I feel like I'm always apologizing to those of you who only follow my recovery through here. I am super busy with work and my side business and when I think about updating it's usually not at a time when I can sit down and do it! So here's updates from the treatment I had 3 weeks ago.
I have been having mixed emotions about everything "cancer" lately. At first I was happy when they switched me from Taxol to Taxotere because it meant putting some time in between which really has helped me recover better. However I wonder if the side effects are worse now than they would have been with the weekly treatments. I have been experiencing a lot of bone/joint pain, especially in my hips and legs. It has made getting down on the floor with the kids at school extremely uncomfortable. There have been many nights I couldn't have gone to sleep without the help of a couple Advil. Plus it's taken me a good week after chemo to feel back to normal.
Now as the last treatment draws near (this Friday) I am both unbelievably excited to be done and anxious to start putting this chapter behind me, but on the other hand I'm extremely scared. I've gone from seeing a doctor regularly to only getting to see her once every 3 months. Now it's going to fall on me to understand my body and alert someone if something doesn't seem right. NO PRESSURE!! She said there is no point in doing scans regularly because it won't see anything until it's already come back, and she said that only usually buys us a couple weeks before symptoms alert us that there is a problem. And she said it won't effect the way we treat any recurrence.
The other big stress is the fact that my current treatment hospital redid the pathology from the original tumor. The prior pathology indicated the tumor was Estrogen and Progesterone positive. This is why I was originally told by all the oncologists that I would need to go on Tamoxifen for 5 years after chemo. Now the oncologist is saying the new review of the pathology shows that the tumor was in fact triple negative. I had a friend of mine who is a pathologist look at all the reports and such and she said that the staining from the current hospital is correct. But honestly I don't understand any of that stuff. Brian and I decided I needed to follow up with my original surgeon to see what he thinks about this latest news, but honestly I just keep dragging my feet on making the call.
Last treatment also called into question my blood sugar. This time around I have to take the steroid morning and evening the day prior and the day of treatment. Well when they ran all the blood tests they did a glucose and mine was in the 350's. They gave me a shot of insulin and then sent me home with a prescription for a glucose monitor. I spent the rest of the weekend pricking myself twice a day checking the sugar levels. THAT SUCKED!! I pray that I don't develop diabetes because I don't think I can do that every day for the rest of my life. My fingers hurt and they bruised every time I pricked them. The weekend levels remained relatively normal. I will probably start testing it again tomorrow before the steroid and then while I'm on it to see what happens. I need to follow up with my regular doctor, but as I already have an appointment with her next month I'll just wait and discuss it with her then. The doctor's all seem to think it was a spike due to the steroid, but because it was so high they didn't want to take any chances.
On a positive note, I've gone back to my plastic surgeon and started having fills again. I've had 2 since I've been on fall break from school and will go back again next week for what will hopefully be the last. He said we are close to being done, after next week's we will re-evaluate things and decide what we are going to do. I've scheduled the implant surgery for December 1st. I know that puts me right in the middle of craziness at school, we'll just be coming back from Thanksgiving and getting things caught up before going on break for Christmas and the end of 2011. They said I should only need a week to recover, but you know me. I'm hoping to go back sooner. Just like last time, I'd rather be at work rather than sitting around doing nothing all day. I will be back on my restrictions for lifting and all that good stuff, so no laundry, no cleaning, no lifting, nothing over 10 pounds for 6 weeks again! Brian's going to LOVE that!!
I've been fortunate to have made it through most of my treatments without being sick. Unfortunately I caught a cold, most likely from work, and have spent my entire break sick! It started as a chest cold, and this week we've gone North as head congestion and a yucky throat thanks to drainage. Wee what fun!!
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