Can't Sleep so I Guess I will Blog

I have really gotten behind on posting and sleep doesn't seem like it is going to happen so I might as well use this time wisely, and BLOG!
Last week I did have a biopsy performed. I am still waiting for the pathology report. Before you start blowing up my phone, my next appointment isn't for a few more weeks. I will find out then if the cells of my reoccurrence are the same from my original cells from my first diagnosis in 2008. If they are the same the prognosis is the same. Stage 4, metastatic breast cancer that is in my lung area, ribs, spine, hips, right shoulder (that's new this last few weeks),possibly the liver, and some other places I don't want to waste space mentioning. The prognosis is the same, chemo or some kind of treatment as long as I can handle it for the rest of my life. If by God's will, the cells are different, they could be easier to treat, they may even be a different type of cancer and I might only need  little bit of treatment and be in remission before the kids go back o school! The chances of the later being the case are slim, but it's happened before and it will happen again, why shouldn't it happen to me right now?
The biopsy was done on my right clavicle, or collar bone. It was semi painful. Sometimes it didn't hurt at all, other times I was in a lot of pain. I was sedated and the area was numbed, but I was all the way awake. I kind of liked that part, until the Dr had to jam a needle into my bone and was using so much pressure that I thought I was going to be pushed off of the CT Scan Machine. They needed to use the CT scan to guide the needle into the lesion in my bone so they would roll me into the Ct scan, line the needle in and then roll me out to jab jab jab the area until they had enough bone chips and tumor pieces to make good slides to see what the cells are. The Dr's were cool and let me see everything they had chiseled off of my collar bone. After the procedure I had very little pain and was able to go home after a short 2 hour wait with the world's dumbest nurse.
Ugh! This lady was dumb! She wouldn't stop talking to me and just let me rest. She said all kinds of dumb things that didn't have anything to do with me or the procedure. Then when she took out my IV I told her that the adhesive usually takes off the top layers of skin. She says great I'll use alcohol! I wanted to kick her! Removing the IV was the most painful part of the entire procedure. She was trying to remove the sticky part from the bandage that held the IV in place. But by rubbing alcohol on it, the new raw skin, my arm felt like it was on fire. She kept explaining why she used alcohol and I kept saying I understood, but it didn't mke it burn any less. There were so many little conversations that made me think she never even looked at my chart. Thegood news is that it is over and I will probably never ever ever see her again!
Oh and my new oncologist is no longer at the cancer center. He already left or was asked to leave. There were a lot of people that didn't really care for his way of doctoring. So now I am seeing Dr Havard and he is great!
I also was not able to get chemo this last week. My white blood cells were too low. I have now had 2 white blood cell booster shots in the past 4 days. When I go back in they should be back to normal and doing thier job of keeping me healthy enough to get chemo. I hate missing treatment. Esoecially when I feel new spots on my shoulder. I know its growing and I feel like I am not doing anything to stop the cancer from taking over my body one part at a time.
So I think that might actually be all of my news! If not I will add another post with more updates soon!

Hair Today, Bald Tomorrow

If the Title didn't give it away, I've lost my hair.  The last chemo I was taking wasn't beneficial enough to continue.  The side effects were not worth it. My skin was coming off of my hands and feet but my markers continued to increase. So we switched to a new chemo. Every time we switch medications, I run the risk of loosing my hair and experiencing a number of other side effects.  The good news is that I get to go Wig Shopping, I have a lot of supplies already, and this summer will be cool and I will have lots of hair options that won't include having to blow dry my hair when it's 100 degrees and over outside!           

So far this chemo does seem to be a little more difficult than my last one, not too much worse, but there seem to be more days that I am tired. I hope to know what days I can expect to feel well and the days I know just to take it easy are soon. It usually takes a few weeks to figure those things out. I will post some pics soon, right now I am still going through my best wigs and head coverings. Of course I will show the whole bald thing, but for now I still have some hair and it looks odd until its all gone. I see a bic in my weekend plans!

In other news..... My oncologist has retired. I really like my new dr, of course there is never replacing a dr like Dr Hsu. My new Dr, Dr Nobile, is very Italian! I love that! He seems very smart, and has done a good job taking over in the middle of a new treatment plan. The first day I met him, I had just started my new chemo, had a sinus infection, and felt worse than I had in many many months. He asked a few quick questions and I felt better within 2 days! He shares his big picture ideas and hopes with me and they line up perfectly with mine. He does want to biopsy a spot somewhere. Stanford had recommended that too, but the odds that my tumor has a new pathology was so little and a biopsy site seems too difficult to reach that Dr Hsu and I moved on from it. Now, if we can find a site that seems decent to biopsy I am all for it. This could mean a number of things. The biggest thing is that if my tumor has changed, treatment could change too. The pathology report of a tumor tells you if you need chemo and how aggressive of a chemo you need. If, by chance, the pathology comes back and my tumor has changed, there could be an easier treatment plan that will bring more benefits and less difficulties.               

There are probably some typos and some grammar errors, I will try to reread later and make it easier to read, but for now, I'm tired and I just wanted to get the info out before I start running around town bald.