Hi friends! I have lots of news to share with you all. Since the last post I had my bone PT scan and my CT scan done. Not surprisingly, given my shitty cancer count numbers, that did not yield a lot of good news. My bone mets are back up to 7 spots, 2 spots on spine are worse than the last scan, and 2 new spots have cropped up. What’s more concerning is I’ve developed a pleural effusion on my right lung. That means extra fluid (I have about 2 inches of fluid) between the pleural lining and my lung. That manifests itself as pressure in my chest, a little trouble breathing and pain in my chest when I bend over. It also means that it most likely contains malignant cells.
Yesterday I met with my oncologist and we have a really good plan in place. Today at 1:30pm I’ll get a thoracentesis, which is a procedure where the doc inserts a big ass needle into my back and into the pleural lining. He’ll drain the fluid to both test it for malignancy but also to releive a lot of the symptoms I’m having. yay! I’m not super excited about having a needle so close to my lung (and I hear it kind of hurts) but it will be awesome to get this fluid out of my lung area.
Then next week I’ll have a port surgically put back in my chest (oh hi port, I’ve really missed having you sticking out of my chest) and then late next week I’ll start a new infusion chemo called Navelbine. From all reports this chemo is a walk in the park compared to some of the chemos I’ve been on in the past. No hair loss (and you KNOW that makes me and my head happy) and very few symptoms beyond low blood counts (red/white cells) and fatigue. So I will totally take that. I’ll get treatment for 2 weeks on, 1 week off. If my cancer responds to this chemo I could potentially stay on it for a real long time. So please send good thoughts in the next few weeks that I take this chemo well.
I’ve been taking some time off work which has been SO good for my overall fatigue and stress. I’ll go back after Labor Day and I’m totally ready. I miss my work family a whole lot. And it gets boring/lonely being home by myself. I don’t know what the hell I would have done if I had this shit disease at any other company besides Starbucks. My work friends and bosses have been BEYOND supportive. I’m a very fortunate gal.
In other news, we’re going to take Desmond to Disneyland at the end of September. Brian and I have been really worried about how all of this is affecting him. We had an awesome conversation with a social worker at Swedish about how we should talk to him about my cancer and treatment. We need to be much more direct and open with him. This mama bear just wants to protect him from everything, but that’s actually not the most healthy way to deal with this. So we’ll be having some good convos with him and then taking a nice family trip together at the end of the month. I think we need/deserve the time in sun and our inaugural trip to Disney.
So there you have it – the latest and greatest. Thanks as always for all your support, hugs, calls, texts and posts. It means the world to me. And just because, here’s a picture of my favorite celebrity cat, Roku, and his lookalike kittens. 🙂
