Long Overdue Update

It has been well over a year since I last posted. I wanted to assure everyone that I am feeling well and busy as ever. I have had to deal with some long term side effects of the treatment - fatigue, depression, bone loss, heart functioning loss and menopause, but it sure beats the alternative :-) The first picture was taken after the AVON 40 mile walk in April. It was an amazing experience. Thanks to many of you, I was able to raise over $2400 in six weeks. I plan on participating again this year. The second picture was taken at the Denver Susan Komen walk in which is participated with my parents and 55,000 other people - WOW.

Next doctor visit in December -at least I am getting a reprieve there.

All Done

An even longer time than before has passed, which is an indication that I am doing well and healing both physically and spiritually. The last surgery went well and I was traveling 4 days later for business. This was followed by my tattooing that took place this week. I asked for a butterfly but alas all the nurse does is aureoles. Yes, very exciting stuff :-) It took us quite a while to agree on the size and color, but I am happy. The bandages come off today. As of this week, I am now on maintenance visits only - YEAH!!!!! One downside to all of this is the financial burden. I still owe Hopkins around 75k, which my insurance company is denying. The hospital keeps submitting the bills, but insurance says I was taking experimental drugs. Yet, the drugs are in their formulary. We keep trying. So far, I have not been given a bill, which I could not pay at this time anyway.

The picture is from my bat mitzvah. It took place the week before my daughter's. I spent the last year studying with a group of 13 other wonderful women. Now I only have 9 things left to do on my list (e.g. 10 things to do before I ..). Notice I still have the very curly chemo hair.

Herceptin Done! Now Surgery

Yeah my Herceptin is finally finished. Now on to my final surgery I am scheduled to have surgery on Wednesday afternoon. It should be fairly short and be outpatient. This is just nipping and tucking from my September surgery. I look forward to this coming to a close - at least all the big stuff. I will have Mark post that evening.

2 Is My Lucky Number!!!!

Yes yes long time no post. This is a good sign. I am now down to only 2 more Herceptin treatments. My last MUGA was good (above 50%) so they gave me the green light to proceed. I can tell I am more winded than last month but I do know that I will recover some of that when Herceptin stops. The last treatment will be April 24th. You should hear a big whopee from Maryland that afternoon. I really hate going to oncology. It just reminds me that I am a cancer patient so ending that chapter in my life will be a relief.

I will be having surgery April 29th to create nipples (yep pretty exciting stuff) and shape my breasts a bit more. Right now they are sort of oval and too flat and wide to be realistic. My plastic surgeon is confident the results will be nice. This will be outpatient so I should only lose three days of work and the weekend. Although, full recovery will take about 4 weeks. In June I get my tattoos. I wonder if I can get a butterfly too? Just kidding Mark would not be happy.

The big big news is that on April 10th I will be a 2 year survivor. My cousin, the oncologist, tells me that the highest rate of recurrence is in the first 2 years. The next highest is at the 6-7 year mark. So I have a way to go before I can breathe a big sigh of relief.

I feel great. We just got back from a week vacation in the Caribbean and I wore a 2 piece bathing suit! Nothing like a tummy tuck to help with that. Of course, it was a very conservative 2 piece.

One Down and 4 to Go

Before treatment I met with the PA and we went over my tests from last week. My MUGA was at 58% so good (I need to stay above 50%). I guess I will never be back to the %67 I had before chemo. My bone scan shows signs of Osteopenemia (early Osteoporosis) due to the lack of Estrogen in my body. She started me on Fosamax to help rebuild bone density. After that it was off to my 3 hour chemo treatment.

I made it through my Herpcetin treatment. Mark was astute enough to realize that when I needed to cover myself with my coat and a warm blanket that meant I was having a reaction to the medicine. The drip was stopped and I was able to resume about 30 minutes later with only a few shakes. I was wiped out at the end of the day, but recovered by Saturday.

I have two more scheduled and then another MUGA. Let's keep our fingers crossed that I can get them all in!

A long long awaited update

Oh my, I feel horrible about not posting in such a long long time. Where to begin.... Yes, the infection did clear up, but it left some nice scars on my chest. I saw my plastic surgeon last month and he wants to perform clean up surgery in February. I may put it off to early March when my travel schedule is not so hectic. I met with my oncologist the day after Christmas. She ordered a MUGA for me the end of January. If it comes back with a good ejection rate they will start Herceptin again on February 1st. Of course, paying for the treatment is a whole other story. We currently owe Hopkins about $30,000 and this will rise as I get more treatments. Ugh.... In spite if that, I can honestly say that I feel fantastic. The chemo brain has lifted, I am power walking at least 2.5 miles every day and I have lost 8 pounds since November 1st. My doctor is also finally switching me to an aromatase inhibitor instead of Tamoxifan. This drug is designed to prevent the cancer from coming back. You have to be post menopausal to take it. That is why my ovaries were removed back in February. This drug is slightly more effective than Tamoxifan and even slightly better is good enough for me. However, the drug has two possible side effects; bone loss and cognitive loss. Thus, I am taking a bone density test for a baseline before I start the drug and then I decided to participated in a study at Hopkins to see if there are cognitive impairments associated with taking the medication. I go to Hopkin on the 14th for a battery of neurological and cognitive tests. Wow.. This is a long post. Thanks for reading to the bottom. I will try and be better. I guess you can see from the infrequent posting that life is returning to our hectic normal.

Still Fighting the Infection

It has been a week since I saw the doctor and the infection is still not better. I called Hopkins last night and they said as long as I was not running a fever I was OK. Otherwise, a trip to the ER was in order. I think this morning the wound looks a bit smaller so want to hold off one more day before I call the doctors office. It does not hurt as bad as it could as the breast area where the incision lies is somewhat numb. I on the other hand I am somewhat achy from the infection and went to bed at 8:30 last night. I plan on doing that again tonight. On the plus side, I am walking more upright now :-)