What's going on?

Yesterday, I felt okay. Had a decent night's sleep and then had two appointments which weren't too bad. One appointment got rescheduled for later in the day and I agreed to the later time. However, I completely forgot about my department's faculty meeting yesterday! Sheesh. I heard from my colleague that most of the talk has to do with changes that are in the works at the university level, but nothing set in stone yet, so there was a lot of speculation.

My rescheduled appointment was with Wells Fargo - I called to ask them a question regarding my parents' mortgage on their manufactured home and then they said that maybe they could help me out somehow. So, I let them offer some options, but they weren't good enough to get me to make any changes with regard to a refinance or other loan. My folks have been paying an outrageously high percentage rate on their mortgage for the past 11 years . .. but since they don't own the land their home is on, they are kinda out of luck. Afterwards, I picked up Eddie from my sister's house - he played with his cousins for a bit while I met with the bank - and then the three of us had a teriyaki chicken/veggie dinner that was quite good. The rest of my sister's family were at soccer practice.

Anyway, I slept okay last night but not nearly long enough, so I've been dragging all day. Eddie and I slept in a little since he doesn't have school and then I dropped him off at my folks' house so I could teach. I felt better at the beginning of class then I did before Tuesday's class, but afterwards, I felt fatigued and I had a headache and my neck and shoulder are achey and now I may have a slight sore throat again.

Is it the flu? I don't have a fever; I did three weeks ago. I have continued to have fatigue off and on - and when I get a good night's sleep and take it easy, I do okay the next day, but it seems if I do a little bit of running around, then I pay for it the next day.

Or, is it fatigue from my meds? Femara does cause fatigue - does it cause headaches? It does also cause achey muscles and joints. I've been on Femara for about six weeks now. Maybe it's just now kicking in.

Who the heck knows? Maybe it's a combination of both. But that's life with metastatic cancer - you don't know what's causing it. I guess it doesn't matter, because in the end (although my left-science brain really wants to get to the bottom of it), I think my body is telling me to keep resting and to not overdo it even if I feel okay.

I leave for Alaska in five days, though. I think that means I really really need to discipline myself and just take it easy - hard for a do-er like me to do.

Or, perhaps it means that teaching takes a lot out of me and that I should try to decrease my teaching load as much as possible! HA! I kinda like that spin on things!!

Seriously, though, teaching a class does take a lot of energy - and since I am innately shy, standing in front of a classroom is draining. I'm glad that I was able to buy myself out of a class this term - I can't imagine the shape I'd be in if I was teaching two classes at once - or even worse, four classes at once like I did when I started my tenure-track career in Connecticut!

Okay . . . got to go rest now. TTYL!

Daily Update

Today was Eddie's first day at school. Apparently, it was uneventful, although Eddie said the day was "really long" and he was tired.

As for me, after an early dentist appointment (last week, part of a filling fell out; now I have to get a crown), I went to my office.

And, worked on that article.

Yes, you heard me. I actually had a full day to work on that article. I worked on it all yesterday evening while watching America's Got Talent. I'm really close to being done. And, while it was due last Thurs, the editors contacted me last night (they are in New Zealand) and wondered if I would be able to get it in ASAP. I replied that I could get it to them in 24 hours. I still have a few more hours to finish it up. Yay!

In other news, I seem to be having this kinda low-lying headache. It's not bad enough to take any pain reliever, but bad enough for me to notice. I'll see if it continues.

Last week, when I saw my oncologist's physician assistant, she examined the lymph nodes under my left arm. One has been swollen for several months and the CT scan in July estimated it to be about 2cm. When she palpated it, she thought it was only 1-1.5 cm. It's getting harder for me to find it - I checked it last Thursday and then again yesterday and today. It may only be 1cm.

I'd complained to my acupuncturist two weeks ago that the area under my left arm felt swollen and that when I rested my arm against my body, I could feel that area. So, she gave me a different Chinese herb (called Viola 12) to use. This particular herb is good against swollen lymph nodes and lung tumors, among other things. She said that another patient of hers with melanoma responded to it. So, I've been on Viola 12 for two weeks.

And, I've been on Femara since last Friday. Perhaps between the two of them, they are reducing the lymph nodes, which means that perhaps they are working against the lung tumors. One can only hope, right? I'll keep you posted.

Femara Side Effects

So, I've been taking Femara since Friday - that's four nights of taking it. I take it before bedtime. So far, so good. I don't really feel any side effects. Maybe a slight headache here and there, maybe some fatigue but not any more less than what I've experienced before. Others include dizziness, nausea, sleeplessness, double vision. Maybe after it's had a chance to build up in my system, I might get more achey joints. But nothing really to report right now. Let's just hope the medication does what it needs to do in terms of turning off or slowing down the cancer growth in my lungs. They say it might take a month or two to work. I'll keep you posted!

Tumor Marker Results and Next Step

So, my tumor markers this week were as follows: the CEA was 5.1 (up from 4.2) and the CA15-3 was 31.9 (up from 29.7). This is cause for concern - they are inching up into the range just above normal. Now, on the one hand, my physician's assistant said that she's seen a CEA number of about 700 and the CA15-3 as high as 3,000. My own isn't that bad. However, there is a steady uphill trend and I'd rather snip this thing in the bud before it gets worse.

So, there are several options - including Herceptin with some traditional chemo which would require going in once a week or once every two weeks for an IV treatment. However, I'm gonna try the less invasive option for now - Tykerb plus Femara. I get to stop taking Xeloda. Xeloda is a traditional chemo (which kills fast growing cells). Femara is an "aromatase inhibitor" which means it blocks your body from creating estrogen from aromasin. Now, I've had my ovaries removed, but your body still creates a small amount of estrogen still. That'll be blocked. My lab reports on my cancer state that my cancer is estrogen positive, meaning that it uses estrogen to grow. So, we're going to see if taking that away helps the situation. We'll give in a couple of months to see how it works and if my numbers continue to creep up, then we go to the IV treatments.

I hope Tykerb with Femara does the trick.

Here's the history of my tumor markers - it was just a year ago that my CEA was 0.5!! Imagine that! Here's the 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

And, here's the CA15-3.

Sept 2007 - 23 U/mL
Jan 2008 - 31 U/mL
Mar 2008 - 36 U/mL
June 2008 - 23 U/mL (started radiation that month)
Aug 2008 - 18 U/mL (week of August 4th)
Sept 2008 - 14.5 U/mL YAAAAAAY!!!
Oct 1 2008 - 19.6 U/mL
Oct 31 2008 - 15.3 U/mL
Nov 28 2008 - 19.5 U/mL
Dec 30 2008 - 16.0 U/mL
Jan 22 2009 - 15.4 U/mL
Mar 2 2009 - 17.8 U/mL
Apr 8 2009 - 19.6 U/mL
May 5 2009 - 18.4 U/mL
June 4 2009 - 19.7 U/mL
July 2 2009 - 22.1 U/mL
Aug 3 2009 - 29.7 U/mL
August 31 2009 - 31.9 U/mL

And, I'm gonna work hard to destress my life! Got some more work to do in that department!

So, I'm doing okay. Not great, but doing okay and looking forward to going to HAWAII!