Trying again, during fight call.

So.... Where were we? Um. To recap, mostly for me, on Tuesday was my oncologist appointment, gave blood to test for the CEA-EIA, on Wednesday during a staff meeting my oncologist calls and leaves a cryptic message of needing to talk about my blood test, I check my messages during the show, and freakout.

Was that where we left off, Thursday morning I call and try to talk to the doctor, but it doesn't work that way any more, so I make an appointment for the following day (Friday).

Friday, my day off, I wait anxiously for the call. Finally the Dr. calls and I blurt out "does this mean the Cancer is hiding somewhere???!" and in a completely unconcerned tone of voice she says "Well, it's mystifying, all your scan are clear except some diverticulitis, so because of this blood test I am going to refer you for a colonoscopy" hmmm, oh. "now because of thus result I have this pain in my lower back..." she laughed. So, she is not too worried. And that means I am not going to worry too much now either.

I am scheduled for a pap smear this Friday, because it's time, and to be safe. And following that a phone consultation with GI, after the consultation we will schedule the colonoscopy, I'm not worried about it, all I heard is they give you good drugs.

So.... That's all things cancer in my world. Other things personal and healthwise, I am doing a elimination diet of a sort, at the moment I am eating an all raw diet, and I gave up caffeine, I am gearing up to do a cure diabetes raw diet, but I haven't read the book yet, so I am eating 99% raw, it's not even that hard, unless I let myself get too hungry. Then I crave, and eat things I shouldn't from the freezer, like chicken nuggets. And I snuck some chocolate. But, I haven't weighed myself, the doctor can do it Friday, but, maybe I can lose 70 pounds be awesome.

Um, the show I am working in now is A Doctor in spite of Himself, and it is very very funny, very silly, and of no redeeming cultural value. Just a huge amount of silly physical comedy and sexual innuendo. I wish everyone could see it.

Next update, Friday afternoon.

Cliffhanger?

I accidentally deleted this and now have only three minutes left of dinner break, so I'll try during the show if you are on pins and needles.

After Radiation, Am I Cured?!?

Uh, no.

So, after radiation was over, I went to see my medical oncologist, as opposed to my radiation oncologist, and I went much better than the first time. She congratulated me on my not needing chemo, and we talked about the tamoxifen, I got the impression that she wouldn't have fought me too much on the tamoxifen if I hadn't wanted to take it. But I figured I'll take it until I have side effects I can't deal with, and I try to lose weight. Losing weight will decrease my chance of recurrence a lot, also the risk for some of the nastier side effects of tamoxifen, she seemed pleased with my choices.
She commiserated with me on the "scaling" of the radiation area, said meet me in 4 months, and let's test that protein marker that was still a little elevated post surgery.

And away I went.

The next day she called, I missed her call, but a check on my online medical account said my protein marker was higher. If you don't remember, presurgery it was 33, post surgery 6.5, normal is 0.0 to 5.0. Now it was up to 14.8.

I made an appointment for a phone consult with the Dr. , since you can't just call, for 48 hours later. As a terrible pain sprang up in my lower back, and anxiety in my heart.

I will leave you with this cliff hanger. I'll post on Wednesday.

My Summer

So, I was realizing, I have to update more often, if I want this blog to mean something. Or be an accurate picture of my life.

Anyway, so, I think I left off with the not having chemo, but having to have radiation. Well, they set me up, tattooed me, three tiny dots, so they can orient the laser grid, like a laser leveler. The initial meeting took an hour and a half, with lots of consultation, drawing with sharpie and the like, I got two of the tattoos then. After that, you wait for two weeks for your first appointment. The first appointment takes a bit of time too, as the technicians line you up, and consult orders and it's signed off on by the doctor. About 25 minutes maybe, but you have to lie in the same position and not move till they are done or they have to start over. Then, it's a quick 15 minutes Monday thru friday, 5 minutes to change, 5 minutes to get zapped, 5 minutes to change back and you are done. I had 30 treatments, 25 in a large square in my chest, and 5 on the scar, it was fine for the first four weeks, then where it had gotten dark pink, it changed to a purply brown, then the brown started to peel, unfortunately, it peeled like a purple sunburn, painful, pink and crusty, everyone reacted like it was pretty normal, and my guess is I was in the middle range of reactions.

The last week was just the scar, so, they made a crazy lead alloy plate about an inch and a half thick. This plate has a cut out 3 centimeters wide and 6 or 7 inches long, it looks a bit like a worm, and its been cut specially for my scar, to radiate only the scar and 1 1/2 cm on either side. I didn't get to keep it. I asked. The regular radiation set up was pretty pedestrian, on a table and away you go, the scar part was alot more space agey, the table you raises some four feet off the ground and they add this 18 inch holder thing for the plate. It pretty wild. I have a strange photo of it, but my phone will only do one photo, so next time.

Never mind, I don't think it will let me load any photos

the No Chemo Update... Official

So, I looked back and I haven't officially told you the no chemo story.


After the argument, and bad feelings in the medical oncologists office, I was sent to a round of tests, bone scan (good) and contrast CT (good) (I have a cyst in my kidney, but its just something that happens when you get old. Yay. ). Also, my tumor was sent for a test as well (part of it), called the oncodx.

I had heard of the oncodx in my forum reading, mostly as a test that might get me out of chemo, but I didn't know all the facts about the test and what it does.... so, this lack of information made the Dr. 's phone call less thrilling right away... I am sorry Dr., you deserved screams of joy.

Anyway... as far as I can piece together, the Oncodx test, looks at 21 genetic markers in your tumor, and decides how aggressive and/or how prone to matastizing your tumor might be, then it places your tumor on a scale from 1 to 100, your total risk of recurrence and general bad behavior of your cancer. 100 being chemo drip for the rest of your life, and 1 being ... well very good. The forums are full of people with an Onco score of 50 who end up doing 3 different types of chemo. A few sources are talking about how mucinous tumors maybe being over medicated and this test will prevent much of that.

So...

My score was a 4... yep, so close to 1 as to be almost unbelievable.

Before you think wait, does this mean she didn't need the mastectomy? The answer to that would be yes, I did need the mastectomy, and I will need the radiation. Radiation cleans up the area.

I had my radiation planning session last Tuesday, I had hoped to be doing it by this week, so it wont effect my schedule too much, but they are still planning.

A day Off

so, I had a little walk today, on the top of Queen Anne Hill,
I have a little deck of cards that show walks around the city, and I finally got around to doing it, as you can see... its a little grey and over cast today. not like yesterdays 80's and sunny... oh well.
There is a little park on the top of Queen Anne that is just a little flower garden, and it was the highlight of the walk.





this is a little over look across from the flower garden.



these next couple of shots are of a dew covered spider web, the sight of which I always find to be facinating and beautiful. What a terrible natural disaster for the spider, though.

Barack Obama's Cousin: Episode 1 - The Parking Spot Fight (Comedy)