been before the chemo had destroyed it. The results had left a very weak bone that had broken. His preference wasn’t surgery. It was to wait and see how/if the bone healed on its own (4-6 weeks). At some point he said surgery would likely be needed as a preventative measure for future problems, but if the bone healed on its own, that surgery could be put off.

The radiation oncologist will look at things tomorrow and decide if he wants to radiate my neck. We’ll see what he says and also ask how that would affect the bone healing on its own.
So I am on my way home and will know more tomorrow after the radiologist and spine surgeon consult.

Some bad news

The neck xrays looked suspicious. The CT scan confirmed that the cancer has shown up in the neck bones. The third vertabrae from the top has dissolved. The sixth from the top has a spot on it. The reason for my extended sore neck is now clear.

They are taking it very seriously. I'm in a neck brace and not allowed to move AT ALL. No food or water (choking hazards). I'm checked into the Foothills Hospital and may be there awhile. Saturday morning they will do an MRI to determine how many vertabrae have cancer. They need to know because when they put a plate in my neck to stabilize it they want to bolt onto strong bones, not ones that are going to dissolve. There is also talk of radiation therapy before the neck stabilization which would greatly extend my hospital stay because despite my running around for 5 weeks like a regular person, one bad bump can turn me into a quadrapeligic. (Guess that shows I wasn't really pushing it at those body pump classes).

We talk to another neck doctor tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Back on track

After an extra week to recover from chemo, the count was good enough to get my chemo. Now the dust has settled, I have chemo on Fridays and Herceptin on Mondays. Still it's better to be getting treatment than to be sitting at home.

Delayed again

I was at the Tom Baker at 8 am this morning to have my blood test done. At 9:30 am the nurse came to tell me that my white count was still at 1.1 and that I couldn't have chemo. Not good news.

As it was my prescription never made it to the pharmacy on Friday so I waited until 11:30 to have Herceptin.

We will do another blood test this Friday and hopefully my count will be up.

It is now 7 pm and I am tired, depressed, frustrated and not in the mood to write.

Maybe tomorrow.

Bye for now. C

This week's chemo is delayed

Two weeks ago I was able to talk my way past a low blood count and still get the chemo. This week the doctor said "no" when the count was the same low number (1.1 instead of 1.5 minimum). We'll try another blood test on Monday and try to get the chemo in then.

It's getting close to the end of this round of chemo. If I can get three more in before the 10th of December, then I'm done with chemo. I'll still get the Herceptin every 3 weeks for 9 more months but that stuff is pretty easy to take.

A "crick" in my neck

It's not that I think that everything that happens to me is blog worthy. It's just that nothing much has happened lately (a good sign)so I thought I'd mention my neck.

Necks are important. They supply a great place to hang necklaces. They also seem necessary to turn your head. Mine does the first, but not the second. I hurt it opening a door about 2 weeks ago. The door wouldn't budge but I had the benefit of all those classes at the gym. I gritted my teeth and REALLY pulled. It opened. My head jerked. My neck hasn't been the same since. I've seen the chiropractor a couple of times, a doctor once, and used lots of heat, cold, massage and sleep. The end result is my neck still hurts and I can't turn my head. Handy if you're Frankenstein. Annoying in all other cases.

I may try a different chiropractor, or I may just take the doctor's muscle relaxants and sleep until spring. Either way, don't drive in my blind spot because shoulder checking when I change lanes is out of the question.

Chemo #3

This weeks treatments went a little quicker than usual. I only have to see the doctor before the Herceptin/chemo treatments and not before the "chemo only" treatments. If I don't have to see the doctor than I can have my blood drawn at the local labnear where I live and not at the Tom Baker. So that turned a 1 1/2 hr appointment into a 15 minute appointment.

Yesterday the nurse called me a 2:30 pm to give me my blood results. She said no chemo. I said "What!!". She said my neutrophils (a type of white blood cells) were too low. Mine are 1.1 and the bottom end of the range is 1.5. But I told her how good I was feeling. She said she would ask the doctor. At 5:00 pm he said as long as I was feeling good that we could go ahead.

So I will have to be extra careful for the next 10 days as not to catch anything. I am going into this chemo on a low point and it will only get lower. So no Superstore for me and lots of hand washing. And it is flu season as well.

So today my friend Colette and I went for chemo. The chemo wasn't ready because the order didn't make it to the pharmacy until this morning. So we got to go for coffee. We started chemo at 11 am and were done at 11:30 am. Nice and quick!

I had a nice nap when I got home and am feeling good right now. I am still not eatting much as my taste buds don't want to cooperate. But I am getting by. They see to be normalizing a bit but I don't want to get carried away with trying to many things yet. The Greek salad last night didn't get touched much.

I don't know if I wrote in the blog or not but about 3 weeks ago I pulled some muscles in my neck. They have been really sore and it hurts to shoulder check when driving, tipping my head back to drink and especially at night to turn over. I am seeing my chiropractor, having some massage therapy and taking some muscle relaxants when needed. So that is why I have not been at the gym the last few weeks. Thanks for all the Emails from my friends at WHC who have been concerned. I will be back as soon as I can. Worked out extra hard for me.

Well I hope that everyone has a nice weekend. I will take it easy and hope the neutrophils increase.

Love to everyone.

Carolin