Cancer gone for now

 Upping my anti-depressants helped. Had two surgeries. The first removed the lump. The second was to remove more of the margins so they were clean. Both surgeries went well. The pain after the surgery was not very bad at all. Easily handled with ibuprofen. I'm a side sleeper and it didn't interrupt my sleep when I was on my bad side.

Then I had 15 rounds of radiation, mostly daily, over 4 weeks. Pro-tip: when they ask you to scooch up, they don't mean pull on a part of the machine and dislodge it. Oops. They said I would be tired and it turned out to be more true than even I believed. I felt sort of tired, but felt like I was not that tired. When the sessions stopped, within a few days, I had WAY more energy. Wow. What difference.

They had valet parking at the clinic which I used a few times. Mostly I parked a few blocks away and walked through a lovely neighborhood. The walk was maybe all of 6 blocks and it was surprisingly tiring, but it felt good to take that sort of control.

I had some mild twinges during the sessions but no changes to my skin until after they'd ended. Then I got some darkening of the skin and a very, very itchy red bump rash. That lasted a good two weeks. While I was applying some prescription anti-itch cream I noticed some ugly brown bumps. Not cancer. Just some sort of ugly brown bumps that people get.

I'm now back to weekly horse riding lessons and have even gotten on and off my lesson horse a few times. We are working on mounting and dismounting as I'm having some difficulty with that. During the cancer treatment I stopped by a few times and hand grazed some of the horses and did some ground work. Very therapeutic.

I'm now taking an anti-hormone pill for the next 5 to 10 years. I was dreading it. For some reason I thought it would make me look and feel much older. More gray hair, less gray hair, more wrinkles, more tiredness. I feel fine. Worries gone.

So I have cancer - 2

Have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow. When they did the diagnostic MRI, I now apparently have cancer in my right breast. That's not what I'm reading in the notes, but IANAD.

I've been feeling really depressed. Don't want to do anything. Overeating and then not eating. When I do something it's not giving me joy. Somewhat teary every once in a while. Glad my video visit with the doc is tomorrow morning.

I want to review my meds and maybe try one month of the magical weight loss drug before surgery and medications that make me gain weight. They all make me gain weight. What's the point.

So I have cancer

Not a good beginning to the year. My Aunt died of breast cancer in early May. A card playing friend has breast cancer. My BFF's niece has colon cancer and it's seems pretty bad. She's very young, in her 20's, and has toddlers. She's getting the whole radiation/chemo for the foreseeable future.

In late March had a regular old mammogram. There were apparently some calcifications to they ordered a biopsy to snip some of those out and take a closer look. In April had the biopsy and it's cancer. It's apparently a very slow growing type.

I have appointments with the surgical oncologist and the medical oncologist late in June unless they can get me in sooner. Not fun at all. Even though it seems like a best case scenario for a cancer diagnosis my sense of stability is lower. I got a call yesterday to schedule the appointments and I've been pretty sad ever since.

I'm going to schedule an appointment with Dr. Sharma to maybe up my depression meds. And maybe a session with my therapist? Or maybe just sit with this for a bit.

Estrogen Receptor (SP1)	Positive (95%, 2+ staining intensity)
Progesterone Receptor	Positive (95%, 2+ staining intensity)
Androgen Receptor	Positive (95%, 3+ staining intensity)
HER2 Herceptest IHC	Negative, 1+
Ki-67	Low Proliferation Rate (2-3%)
HER2 FISH	(Pending, to be reported under Human Genomics result tab, separately)
E-cadherin	Negative in invasive lobular carcinoma, LCIS and ALH.

Antibiotics

In just two days I got red eyes, red ear, and pus in my throat. Yum. I'm taking pills and squirting some stuff in my eye too. TMI?

Damn Cold -- Grrr

Got sick Saturday evening on the way back from my fabulous hike. Had a huge fever all day Sunday and started with ibuprofen then. Bad sore throat and stuffy ears and achey left ear. Saw the doctor on Wednesday. He says it's just a virus take Advil cold and sinus.

Went through the anti-meth rigamarole and left with, as it turned out, not enough Advil cold and sinus.

It's now Friday morning and I'm feeling worse, not better. This can't be. My right ear is now stuffy and so achey that I had to take 800 milligrams of ibuprofen to sleep. My eyes are gummy and bright pink.

It still may be a virus, but I'll be reporting these new symptoms to the doctor anyway.

It's time to be better now. Life is too short to spend it sick!

Medical Experimentation

Our tax dollars are at work with a visit from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2006. They took blood and are going to store some for DNA analysis. There goes my life of crime! I passed on the treadmill test because I am still so sick, but got to join the "take my blood pressure" a thousand times test. Apparently they are testing various methods of taking BP. They also measured some joints (like the length of my leg from the hip to the knee is) but not others (no interest in the knee to the ground). Or perhaps I missed one of the tests.

