August 31, 2020

Where did August go….

I woke up and it was August 1st and next thing I knew it was the end of August! First off, I must admit that I have been keeping a secret. My older sister, Stacey, was diagnosed on 7/31 with Stage IA of IDC (Intraductal Carcinoma) Breast Cancer. She won’t know the final staging until after they get the pathology results back. I don’t want to share too much as it is my sister’s journey to share. We have both done new genetic testing and neither of us have the BRCA gene which is great and they don’t think it is genetic but who knows. It has been a crazy July and August that’s for sure.

So wow, when my sister published the update for me (after Radiation), I was feeling horrible. It wasn’t until the end of treatment that it hit me, as was expected. My mouth was killing me, I had thrush and mouth sores all over the back of my throat. There was nothing to do but comfort measures and time. I finished Radiation on Tuesday (8/11) and we left for Lake Tahoe on Friday, thinking I was giving us plenty of time, haha, who was I joking. So we headed off to Tahoe thinking we’d have a relaxing time. We did, with a couple hiccups! The smoke from somewhat nearby fires moved in the last three days of our stay so we really couldn’t go out much — not that i felt up to it anyway. We left on Friday and the smoke was pretty noticeable the entire drive home, maybe even a little worse at home!

Sometime the next week I was so out of it, I don’t really remember much of anything. I do know that Mark came upstairs on Wed (8/26) and told me that he just got off the phone with my Oncologist, Dr. Man who suggested that he take me to the ER, or wait and monitor how the evening goes and go in based on that. Well, the next morning we went to Stanford emergency room. Not too sure what to expect, but I must say that things moved pretty quickly. I was in a room within 10 minutes. Was I actually glad to be in a Hospital bed? I didn’t think I’d ever want to admit that! I was NPO (Nothing By Mouth) the entire day that I got there (Thursday the 27th) for all the tests they had planned so I hangry by the end of the day. Mark had to leave for visiting hours which he was unaware of so when I got back from one test he was being asked to leave around midnight. As I was coming back from a test, he stayed a little bit but shortly after left to go home.

There was still part of a test to be done because I couldn’t finish the entire thing so they took me back to my room around midnight and told me they may get to me later that night if they had time. So then someone came at 4:45 am to take me down for the rest of my test. The tech told me it would only be 30 mins but when I looked at the clock when I was back in my room, it was now 6am so I am not too sure if he was telling the truth or not.

The Oncology team kept going back and forth between, “well, I have to wait to see the neurosurgery team to review the scans” to “no its fine if she wants to go without hearing from them, she’s heard it enough”. Finally at 12pm I asked what was going on with my diet and they said, oh you have been released. I headed back to my room and ordered food and packed my bag to go home which was around 3:30pm. What a long trip to the hospital, though much shorter than it could’ve been. I was so glad to be going home!

We headed home to my Mom who was waiting here patiently I am sure filled with lots of questions. Long story short my bone disease has gotten worse, which is to be expected because we really haven’t been treating for the bone. I have right sided weakness which at first they thought was spinal cord compression but now they don’t (confirmed by the scans), still have my old Radiation Oncologist reviewing this and will call me once she’s done. Lastly the thrush and sores in my mouth are finally getting better, I’d say 90% + better. That’s about all in a nutshell. All I know is that I went in to the hospital feeling like shit and came out feeling much better so that is all that counts and I am so excited to start Chemotherapy today! Mom will be going with me which I know she is grateful to be here for moral and emotional support.

I will try not to let things go again this long. Also, my Oncologist has scheduled hydration for me 3 days a week, so this time I should be prepared. I can always cancel based on how I feel. For example this week I have Chemotherapy today at 3pm then scheduled hydration tomorrow at 9am and again Thursday at 5:50pm which I may cancel based on how I feel.

Thank you everyone for your continued love, responses, support, gifts, cards, love and love and more love…