T7

Had a follow up MRI Wednesday and found out Friday I have a 7mm lesion on the T7. The doctor took my case to the multidisciplinary tumor board and everyone apparently agreed the best thing to do was wait 6 weeks and rescan to see if it’s growing or staying stable. Dr. Yeboa said that she thinks we can treat it like we did the T8 lesion, with stereotactic radiation again, 1 or 3 treatments this time. She wasn’t sure yet when I talked to her. We feel really deflated because when we left the office Wednesday we were told the MRI was good from the preliminary report and we could follow up in a year. Things change fast. I hate this rollercoaster ride I’m on. I hate what’s it does to my family. I hate telling people I’m ok when there’s cancer growing in my body. I hate pretending I’m ok all the time when I’m clearly not. Erik and I have had some pretty long discussions about how we think this is going to go down. I think honestly I’m at the beginning of metastatic cancer and it’s just going to get worse and worse as time goes on. More lesions here and there popping up. I will continue to fight but I’m wearing down with each new punch this disease takes at me. There is no celebrating with this disease. I’ve learned that just when you think you have a victory something else happens and knocks you down. It’s exhausting. It has to be for the family too. My kids are numb. They don’t even get worked up anymore. We don’t hide anything. Maybe we sugar coat it more than we should but they are just kids. It’s not fair. None of this is fair to anybody. 

April is filled up with Doctor appts and scans

I have a dentist appt, a gynecologist appt, a family practice appt to refill meds plus labs, an MRI of my thoracic spine and appt with the radiation oncologist afterwards, a nuclear med full body bone scan followed by a CT scan...all in April while I’m trying to start back up to work full time nights and while Braden plays basketball out of town most weekends. Oh and did I mention we also have prom activities for Jaelyn and a orthodontist consult for Evan? I don’t know how I will get it all done! 

Surgery update

So I’ve been very behind on keeping up with this blog. But my second surgery came and went on February 22nd and all went well. I had what was found to be Ovarian Remnant Syndrome where part of my ovarian tissue was left in the abdomen during my ovary removal in 2017. It started growing into functioning ovarian tissue meaning it was producing hormones making me jump out of menopause. Something I asked several docs about by the way. Why was I one day hit flashing and the next all of a sudden not doing it any more? No one then had an answer but we do now. I stayed I. The hospital three nights and came home to recover only I had to have a catheter for 10 days because the ovarian tissue was attached to the bladder and I had to have part of the bladder removed and repaired. I developed a UTI (staph) from the catheter and was readmitted thru the ER at MD Anderson the day after the catheter came out due to fevers. The highest I got to was 103.2F! And it was the day my sister came to visit. While in the ER they wanted to do a CT scan to make sure it wasn’t a leak from my surgery. When they went to inject the contrast in my vein, my IV blew and all the contrast ended up in my arm tissue. Very painful! And I was very annoyed by this point. Five IV sticks total and I finally with support is my surgeon I said thanks but no thanks, send me home! The risk to attempt the contrast through my very small delicate veins was too much and outweighed the benefits of the CT scan since my body was already responding to the oral antibiotics for the UTI symptoms. I haven’t cried in a long time but that situation frustrated me and for the fact I was exhausted because no one sleeps in the ER. Erik and Autumn came to get me and save me from the traumatic visit to that ER. I didn’t spike another fever but about a week after stopping my antibiotics I got another UTI in addition to two weeks of diarrhea from the first round of meds. I’m 9 days from going back to work and feeling good. Except the menopause symptoms have returned and I’m not sleeping well through the night. Hot flashes are the worst! While Erik freezes at night, I am sweating.