Scan Results

I'm exhausted physically and emotionally tonight, so this won't be long.

This has been a difficult week for me.  I always have a little panic attack when I know scans are coming up.  My worry has been compounded by the pain I feel in my hip constantly.  I knew the news coming out of the scans probably wouldn't be encouraging.  I'd would call it "neutral" news.  There is progression now, but I had a long run since diagnosis feeling great with no evidence of disease.  Chemo did its job, I am grateful for that!

I was at Huntsman most of the day on Wednesday.  I had my echo at 8:00 then got my port accessed for the injection of the bone scan tracer.  The bone scan takes about 40 minutes.  You have to lay perfectly still, so after you're on the table they take huge velcro straps and cross them over and attach them so you can't move.  There were several places in my body that the tracer lit up.  My left foot (from the break a few weeks ago) and the big toe I broke early in the summer lit up. The most prominent places were my left hip and now femur (new), as well as ribs on the left and right sides (new).  "... lesions suspicious for progression of osteoblastic osseous metastatic disease ... " isn't what I hoped for.

The CT scans showed no signs of visible cancer anywhere else in my body, but there are existing lesions in my lungs that they watch from scan to scan.  While I was at Huntsman waiting around for things, I saw a friend from group who has declined quite a bit since I saw her in February.  She was in a wheelchair and had oxygen running - not positive signs!  Then I got on FB and saw that another friend from group has just gone on hospice and isn't expected to last very long.  I had lunch with her a couple of months ago.  These are both Moms who are younger than me, and have kids at home.  It was a bummer day.  Losing friends is so hard!

When Dr. Buys came in to see me today, she always points out the positive first, that she was very pleased with how well the study drug worked for me, and that the other drugs have kept the cancer in my liver from growing.  And then we talked about the progression in my bones and how to deal with it.  With progression, I don't qualify for the study drug anymore.  I'll stay on Herceptin but on a 4 week cycle (instead of every 3 weeks) with a slightly higher dose.  We'll assess in 3 months whether to add Perjeta back in to the mix, depending on the results of my next scans.  She's changing the bone strengthener drug to a different one, keeping me on the hormone shots for now, and she'll start me on radiation in my hip.  She said she felt confident that going off the study drug should bring my energy back up and I'll feel better. Here's to hoping that's true!

I'm exhausted and need to sleep, but just wanted to get an update out there.  Please pray for us.  This turn in events is one I hoped would never come, but here we are.  McKinley, in particular, could use some prayers!  She starts with a new counselor next week because I still can't take her to Huntsman to see Annie.  This is where things get progressively MORE hard for me and the family.  I don't know what that means as far as time frame, but I've seen this scenario replayed more times than I care to think about.