A new plan is being made

 My nurse FINALLY got word from the lab on Thursday.

They found two specific mutations that have multiple targeted treatment options.

One of the options is to return to the chemo chair.  That one covers both mutations, but is going to impact quality of life, with increased pain and sickness being likely.

The other two are pills, but she didn't go into detail about if they would work for both mutations or not  (If she did, I was having an adrenaline rush, and didn't hear her).

She suggested that the testing took so long because they were reviewing both types of cancer. That makes sense.

All of the information is on my doctor's desk, and we will see him on Tuesday to talk about all of it.

I will also get my monthly injection, and my port flush, that day.

In other news, the new director took away our overtime hours.  She wants to monitor our productivity, and get a 40 hour week baseline.  This means we are returning to being scrutinized... Yippee.

This seems ill-advised, at best, but we have no choice.  We are still trying to get caught up from everyone leaving, including all of the coders.  We are only just now getting claims for June out the door.

Oh well... we had no say in the matter.

SO, I will re-set the alarm for 6:30 (except for my office day), and will go back to taking my lunch breaks.  I guess it will be nice for a while....but the pay checks will be a lot smaller.

This way, I can see what my raise did to change my regular pay, because I have been working overtime since the raise took effect.

This loss of overtime pay just means that it will take longer to pay off the windows, since my overtime pay has been going toward that.

It's drizzling rain right now...not enough to do any good...but is supposed to rain tomorrow.  We shall see.

Oh!  I found the mild muscle relaxer medication that the doc I saw for the car accident in 2020 prescribed.  I have started taking it, half a table at a time, and it's transforming my leg pain!  There have been a couple of days when I could walk without any limp at all!

I am not going to return to dance class yet, but I am very hopeful about this change.

Going to a yoga class tonight, and will pace myself very carefully.

Have a good week!

Still waiting

 I messaged my nurse this past week, and found out that the lab wasn't finished with testing my tissue samples yet.

What was supposed to have taken two to three weeks, did not.  By the time I get any news, it will have been two MONTHS since my initial CT scan that showed the return of cancer.

I'm trying not to think about the fact that my scan was clear in December, and how fast "it" seems to be coming back.

She said that the date they gave her for final results was today's date, a Sunday.  Hopefully, I will hear something in the coming week.

The high temperatures finally broke, here.  We got a little rain the other night (it rained for about 4 minutes). It's supposed to rain on and off for the next few days, but, so far, all we are getting is drizzle here and there.

So, we wait.  We wait for news about my treatment, and we wait for desperately needed rain.

The rain will be too late for many shrubs, trees, flowers, and lawns in this part of the country, ours included.

The pain in my lower body and leg continues to fluctuate, and move around. 

I DID get out and walk several times this past week, limping, and slowly.  It was very helpful to get outside into the less-hot air and sunshine.

If I hear anything mid week, I will make another post. 

Relief

 They are saying that we only have a few more days of temperatures over 100 degrees.  This pattern should break some time in the coming week.

It could rain a bit, too, which is desperately needed.  

My leg pain is also behaving differently, with more frequent pain free moments.  

After doing all of the chores, errands, and cooking a fabulous dinner last night, I had virtually no pain last evening, which is surprising, given all of the activity of the day.  

Stiff this morning, but not too bad.  I am starting to think that it's just one of the "traveling pains" that I have had for years, due to the hormone blocking medication. 

I was looking back at my Facebook Memories the other day, and this time last year, it was my LEFT leg!

Anyway, I just met up with a new friend who lives nearby, and took a 3 block walk outside.  It was a little difficult, but felt OH so good to be out.

Maybe next weekend, Dave and I can get back to doing a woods walk on Sunday morning.

In other news, there IS no other news.  

My nurse was on vacation last week, so ... maybe that's why I still have not heard one word about a new treatment program.

It will soon be TWO MONTHS since my CT scan results came back.  I had to wait a month to get my MRI and bone scan, and the next day, Doc and Jamie told me that it would be two to three weeks for the genomic test results, and a new plan.

This past Thursday was three weeks.

I know, everything is taking longer than expected these days, but... this is my life. It's only cancer, right?

Ugh.  It's hard to just be patient and wait for news, when it's your actual life at stake. 

Not much else to report.  The heat has kept us inside most of the time.  It's supposed to be record-breaking today and the next couple of days. 

The new boss is sitting with me at the office tomorrow.  I'm a little nervous, as an older person (the oldest in the office, to be honest), I really need to show her that I am still on my game.

