A Productive Day

I managed to finish my list of to-do's today, which was nice considering how I felt yesterday with the withdrawal symptoms. Today, I have only taken half a pill, a quarter of one this morning and a quarter this evening. I was just getting the chills before I remembered to take it. It took an hour or so, but I finally got rid of the chills.

The radiation oncology dept. called me today to set up a consult with one of their doctors, but the only appointment was tomorrow afternoon, so I scheduled it for next week. Then, they called back with a morning appointment but it was the same time as another one that I have and I really want to go to that one. It's funny. I started complaining about the modules during the first or second week of July, but it took the docs about 5-6 weeks to biopsy them and now that they did, they want me to start NOW! But I am heading to the Coast tomorrow and I will not delay. They made me wait over a month, now they can wait a week. Most of the pain is gone - just a twinge and Tylenol takes care of that.

I had a productive day, ran several errands this am, met with a student, made phone calls, reserved a car for our trip to the Coast, picked up more herbs from my acupuncturist, hinge out with Eddie in the backyard, finished doing an assessment of an online course, recorded myself reading a chapter I wrote for a college class at Alaska Anchorage, sealed the tile on our fence project, and started to pack for the Coast.

Yep, we head to south Lincoln City (near Mo's) tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be an unprecedented 80 degrees in Lincoln City tomorrow. We'll take off around 11:30am and get there about 1pm. We can't get into the house until 4pm, so we will eat and play on the beach until then.

I cannot wait! I so love the Coast. The ocean relaxes me like nothing else. I promise to post pics. We will have four kiddos (Eddie, his cousins, and my niece's friend), my folks, my brother Scott, my sister, Rena, and me.

Walks on the beach, maybe a visit to the arcade/casino, maybe a visit to the Outlet stores and antique and books stores. Walks on the beach. And, oh yeah, walks on the beach!

Zimbabwe Festival and Withdrawl Symptoms

I went to the Zimbabwe Festival today with a couple of friends today. Listening to the marimba bands was really kinda cool and I had fun browsing the arts and crafts booths. I bought a $5 pair of abalone and coral earrings, half of a cloth with a pretty floral blue and white pattern on a black background, and a small statuette of a mother carrying her child on her back. The statuette reminded me of Eskimo "umaqqing", which is when moms or older kids carried a baby on their backs under their parkas. It fits nicely in the palm of my hand, almost like a worry stone. I have a turtle necklace that I bought in Hawaii last year with a baby turtle on it's back. I figure the two remind me of one major reason why I continue in my efforts to heal myself from this cancer: my son.

Well, that got kinda heavy! In other news, I felt a bit shaky and had chills with flu-like symptoms with occasional sweats. Thought it was a digestive issue or I caught some kind of flu or ate something wrong yesterday.

I had last taken a 50-mg tramadol pill yesterday at noon. Tramadol is the name of the pain pill I have taken for almost four weeks now. Two weeks ago, I had as many as 6 or 7 pills in one day. But on the last week, I had gradually de erased it as my pain lessened. I think last week, I may have had only 3 or 4 at a time. Then on Thursday, the UW doctor said I could take anti-inflammatories for 72 hours to decrease the inflammation and stop taking the pain pills.

By Friday, I had less pain, so I think I may have only had 1 or 2 pills all day. Then just one on Saturday. I woke up at 3am feeling achey all over and couldn't get comfortable and go back to sleep. I finally took some Tylenol and fell back asleep at 4:30am.

This evening, I still didn't feel right, with muscle aches and chills and a bit of pain in my armpit, so I took a pain pill in the hopes that I could get a good night's sleep. Within an hour, the chills and aches were gone, so I began to suspect that I was going through withdrawals.

Looked up the symptoms of withdrawals and, yep, that's exactly what's going on. So, I could either go cold turkey or gradually wean myself. I am going to opt for the latter because I have some things to do tomorrow, like laundry and a couple of work things, before we head to the Coast on Tuesday. So, my plan is to only take half a pill for two days then quarter of a pill for a. Ouple of days so I can enjoy the Coast without feeling like I have the flu.

Criminy, why didn't the doctors tell me that withdrawls were a possibility? I would've been more careful about how much I took (never more than prescribed) and would've maybe started to wean myself sooner.

Ah well, live and learn. That's all one can do with this disease!

A Nice Saturday Afternoon

I will say this: the AdSense ads are encouraging me to write blogposts that are not just about my cancer status. I will say, however, that I have not yet heard from my doctors about the next step. Which is fine. My family and I are heading to Lincoln City for five days. We leave on Tuesday. Yay!

In other news, we attended Baby Goo's birthday party. Technically, he is baby Jeremiah, but that is his dad's first name, and as we call his dad "Gooey" or "Goo" (long story about the mispronunciation of his last name), I have taken to calling him Baby Goo. He is also named after my Uncle Gabe, whose Eskimo name is Aakagak.

Baby Goo's birthday party was held at Fort Hoskins Park, located west of Corvallis. It was a nice afternoon, relaxing. Good food. Good company (several of my former students and their families). What else can I say. Once I get a chance, I will post a photo or two.

I am almost done with a mandala for a friend. And almost done putting up tile on the fence. I have a couple of work things to do - maybe tomorrow morning. Okay. Gonna work on the tile.

