5/6/18
After months of peculiar health challenges and treatments that helped a bit but weren't treating the real problem I have a diagnosis. Metastatic Breast Cancer, stage 4, with metastasis to my bones. It has been visualized through-out my body. It started in my jaw, and was finally biopsied there. It is the same cancer as I experienced years ago - it is hormone positive, HER2 negative. Common garden variety breast cancer.
Treatment for this is very different from before. On May 26th I started two drugs. Femara is an aromatase inhibitor which reduces the amount of estrogen available in my body. As the cancer feeds on estrogen, this limits the amount of estrogen that can feed the cancer cells. The second drug is Ibrance (as seen on tv:) it closes a back-door that cancer cells can exploit so it has shown to increase longevity. Ibrance is much more of a chemo drug, so I have been dealing with very low white blood counts and need to be careful about infection. I did develop pneumonia while on Ibrance, so am being cautious.
Beyond that, I am simply taking care of myself and being gentle. The cancer in my bones has created a lot of pain and areas of weakness. As of today 8/2/18, I am feeling much better than I did in April, May, and June. The pain is down and well controlled with advil. I remain at risk of fracture, so must be very cautious. I am a candidate for radiation therapy to spot treat areas of pain, and higher fracture risk, however there are risks there as well, so I am sitting tight as I am feeling better right now.
In about another month I will get more scans to judge how much has changed with treatment, I am hopeful. Over the last few months I have had many MRIs, PET scans, CT scans, and biopsies, for diagnostics and I am so glad that has quieted down a bit. Even more glad that there was no spread of the cancer visualized beyond my bones.
I am also incredibly grateful to the friends who accompanied me and to all these scans and I'm a big fan of Chesapeake Medical Imaging as they have the kindest and most compassionate techs there. They also have an MRI machine with a larger bore that is also advanced enough to get high quality pictures. More on my PTSD and trauma around big machines will follow.
9/11/12
Active treatment is finished. Two surgeries during July 2011, eight rounds of chemotherapy from September 2011 to January 2012, five weeks of radiation in February and March 2012.
April 2012 - PET/CT shows No Evidence of Disease. As my friend Pat says, I am now Dancing with NED. A good thing.
I am on Tamoxifen, will be for two years and then we will talk about other options.
I have lasting side effects, inconveniences I call them from the treatment including lymphedema in my breast and side. Yea, that sucks and I am ok.
All is essentially well. Blessed be!
9/20/11
Chemo started on September 7th, right as we had expected.
We chose Cancer Treatment Centers of America for my treatment. They have a strong holistic program combined with the traditional chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Since the cancer is considered local metastatic, my course of treatment will include both. We will travel back and forth to Philadelphia for the treatments.
The plan is for 4 rounds of dose dense Adriamycin and Cytoxen in September and October. Then I will continue with 4 rounds of Taxol or a similar drug - that will be November - early January.
Radiation is expected to take 5 weeks, five days a week on the new equipment at CTCA, this will be February and early March.
8/14/11
The cancer diagnosis is Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, it spread to two sentinel nodes, so local mets. The 13 nodes removed during the second surgery - axillary dissection were all clear, so very good news there. The PET/CT scan was also clear. I also had a port placed during the second surgery in anticipation of chemotherapy.
We are currently meeting with oncologists to find the right doc and infusion center. Looking at the numbers, I do need to add the chemotherapy to the treatment as well as radiation and long term hormonal treatment.
I hope to start chemo right after Labor Day.
And I continue to recover from having five teeth removed last Thursday, they were a real abscess concern during chemo - root canals with crowns. Implants will go in next year when my system is strengthened again after chemo and radiation.
7/25/11
We have the results back from pathology from the surgery and they are unexpected. The cancer, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma has spread to the lymph nodes and is spreading into the surrounding tissue. This is much more serious and amps up the treatment plan.
Tuesday the 26th I will have a PET/CT scan for a baseline, this is the best way to see if cancer has spread beyond the local area.
Thursday the 28th I will return to BWMC for a second surgery, a full axillary dissection.
From there I am to expect chemotherapy as well as extensive radiation.
Oh my.
AND there are a lot of natural and adjunct things that I can do to assist my system and aid in my healing.
7/18/11
Surgery - wide excision (lumpectomy) and sentinel node biopsy.
7/1/11
I have been diagnosed with Grade 2, Infiltrating/Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. There is evidence from the biopsy of cancer cell movement into my lymphatic system. The mass is 14mm. And it is testing 99% positive for estrogen and 40% positive for progesterone receptors. Forgive me, but all I have to say there is no shit sherlock, and that will be another blog entry. It was also borderline HER2 and FISH negative. And we still await the results of the MRI, another interesting experience, another blog entry.
Treatment - my amazing Radiologist at Bay Radiology, Helen Mrose MD suggested that I work with surgeon Cynthia Drogula, MD at Balt. Washington Medical Center. She was described to me as a precise and elegant surgeon.
I am scheduled for Wide Excision - Lumpectomy on Monday July 18th, midday. Dr. Drogula will do a sentinal node biopsy during the surgery to determine infiltration into my lymphatics - which could mean the cancer has had the opportunity to spread.
Before the surgery, I need to tell her what I want her to do if there is a positive result to the sentinal node biopsy. The choice I am being offered is axillary resection - remove a bunch of lymph nodes under my arm or increased radiation treatment after the surgery.
At this point, I am pretty confident that my best choice is to retain my lymph nodes. There are significant risks for lymphedema in all of this and as a lymph drainage therapist, I am quite aware of the concerns. Also, as someone who needs her arms and upper body, the risks of the surgery are very high. This is the sort of thing that docs don't much talk about.
What I do after that, in terms of radiation treatment (recommended) or chemo (not yet discussed) and holistic and alternative (Of Course!) is still undecided. If things turn out to be worse than it looks, I can always go back for another surgery, and make other choices. At this point a conservative surgical plan feels best.
Right now I am resting and relaxing and allowing all of this to sink in.
There are significant risks inherent to the surgery in terms of the movement of cancerous cells and the impact on my immune system. So I am meeting with my holistic support this coming week to further prepare my body for surgery. I am amping up my immune system, taking some natural supplements that are shown to make it harder for cancer cells to move and settle elsewhere as well as ones that have shown to shrink cancer cells. The surgery will be general anesthesia with local anesthesia, which has been show to be the most protective.
I am currently on Sabbatical. As soon as this information sunk in, I realized that I had to take the time to allow myself to have this experience, to learn, to feel and time was necessary. Not easy, and there are major challenges in doing this, and it is really the best choice for me right now.
Especially when the doctor's office asked if I was going to take more than a week off for the surgery. Huh??? are you kidding? I am a massage therapist - the biopsy was still painful after 3 days. Back to work in 7 after a lumpectomy?