She is quite young, but also 100% inexperienced in the world of AMBULANCE billing.  She came over from the hospital system I used to work for, where I did physician billing.  I have had my feet deeply planted in BOTH worlds, so maybe that will help.

Maybe I'll drop it in her ear that I was a medical billing operations manager for 8 years back in Illinois.

Anyway, I'm already showered, and ready for more coffee....breakfast soon, too.  Have a lovely Sunday!  

Sudden onset

 Well, we went to the woods last Sunday, and I worked in the office Monday (that usually equates to three-to-four thousand steps), and was in dance class Monday night....

but ... since then, the pain in my right thigh has gotten to the point where I can barely walk.

This has me pretty scared, as there is a bone metastasis site in the right femur.

What if I am done with being able to walk, dance, bike?  Ugh.

The interesting thing is, though, that the other pain I have been having in my low back and hips is virtually gone.  

SO, this could also just be another of my mysterious traveling pains that I have had for years since starting on hormone blockers.

Time will tell. 

I have found that Naproxen helps, as does yoga and myofascial release.  It really feels like muscle spasming to me, but I have been proven wrong in the past.

I need to get on the mat this morning for sure, and do some of those self therapies, as I did not yesterday.

I DID do all of my chores yesterday, though, and one errand, but by evening the pain was pretty bad, and the limping is effecting other parts.  UGH.

Still no word from the clinic about my potential treatment program.  They said three weeks at least, though, and it's only been two.

Friday, during work from home, the new boss of our department emailed everyone, and asked for a list of what we do.  

My list is for sure the longest, as it always has been.  She put it into a spread sheet.

Then, later in the afternoon, I was emailing with one of our transition process consultants, and she said that the new boss really needs to meet with me, and soon.

So... that may be happening tomorrow while I am in the building.  We shall see.

I also had a flurry of phone calls on Friday, from team members asking for my help.  It's good to be needed.

Especially when they could have been asking the "trainer."  Mwahahaha.... that will always make me laugh, since she got the promotion I should clearly have had.

Dave is outside right now, doing some yard work before it gets too hot.  

The little bit of rain we had made some parts of the yard start to grow like crazy, while the majority of the lawn is dark brown and crisp.  He went over it with the mower yesterday morning, and is doing the string trimmer today.  Lots of happy crab grass coming up between the bricks in the patio, etc.

The forecast shows that today COULD be our last day above 100 degrees.  The past week has been 105-106 every day, but next week, it MIGHT only be in the upper 90s, and it might rain again.

Later today, I have a zoom meeting with my international spiritual community. I am presenting a portion of the content.

Our mentor has also asked me to be an admin on the group's FaceBook page, and to post a weekly focus point there to keep the new and intermediate students of her course engaged.  It's an honor to do so, and it will also help ME to keep myself engaged in my spiritual practice. 

Other than that, since I can't really walk much, we will be just staying home today.  Probably watch the Cubs game, and take it easy.  

I am not good at taking it easy, but right now, I have no choice.

Have a good week!

Rain, beautiful rain!

 After weeks of scorching heat, and no rain, most everything here is dry and brown, as I mentioned previously.

Well, it finally rained a little bit on Friday, and is raining again this morning.  

Unfortunately, we were going to go to the woods this morning, and I am not sure I can convince Dave to go while it's raining.

We shall see.

Not much else going on.  Had my injection last week, worked overtime, ate, slept. 

Kind of just dealing with being in limbo around my treatment plans, I guess.

The next batch of windows are supposed to be installed tomorrow, so yesterday, I moved everything in the office/yoga room (again) to make way for the installers.  

I also did a bit of work in the kitchen, clearing nick knacks off of the window sill over the sink, and cleaning off the extra table by the other window.

Today, Dave is supposed to work on the bedroom.  

This time, it will be 7 windows in all, as you may recall, because we now have to deal with a "job fee" for every installation.  

So, instead of being able to proceed at a rate of two windows at a time, and save up for them, we decided to take out a low interest loan, and get 7 done.  Then, next year, after we've paid this off, we can do it again.

Thankfully, this job is scheduled for a MONDAY, so I will be at the office, and miss all of the noise and most of the chaos.  The chaos not related to having everything in a jumble, which is plenty of chaos for me.

I am off to the shower, as Dave is up and says yes, let's go!  Have a good week!

The path forward

My day of getting scanned went well.  I did not panic while in the MRI machine, and was very glad to get that done first.

