Shades of Cancer - Breast Cancer

It all seems so simple - should you wear a mask or go out to eat in a crowded restaurant or run alongside your friends? It is simple if the only person who may be affected by your decision is you and only you. But, do you have parents, grandparents, other family, a partner, a spouse, friends, or co-workers? Do you know their health histories? Maybe someone has heart disease or high blood pressure. Maybe someone else has an autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. Maybe someone has COPD. Maybe another person just had a transplant and is on immune suppressant drugs. And, maybe someone just began or ended a course of radiation or chemotherapy. There is no way to know whether everyone you come within physical distance of is at risk of any virus, whether coronavirus or the flu. So why would you risk the health of someone you like or love or a stranger who happens to walk by you? Is your freedom to wear your mask or not worth it? Think of social distancing and wearing ...

For the past 22 months, I've become more and more of a couch potato, a slug, a lazy bum. I know it's not my fault but it's still difficult to think back only a couple of years ago and compare myself to the person I used to be. Everything we eat, take, ingest, breathe, and absorb has side effects, even food. GI distress, food related infections, headaches from certain additives, irregular heartbeat from too much caffeine or sugar, and then, of course, poor dietary habits leading to heart disease, weight gain, and so on. We don't think of these side effects too often because, hey, it's food, right!? Over the counter pain killers can cause kidney or liver or stomach issues if overdone or incorrectly used. There are gluten or other food allergies. And, the list goes on and on. Most of us live a relatively uneventful life and work around our specific side effects. For those of us who either have or are undergoing treatments for cancer such as radiation or chemo, we...

Jess and her mother, Gayle, have done a wonderful thing for me. They pulled together a group of friends to send me handwritten cards through the mail. The sending of cards and letters has gone by the wayside for many of us. I admit that I, too, have taken the easy way out over the years by using email, text, and phone calls. Whenever I get bad news about the cancer (which seems to happen with some consistency and regularity), it is one of the most depressing times I go through. It wouldn't be so bad if there were intervals of good or positive news to break it up. Maybe, just maybe, the cancer didn't spread so quickly or so far. Maybe, just maybe, whatever chemo I was trying seemed to work for 6 months or longer. And, maybe, just maybe, "they" found a miracle cure for people like me. A few weeks ago, while going through a rough patch, Jess and Gayle offered to have her prayer group send me cards and notes to cheer me up, to wish me luck, and to send me positive t...

One thing I can definitely say is that I have rarely gotten good news from any scan in the past 20 months since being first diagnosed with Stage IV triple negative cancer. Back in July of 2018, I found my lump, got multiple scans and images, a biopsy or two, and off I went to the races with a Stage IV diagnosis all in less than 30 days. How is it possible for things to change so quickly and in such an unexpected direction? If we do things right, stay healthy, and take care of ourselves, doesn't that mean that our bodies will take good care of us? At the time, the only symptom I had, aside from the lump, was consistent and regular back pain. Nothing too crazy or strange. I thought it was just stiffness and tightness from exercise and getting older. The PET-CT scan showed lesions (cancer) in a couple of spots on L3, lumbar spine, and now it was something more serious. But, I could handle it I thought. With chemo and otherwise good health, the lesions would go away and I'd get...

I've been getting chemo since July, 2018. How often I've gotten chemo depends on the chemo drug protocol; sometimes every other week, sometimes every 2 of 3 weeks. The off weeks allow me to recover and regain strength as well as improve my lab numbers. Every time I get chemo, I also get blood work at the lab. The medical staff are looking at red and white blood cell counts, electrolytes like potassium, minerals like calcium, and liver and kidney functions. There is also something else - cancer marker levels. For me, it's CA 27-29. Each cancer has its own marker. Sometimes, I see the doctor or the physician's assistant before chemo. They may want to discuss lab results or ask how I'm dealing with the chemo drugs. I get weighed each time - chemo solutions are made for me personally and for the amount I weigh. Large fluctuations in weight also raise flags for the medical staff. Once I've signed in on the chemo list, I help myself to a chemo chair with IV p...

The nurse at my oncologist's office told me what they call the feeling between the day of the scan and the day we meet with the doctor to get the results - scanxiety. Unfortunately, we cancer patients live with scans and tests of all kinds. Ever since my cancer diagnosis, I've been getting either PET-CT or CAT scans either every 3 months or 6 months depending on the treatment and how the lab numbers look. Lab tests are used to keep an eye on what the red and white blood cells are doing and how the liver and kidneys are holding up. EKG's watch out for my heart. Blood tests also check for tumor markers - in my case CA 27-29. I had my latest PET-CT scan last Friday, the second week of January of the new year, and I hit my personal deductible for the year by a good margin! Yes, scans are expensive but, in the case of cancer, they're about the best way to look at where the cancer is and whether it has grown bigger or moved somewhere else. Between that Friday and Tuesda...

Once upon a time, there was a woman who did everything she was supposed to. She ate right (in fact she was a vegetarian), she maintained a healthy weight, she did not smoke or drink, she did a LOT of exercise, and she got her checkups and shots on time. Yet, she still ended up with with cancer. =================== I had my first brush with breast cancer in March of 2004. After a mammogram, I was told I had multiple calcifications in my left breast. I was 43 years old with no family history of breast cancer. My diagnosis was Stage 0 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).  Once I recovered from a lumpectomy, I had standard radiation therapy. I continued diagnostic mammograms every 6 months for 5 years after treatment ended and continued annual screening mammograms after that As scary as the cancer diagnosis was, this episode eventually receded into the past. My second brush with. breast cancer came in July, 2018. This cancer is much more serious than 14 years ago and has chang...