The bonus is that they pay actual cash money for the pleasure. "Ask not what your country...." my ass, I took the money and will enjoy spending it unwisely.

Sickness Sucks!

Every day it's a different sucky symptom. Thankfully, my cough is better. I'm only coughing a few times an hour and it's just one or two dainty little *hacks* instead of the rib breaking monsters from last week. On the other hand, why do my sinuses taste like blood...rotten blood at that? There is no blood, no green goo, just this really vile, spongy taste/sensation. Yummy.

IKEA, IKEA, IKEA

Ikea

In spite of my illness, I couldn't resist and drove to the new IKEA (have I mentioned the name yet?) to look around. I escaped with a new doormat, a new teapot, and 4 new pillows. I may be buying new sofa and recliner after checking out the offerings. I also liked the bathroom fixtures which will come in handy for the possible bathroom mini-remodel. I was looking forward to the wardrobe systems, but they weren't as great as I'd hoped.

It was fun to join the other zombies driving into the parking lot, following the billions of workers in day-glo yellow rain gear waving us on and on and on until we finally reached empty part of the parking lot about 20 minutes into our journey.

The local polizei had a huge presence and were clearly prepared for virtually any disaster short of running out of the teeny tiny little pencils. When I left, they were helping some woman who had tripped and fallen. I didn't think she looked that hurt myself, but then, I'm not a medical professional.

It's always funny too when people try to be independent. Follow the arrows. Don't try and take a cart to the 2nd floor. Take a pencil and a piece of paper. Trust Ikea, they have clearly discovered a legal form of crack-eration and you should not try to out think them. All you need to decide is if you want the item or not.

Anyway, I'm a fan and am thrilled that Sacramento finally has a civilized store. I look forward to making many purchases of bargain items in the years to come.

Almost fainting

This was fun. I was at the allergy doctor's doing a test where I blow as hard as I can. Apparently, I blew too hard and actually almost blacked out. I certainly lost most consciousness as it is known. I remember almost feeling weird and dreamlike with thoughts that I now can't remember. Then there was a period where the nurse and I talked, "What happened?" "Yes, I feel really weird." "Were you asking me something? Was I alright?" Hmmm I don't remember that. Did two more tests but stopped blowing as soon as felt the blacking out sensation and I was fine.

It was irritating though because darn it I'm in control of my consciousness!

Update: I'm writing this in 2025. This doctor cured my year long bout of coughing with a month of antibiotics. He tested for allergies. Surprise, I have them, and we were going to start the shots. Before the shots he decided to go all in with the antibiotics. Yeah! Cured.

Prednisone

I'm still feeling much, much better. Took my first 8 pills of prednisone tonight and I see I really should have waited till tomorrow morning. One of the side effects is insomnia and I really don't feel all that sleepy here at 10 pm-ish. The codeine cough syrup has got me feeling a little calm. I definitely would not get behind the wheel of a car right now.

The COUGH is still with me although less persistent. I have something going on in the lungs that's very wheezy sounding. Not much mucus (I know you've been clamoring for that statistic) but lots of wheezing. The cough syrup definitely cuts the coughing.

I went to the RiteAid to pick up the meds and stopped to rake up the oranges that had blown down in yesterday's storm. It was maybe a 5 minute light raking job. The lungs did not like that and the COUGH said you will now go in the house and lie down. The lungs felt like they were on fire.

Still, I'm a little worried about the prednisone...it suppresses the immune system which I need to fight off infection? I'm sure my doctor has carefully considered that, but maybe I should ask him. Maybe I should ask him for no other reason than that I can then explain why I trusted him. He is a good doctor. I have my personal experience as weak anecdotal evidence. He was also featured in a local magazine as a noted doctor which is stronger evidence. One of his diplomas is from Stanford, so if he's really bad, he's at least somewhat smart.

STILL sick, maybe hope is at hand though

It's been about 5 weeks and I've still got paroxysmal coughing, haven't slept in I don't know how long and I just generally feel sick. Went to the doctor again yesterday morning because I developed an earache. He prescribed an antibiotic that I think is going to kick this bug's ass! I finally slept last night and only woke up maybe 2 or 3 times. I did have a lot of weird, weird sensations. I could hear myself breathing (like Darth Vader) because of all the goo in my ear. I also imagined that I could hear birds chirping (a LOT of birds) sometime in the early, early am. Then I seemed to hear some kind of loud thumping or booming (probably me snoring) and the cat decided it would be a good time to come sleep on top of me. No.

Anyway, I'll be off work for at least 2 days and that hopefully will be it. Is it wrong to go to the IKEA opening when I'm off sick? Yeah, it is.