Going to Seattle

Harper and I are taking a quick trip on Wednesday out to Seattle. Going to the Puyallup Fair and then out to the cabin. Should be a fun trip.

Chemo is going well, no bad side effects. I'm tired but not sure I can attribute all of that to the chemo!

Whoa

I got my chemo pills today and thank goodness I have insurance. I had a $20 co-pay, it said my insurance saved me $2159!!! For 14 days!!!

I am going on the theory that since these are really expensive they must work really well. The more it costs the better it is, right?

"THE PLAN"

After talking to the doctor and coming up with a plan (after a zillion questions) here it is:

Going to take Xeloda ( a chemo drug) orally twice a day for 2 weeks and then take a week off. I will do this for 2 or 3 cycles and then test again and see what is going on with the cancer. Hopefully it will have shrunk.

The clinical trial that I am eligible for includes on the of the chemo drugs that I was just taking and was ineffective so it is pointless to do that trial. I am going to try this one drug and see how it works and then we'll either continue with it or else get a new one.

Breast cancer is a bit different than other cancers in that it will respond to different types of chemo so if this one doesn't work it doesn't mean that a different one won't work. So it is just a process of finding the right one.

I am just waiting for the insurance company to approve me taking this drug. The doctor writes a prescrpition for it, obviously wants me to take it, insurance won't cover it till pharmacy faxes doctor's office for permission, they doctor's office calls the insurance company and says that yes, he wants me to take it, and then they will call the pharmacy to tell them it is ok.

I think I freaked the girl out a bit last night, she said "do you need this right away?" and I said, well, the cancer is growing as we speak so yeah, I do. Still waiting to hear back from the insurance company. Errrrrrrrrr!

Good news is that the side effects of this chemo are pretty minimal.

Bad news

Looks like the cancer has spread to my lungs and liver. Doctor is looking into clinical trials right now to see what I qualify for. I told him I'd like to treat this as aggressively as possible. Pretty much sucks right now!

Biopsy Done

Had the lung biopsy done this morning. It went really well, the doctor was so young I wondered if he really could have done so many. But he has and I guess he is the "go to" guy for difficultly placed biopsys. Mine was right next to my heart and aorta so they didn't want to miss and hit anything!

They slid me through the CT scanner a couple of times, numbed me up, put in the needle and then slid me through the scanner a few more times, moved the needle, repeat, repeat, repeat. Then took the sample, took out the needle and I got to rest up for a while to make sure no bad side effects. I'm home and feeling fine.

Biopsy

Lung biopsy scheduled for first thing Tuesday morning. I get Versad with it which makes it much better. I should have results by the end of next week.

A lot of great friends

You know, when faced with a horrible disease I can't imagine going through it without such great friends and family. Although today could have been a really horrible day I was reminded over and over how many people really care and it means a lot to me. All the good thoughts are helpful and I never tire of hearing them!

They had scheduled the biopsy for Tuesday morning but then they found out they misscheduled it so I will find out tomorrow when it is.

Medical Update~ PET Scan results

Met with the doctor this morning and got the results of my PET Scan. The main thing was to compare the results with the PET scan that I did in May. I had a few spots on my lungs and the hope was that they would stay the same throughout my chemo. That would mean that they were not cancer (as the chemo was not effecting them). The next best would be that they dissappeared (they were cancer but the chemo made them dissapear) and the worst would be that they grew (they are cancer (most likely) and the chemo didn't work). Well, lucky me, one of my spots grew from 10mm to 20mm and another one grew from 7mm to 10mm. So I was taken off of the chemo that I have been doing since it does not seem to be affecting the spots on my lungs. There was no other spots of cancer anywhere else.

To verify that it is cancer I am going to get a lung bioposy next week and then they will know for sure what we are dealing with. It is still considered breast cancer, not lung cancer. Assuming it is cancer I will be on oral chemo, two weeks on, one week off, for 6 months or more. Radiation is also on hold for the time being.

This pretty much sucks and is not what we wanted to hear but I will continue to fight this and keep my sense of humor about it. Any good thoughts would be appreciated.

I'll post when the biospy is scheduled. They will go in through my back, CT guided and then pull out the sample. They will have the results within 48 hours of the biopsy.