Brad and I spent Thursday traveling back and forth to the cities and meeting with my Oncologist to lay out our course of action. We were able to find out more information about what we're up against, however, we're still waiting on the HER-2 designation, and until we have the information (hopefully by this afternoon) we can't figure out our exact course of treatment. Life is a waiting game occasionally. :)
The drive to the cities was rough. We're having a hard time getting my pain under control. I react in a-typical ways to the heavy painkillers, and, unfortunately, I can't just take mostly Tylenol and power through it until I'm feeling better (which is what I typically do.) So we're working on finding the right combination of anti-inflammatories and painkillers without jumping off the deep end and without making me feel like I'm a walking pharmacy. :) It's my doc's top priority right now. What a guy!
When we got to Minnesota Oncology and had our appointment with Dr. Zander, he told us that it is my original breast cancer that has spread (metastasized) to my bones. It affected some lymph nodes along the way, but the main point of concentration is in my pelvis and lower back. This is a somewhat unusual thing to happen, as it is more common for cancer to find it's way to the blood and spread to organs such as the liver or lungs (both clear so far for me...yay!) The cancer itself looks different as well. It's morphed and is marking differently. This means that all of the hormonal treatments we were hoping to throw at it first won't work at all, narrowing the field of treatment options. It also means that it is similar to a triple negative cancer, which is faster-acting and more aggressive. Dr. Zander and his team are on top of this and are doing anything and everything they can to have the most aggressive and advantageous treatment options ready to go for when we know that final piece of information (the HER-2 status).
During my examination, Dr. Zander became concerned about the fact that there had been some pericardial effusion (fluid around my heart) that had shown on one of my CT's, in combination with the fact that I have experienced a few episodes of heart racing and that he could hear some kind of a rubbing when he was listening to my chest. He rushed me in for an echocardiogram where it was determined that my heart is just fine and dandy. My point here is that my team of doctors (and all of their fantastic staff!) are treating me like I am family. They are pulling strings, coming in on days off, and working themselves crazy to do everything they can to help me. I have faith in these people, and I ask for continued prayers for their sake, as well as mine.
So, for right now we are still lining up our game plan. I'm not 100% sure of our needs yet, but I promise you that I will let you know, because this second time around is going to be a much harder mountain to climb. But we're ready, and marching away...well...maybe I'm hobbling...but we're still headed straight forward. :)
The Future Looks Beautiful.
Much love,
Noelle
No comments:
Post a Comment