CEA Results

I just had my blood drawn today - we hadn't checked my CEA results for over 4 weeks.  The number went up to 50.9, from 44.3 last time. 

Dang!  But another argument for starting a new treatment. Here's my history:

CEA
1/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
3/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
6/2008 - 1.0 ng/mL
8/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL (need to double check this number, but it was in that 0.9 to 1.2 range)
9/2008 - 0.5 ng/mL
10/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
10/31/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
11/28/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
12/30/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL
3/2/2009 - 1.4 ng/mL
4/8/2009 - 1.6 ng/mL
5/5/2009 - 1.9 ng/mL
6/4/2009 - 3.0 ng/mL
7/2/2009 - 3.7 ng/mL
8/3/2009 - 4.2 ng/mL
8/31/2009 - 5.1 ng/mL
10/2/2009 - 5.7 ng/mL (or was it 5.8?)
11/2/2009 - 7.6 ng/mL
11/30/2009 - 10.5 ng/mL
12/28/2009 - 13.2 ng/mL
3/8/2010 - 22.9 ng/mL
4/22/2010 - 28.9 ng/mL
6/7/2010 - 46.3 ng/mL
7/19/2010 - 44.3 ng/mL
8/19/2010 - 50.9 ng/mL

It's not a huge jump, but a jump nonetheless.  Time for this number to go down down down!

Biopsy Results

Dr. K. did a biopsy on Tuesday and his office  called with the results of it today.  The news?  The nodule he removed from under the lymph nodes was positive for cancer.

My interpretation is that the cancer is trying to run away from the t-cells in the lymph nodes.  So, it ran away to the skin.

This is what I wrote on Facebook earlier today:  "We, meaning my docs and I, knew that that cancer was in the lymph nodes. The cancer migrated (I.e., ran away from the t -cells in the nodes) to the skin area, so it wasn't much of a surprise. The UW doctor said that I may be eligible for another trial, which uses a topical treatment plus Abraxane. They are having "remarkable" results with that, apparently. I will find out later what they decide. I am just tired if this "third boob" under my armpit!"

So, now it needs to be treated. But Dr. K.  is going to talk to Dr. D. from UW about what the next step will be.  I will post when I know more!

Conversation with one of the UW docs

I had a nice long conversation yesterday with one of the doctors from UW.  I'll spare you the details - in terms of the biology because I'm not sure I quite understand it very well.  In the end, the increased pain was probably due to what she called (I think) an inflammatory flare, an intense inflammatory response.  The lymph nodes are surrounded by capsules, which are covered in nerves.  The t-cells get into the lymph nodes.  The t-cells then get into the capsules and become inflamed, causing me to feel pain.

Now, Herceptin, since it is a monoclonal antibody, sorts acts like a catalyst to the t-cells (presenting antegens, or cells that present for antigens?).  The Herceptin supercharges the t-cells, intensifying the inflammatory response and hence, more pain.

In addition, the increased pain was probably caused by air travel.  So, until the inflammation goes down and the lymph nodes shrink, I don't think I'll fly.


So, now that we know what causes the pain, I know what to avoid.  I will stay off Herceptin, for now, and not travel. 

In addition, the doctor, Dr. D., said that what they are seeing clinically is that the effect of the t-cell infusions don't really kick in for 6-10 months.  She reported that the patients in the trial (and in a previous trial) went back on a standard treatment after their participation in the trial ended, but then, all of a sudden, the treatment they get begins working very very well - in that 6-10 month period. 

Good news - but now I can expect that my treatments will really become effective around the holidays or sometime into the spring. 

In the meantime, what treatment will I get?  Dr. D. and Dr. K. are discussing it sometime today and they will let me know.  I may be eligible for another trial that they are running at UW, but I'll discuss it all in a future post! 

Also, Dr. D. said I could take Ibuprofen for 48-72 hours to try to decrease the inflammation, and hence the pain.  Yay!

Man, I'm so glad to get a good explanation for what's going on! 

I know it's a ruse, but still a good sale!

I usually don't discuss my shopping habits on this blog, as it is not directly related to the purpose of it. However, I enabled the monetize function on the blog and now Google's AdSense is putting ads in the upper right hand corner. AdSense, from what I understand, uses the content from the blog to decide which ads to display. I just clicked through my last few posts to see if the ads change, and yes, they do, depending on what I talk about. So this post is an experiment to see what AdSense displays.

While I was in Alaska, my suitcase broke - the handle broke off near the bottom and that somehow affected the way the wheels turned. So after I visited the ER, my cousin, C., took me to Kohl's. I found a sturdier suitcase on sale, for $90. About $60 off. But I also received $10 in Kohl's cash.

I know this is a ruse to get you back into the store to purchase more things, because, really, what can you get for $10? On the other hand, it is $10 off of whatever you buy.

Well, it is back-to-school season, meaning time to buy Eddie new school clothes. And the stitching was coming apart on my purse. In the end, I bought two purses ( one for mom because she can't find one that fits everything), two pairs of athletic pants for Eddie ( he doesn't like jeans), and three summer print t-shirts for me, mom, and dad. I also had a 20% off coupon. I got that whole list of stuff for $59!

Not too shabby, eh? : )