The bone scan process was interesting.  The machine moves all around you, while you lie on a table.  

But. When my phone rang on that same afternoon, and my nurse said "we need you to come in tomorrow," I knew the news was not good.

The bone scan revealed new areas of cancer.  The MRI of the liver revealed new areas of cancer.

Doc said it's not that the treatment program we are using now has stopped working since December, but that it's being challenged.  Cancer is "sneaky."

He said this is just another "well, damn"  moment, and surely NOT a moment to panic.

The really exciting part is that there is a new class of therapies available now, that were not yet an option the last time this happened about 2 and a half years ago.

 My tissue samples from the mastectomy surgery in 2015 are still viable, and still available.  They are being sent to a lab for genomic testing.  

What this will result in, hopefully, is a completely customized and targeted protocol aimed at my specific cancers (you may recall there were two different kinds), based on the dna in those cells.

This will take about 3 weeks, my insurance SHOULD cover it, and in the meantime, I am to just keep doing what I am doing.  We will continue the monthly injections, and I will just keep taking the meds I am on, until we have more information.

He said that many of the medications being used are oral, and immunotherapy-based, just like what we are doing now.  My nurse said they will try to keep me out of the chemo chair. 

There is also a newer type of radiation therapy that is used to address pain from bone mets.  This is staying on the "back burner" for now, though, because my pain is not constant, AND we want to see what comes through from the genomic research.

SO, all in all, I am highly encouraged, and excited by what the future might bring.  I am very fortunate to have survived this long, I know.... and I am even more fortunate to be here for new developments in the area of treating late stage cancer.

I wish my friend Laura had been able to time her cancer similarly, but, unfortunately, that's not how it works. 

Oh, and doc gave me the all clear to continue dancing, as long as I am careful.

The intense heat wave continues here.  They're saying it will finally break later in the week, and that we will have the coolest overnight temperatures we have seen in 52 days by that time.

Unfortunately, we will still be seeing daily highs between 103 and 105 continuing until then.

There could be some rain with that cooling front, too, which is far too late to save cattle and crops in this mostly agricultural state. 

I do not exaggerate when I say that everything out there has turned brown and crisp in the past few weeks.

Even my black eyed susans, which are drought tolerant, native prairie plants, are struggling.  Same with our neighbor two doors down, so I know it's not my fault, HAHA.

We water morning and evening, since the local water supply is still looking good, and no restrictions have been placed yet.  

Dave waters the front flower bed, where the susans are.  We give our willow tree an hour in the evenings, and she has stopped dropping her leaves. 

I water what survives in the back, in what was my herb garden, but what is now sunflowers and sage, and the struggling herbs in a couple of pots.  My petunia plant continues to bloom, but the stalks are brown, and there are no leaves.  It's weird!

I keep planting my scallion roots in the big pots, but it's been too hot for them to even think about growing new scallions for me. 

I also keep bowls of water filled out back, and the bird bath, and have seen insects drinking, as well as the occasional cat.

Our feral population has been very scarce since the new cats moved in with the jerk neighbors, but once in a while, someone shows up.

Anyway...We got errands and chores mostly done yesterday. Dave will go to Costco this morning. I have a virtual meeting with my spiritual community, and hope to take a leisurely nap this afternoon.

This past week was very stressful, and I am needing this restful weekend.

Back to a full week of work, starting tomorrow. 

Our new director comes on board this week.  Not sure which day she starts. I have not met her yet, because the day that she came in to meet people was not a Monday, so I was not in the office.

Hopefully, she will adapt to our "re-made" office culture, rather than try to micromanage us back into the stone age.

I am off to the shower.  Have a good week!

Testing this week

 My testing day is Wednesday, at last.

The anxiety is mounting, and I find it overwhelming at times.

I need to arrive at 7:45 am to check in at the hospital.  They will give me some kind of injection that takes hours to go through my body for the nuclear bone scan, and in the meantime, they will do the liver MRI with contrast, so they'll put in an IV and get me going on that.

My appointment with my doctor is then a week later. Unless they are so alarmed that they call me in sooner.

This has happened before, which is why I am utterly terrified.

I am not ready to die, and I am not ready to go back to being bald, or sick.

In the meantime, we are up at sunrise to go walking in the woods.  I need this time, today, especially.

It's going to be 106 degrees this afternoon, and into the 110 region this coming week, so this morning is my last chance before the big day Wednesday.

Have a good Sunday.