College move in day

Moving in my only daughter to SHSU where she will be starting her studies in Pre nursing classes. I’m so proud of her for wanting to follow in my footsteps. It more excited she will understand my diagnosis and be able to help me when I’m at the end of my journey to take the weight off my husband. Not that I’m wishing for her to experience the inevitable but I will be glad it’s her by my side helping the family understand what is happening to me. It’s bittersweet watching her leave my nest and go out exploring on her own. I will miss knowing she is tucked away safe in her room at night just a flight of stairs away. I will miss the jibber jabber and countless hours of talking only she could do. I will even miss the attitude which seems weird. She’s growing into herself and finding her way. She’s becoming the woman she wants to be. She’s been through so much in her short 18 years and I’m hoping to see what happens these next 18 years as she becomes a nurse, if that’s what she chooses, a wife and a mother someday. I pray she never has to experience breast cancer like me. I know she will always worry and I pray too she can find peace. I pray I get to see my grand babies from all my children and go on trips and travel. I pray cancer doesn’t take me down too fast and I can enjoy my life instead of worry about the next scan or next spot. I’m just so proud right now of my two oldest children for going to college and I know cancer can not take this emotion from me! 

Research on Ibrance and faslodex

FASLODEX is given on Days 1, 15, and 29 of the first month and then once a month thereafter. Your treatment consists of 2 injections into your buttock muscle, administered by a health care professional. The 500 mg dose is given as 2 injections of 250 mg each, 1 into each buttock. 

SIDE EFFECTS:

Pain/swelling/redness at the injection site, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, constipation, diarrhea, upset stomach, dizziness, tiredness, weakness, headache, body aches/pains, flushing and sweating (hot flushes/hot flashes), or trouble sleeping may occur.

The cost for Faslodex intramuscular solution (50 mg/mL) is around $2,033 for a supply of 10 milliliters,

One shot 

USES: Faslodex is used to treat breast cancer that has spread to other areas of the body in women who have gone through "the change of life" (menopause). It is used in patients who have not responded well to other medications (e.g., tamoxifen). Breast cancer cells need the hormone estrogen in order to grow.

The cost for Ibrance oral capsule 75 mg is around $12,387 for a supply of 21 capsules

The most common side effects of Ibrance are:

anemia (low red blood cell count)

fatigue

nausea

neuropathy

mouth sores

hair thinning or loss

diarrhea

vomiting

weakness

decreased appetite

New spot on right humoral head, aka shoulder

So after this last bone scan  I took a photo of the image on the screen before the test was read and even to this uneducated scan reader I saw the spot. 
The CT scan reveled something different. It detected the spot in the impression. 



 At first the doctor I felt tried to blow it off. But being the nurse and annoying patient I am, I questioned why they described it as sclerotic, a word used to describe my other mets. I sent an email to the team asking for a second radiologist to read the scans. Quickly after,  I received a call from my oncologist and now on Sept 10 I get to have another bone scan, a CT scan, and an MRI of my T7. All on the same day. Pays to be persistent. If this actually comes back as another Mets, it will change my whole treatment plan. I will restart Ibrance, the $14,000/month before insurance, oral chemo and faslodex injections. Which I hear the side effects are bad. So here’s to waiting a month worrying again of what is growing in me. 

Cruise funny 2019

In July we took the family on a Royal Caribbean cruise for Jaelyn’s graduation celebratory vacation. Before we got on the ship I was approached by one worker asking if there was a reason the coast guard would be detecting large amounts of radiation when they walked close to me. I immediately confessed it had to be me, no one else around me. They took me behind closed doors to talk to 3 coast guard officers and explain I was a stage four cancer patient and just had a bone scan and ct scan the day before. They felt sorry for me and did tell me the detectors were going off as I was just standing there. Lucky for me they didn’t require any paperwork from my physician and let me on the ship. 

T7 radiation

Jaelyn helped me thru the T7 radiation by going to all three treatments with me. It was the week I started back on day shift so I was completely beat by the end of the week, both physically and mentally. The radiation was the same as the T8 spot. Only I had three fractions instead of the one. They tried to talk me into going in a clinical trial but I opted out. Overall it was a breeze. I have my repeat MRI coming up in September, three months from the radiation to see if it is stable.