I'm posting a link to this woman's blog because I think her post here is amazingly powerful.

Seeing Past What It Seems

Sigh. It looks like this drug isn't working either.

I had my infusion/oncology visit yesterday. My cancer markers are up again and I have a follow-up bone scan in November. My last bone scan was in September and at that time it was indicating that the cancer in my bones might be getting bigger in the areas it is in. The increase in cancer markers seem to confirm that. The November bone scan will be a double-check of the areas where I have the cancer (hips, left arm).

I have been on Tamoxifen, and Arimidex, and I am currently on Aromasin. None of these drugs have worked for me to keep the cancer markers low. My next stop is either a pill-based chemo drug that causes mouth sores, diarrhea, and neuropathy (numbness/tingling in extremities) or a monthly injection to help fight the cancer.

Can you please pray that we find something that works that has minimal side effects? Right now, with the exception of monthly doctor's visits, I'm pretty much living my life. The idea of having chemo side effects again isn't very heartening. I'm frustrated that the markers aren't going down. My onc says that since it isn't in my soft organs, it isn't affecting my longevity yet, but it is an odd feeling to look at our 1yo cat and know that he could outlive me, kwim?

I'm Still Here

I haven't blogged for a while, so here is a little update.

I'm still here. The Tamoxifen got replaced with Arimidex for six months, but the Arimidex still didn't make the cancer markers come down. It just caused them to plateau. So, I got switched to Aromasin, and the markers were actually down a bit at the beginning of August. Hopefully, the Aromasin will continue to bring those numbers down.

It has been about six months since my last CT and bone scans, so I am scheduled for new ones right after Labor Day. I'm still getting infusions of Zometa monthly. Sometimes I have side effects from it and sometimes I don't.

The Lupron shots, along with the Aromasin, have seriously cut back on the number of migraines I get. I've gone from 2-3 a week to 2-3 a month. That has been a blessing.

The boys and I have had a good summer together: going to the beach, relaxing and kicking back, and generally keeping our days low stress. Spiff will go back to "building school" again this year, while Entropy Boy will be homeschooled again. I'm going to miss having both of them home together.

That is the latest. I am reminded daily that I have cancer, but my goal each day is to do as much as I can and not let aches/pains/etc. stop me from living my life. I can't let little things give me a bad day, because then I might *never* get a good day. So, I have to make each day as good as it can be.

I Think I Could Eat My Weight in Curry

Well, it's a week later and I'm doing well. The migraines are slowing down and life is returning to normal.

We had Indian food last night and I just had some of the leftovers as a snack. I grew up eating midwestern food without a lot of spice to it, so I'm not quite sure why Indian food has become a such comfort food for me, but it has. I love it and so does Joe. Date night inevitably will find us at an Indian restaurant.

Here are recipes for some of our favorites:
Indian Butter Chicken (Chicken Makhani)
Three Bean Dal
Potatoes and Cabbage, Indian Style

Now you can make them at home and spice up your life!

Well, It Was Either a Reaction or a Migraine

Either way, it stank. About 4:30 Wednesday morning I woke up with *something* happening--either a migraine or a reaction to the meds. It was hard to tell which one, but I couldn't take my migraine medicine because I couldn't keep anything down. Yuck, yuck, yuck. That was about five hours I could have done without.

However, now that the magical 48 hours after the infusion have passed, I'm fine, if a little lighter on the old scale.

I don't see the oncologist for another month, at which time I'll get another infusion of Zometa. I've got an x-ray of my hip I have to get before then to see why I get pain when I wear my cute high-heeled boots. I never used to get hip pain with them, but I sure do now. If I wear flats, I'm fine, but the doctor wants to check it out anyway to catch anything as early as possible. I may need radiation there if the x-ray shows it warrants it. I guess the x-ray is better at diagnosing some things than the MRI is--who knew?

Other than that, life is going on as normally as possible. Entropy Boy and I are marching our way through ancient Greek history. Today we discussed the Iliad and the Odyssey; Joe has English translations upstairs somewhere. I should dig them out.

Tomorrow Spiff has the day off school for a teacher in-service so we'll hit Dunkin' Donuts to make the day special!

New Drugs Today

Today was my first infusion of Zometa, a bone-building drug that is also used for osteoporosis. The infusion only took about 15-20 minutes and didn't need steroids or Benedryl with it, so it was quick and easy compared to chemo. Any side effects will likely happen in the first 48 hours, so I was told to take Tylenol every six hours until that time period is over. So far, so good. No side effects. Since the most common side effects are flu-like symptoms (fever, achiness, chills), that makes me pretty happy.

So right now the game plan is for me to stop the Tamoxifen as of today. I took it less than 90 days. It just didn't work for me the way it was supposed to. I guess I have super-charged ovaries. I got a shot of Lupron last month and then got a 3-month shot of it today since I tolerated it well. It puts me into menopause while it is in my system, so hot flashes are now part of my daily experience.

In a couple of weeks I will start another drug that is supposed to help combat the attack on my bones. That will be a daily pill--Arimidex. That, combined with monthly infusions of Zometa for the next couple of years, will be my new normal.