helloooo!
between when i subscribed to squarespace for blog hosting (12/1/18) and diagnosis (1/9/19) i listened to several hours of podcasts about starting a blog while driving for DoorDash, and one takeaway from all of that was “provide consistent content” so your readers can know when to expect new posts, be it once a day, once a week, once a month. oops.
anyhow, here i am, the last week of october. today was 27/30 for chest wall radiation. my skin is very irritated but could be worse. i am not experiencing any flaking or blistering although it is very burnt, much like some of the worst sunburn i’ve experienced. my armpit however, is showing some signs that might categorize on the “grade” chart of physical burns (it’s not just red it’s brown and splotchy). this week they do what’s called a “boost” and made a template around my incision that is an elongated circle and the dose only hits that area. so, the good news is: the armpit won’t receive any additional exposure and for the rest, it’s the home stretch.
i’ve been pretty rundown throughout (yesterday i laid down for a nap and woke up 3 hours later)… which, since i started on a prescribed sleep medication last week and have been getting VERY solid length and depth of sleep, is kind of impressive.
tomorrow i will start the prescription immunotherapy that i will be on long term. they are called Ibrance & Femera. Ibrance is baaaasically a chemotherapy pill (they say that if a caregiver is giving you the medication they should wear gloves to not come in contact with it, this sounds dramatic to me but luckily for anyone else i am independent enough to self-administer). my blood counts and symptoms will be monitored monthly to see how well i tolerate the starting dose, and then i will gradually graduate to every three months, and these medications will continue as long as they work to keep any cancer present stable. i am due for scans, which i will find out more about on thursday when i see Dr. Nisi for our weekly meeting and discuss planning for radiating the sacral lesion (this, if i remember correctly, is just 3 sessions done in one weeks time).
in the last month i have had two ultrasounds and a biopsy — the first was for my thyroid, which was active on the initial pet scan in January. at the second pet scan in July, it was still active, indicating if there was malignancy there, it did not go away with the chemo. so, in our one thing at a time nature of approaching Project Cancer, after surgery was wrapped, we scheduled an ultrasound, which proved a biopsy was necessary because there is a nodule on my left thyroid gland the SIZE of my damn gland. fortunately, it is benign. then, i developed a rather large seroma (collection of fluid) right below my armpit during radiation. because of radiation, the skin is very tough and hard, so this required a consult with Dr. Chupp, who ordered an ultrasound to get more info. this also is benign and just fluid. it could be drained but there would be a chance of it returning so for now, there is no harm in it staying.
these scenarios have been a crash course in post-treatment cancer life. you know how doctors tell you not to google things because you’ll conclude you must have a life threatening disease or cancer? well, try looking up symptoms when you ALREADY HAVE CANCER. 9 out of 10 times it will indeed not be a new malignancy or met, but try telling that to your train of thoughts. fortunately, as i mentioned, i’ve gotten pretty good at living in the present moment and not in fear of these thoughts but this is something any cancer patient or chronic/terminal illness patient will tell you is one of the ongoing struggles of living diseased.
separate post to come about the Metsquarade Gala and Metavivor organization, but for now, it’s nap o’clock.
p.s. — the yoga every day goal worked for two weeks and i haven’t been since day 12, but am looking forward to getting back to it once i don’t have the everyday obligation of radiation as well.
