When Less is More. And More is Less. Health Update

One of the symptoms that originally led to my ER visit back in November was a vision issue that involves some flickering and black spots and generally unacceptable eyesight - temporarily. After all the dirty laundry came out, this symptom was easily attributed to brain swelling caused by the cancer lesions.

I started on a steroid to reduce this swelling. And then I got radiation, to reduce the lesion that was causing the main swelling. And then, 20 days passed after radiation, and the swelling from the radiation itself should have been well beyond me. And yet the flickering. There it was one day. I called the doctor. We adjusted the steroid. Then there is was another day. Why is this happening still?? So we did a brain MRI to check things out. Guess what. (Wait for it...)

FEWER lesions. SMALLER lesions! AND, this is earlier than we really should have been looking for full progress. Things are still cooking up there from the clinical trial drug and the radiation. We'll scan again in March and things should look mighty fine! Less is more. :)

I am scheduled to start my chemotherapy regimen on Wednesday, January 21. I'm doing a combo of Taxol, Herceptin and Perjeta. I'll go in once each week for a combination of 3, 2 or 1 of those. This is to treat the cancer mets in my lung and body. The last time we scanned to see those mets was back in November, so my oncologist ordered a new scan so we could get fresh information to know exactly what we were up against. Turns out the little cancer town in my body has quickly developed into cancer metropolis. We've got significantly more cancer to kill. More is less. :(

The type of cancer I have, HER2+, is very aggressive. Impressively aggressive I guess! That's the bad news about HER2+ cases. The good news is there are some really great drugs/treatments that have been developed recently (last 15 years, last 5 years, etc.) that specifically attack the HER2 protein that feeds the cells.

I'm trying not to be discouraged by this new state of the state because haven't even started the chemo treatment yet! So it's not illogical that all these cancer cells are taking advantage of their free-love window and multiplying with abandon.

One bummer of the new mets is that they have developed on bones and that hurts me! I guess they emit a substance that eats away at the bone and that causes pain (check) and if left untreated, bone density issues, fractures, etc. Hopefully the chemo can catch up before this becomes an issue. Currently I am just on an entry level prescription pain med and Tylenol and getting by. We'll be adding one more drug to my weekly treatments that will block the secretion of this bone-eating substance which will help my pain. And we can always bump up the bad-ass on my prescription. 

And then there's that vision issues. We didn't find the reason! We'll have to keep tracking it but it could be that the cancer is in my spinal fluid (not awesome) which would be an explanation for neurological anomalies. Seriously hoping we don't have to explore that. I have a full spine MRI on Tuesday that will give us more info on that.

At this point Wednesday cannot come soon enough! Other than the back/hip pain I'm feeling really quite good.

We have a weekend of kid basketball, baseball, swimming. It's one of those when I think I'll be better off if I don't plan on getting ANYTHING crossed off my own to-do list! Maybe if I can just get that Christmas tree down....OH heck, and I finished my blog post! #workaholic #coffeebreak