On Wednesday I returned to the hospital for blood tests to see if my liver had improved and to check my cancer markers too after last weeks rubbish results!! Surprisingly my vein decided that blood would be allowed to be taken this time, usually it moves as the needle goes in which makes it extremely difficult for the nurses to get blood out of me! So we succeeded first time! I then met up with Prof Chan to catch up and set a plan in place for my treatment regime and find out my blood results. My liver function has improved a tiny bit - I will take that! If the liver function had been worse then I would have had to stop treatment and swap to something else which isn't good as it's all about using options up slowly. So I want that other option available for the future rather than use it now. So this was a big tick in a box to know my liver is coping a bit better. I have been feeling a bit better this past week with the nausea easing and the pain in my liver disappearing too. I have done everything in my power to help my liver recover. I already have a healthy diet but I avoided anything fatty like cheese that might be hard for the liver process and I have pretty much cut out refined sugar too. I needed to be sure that I had done everything possible to help my body. It may well have helped! Then the cancer marker test - this was the same as the previous occasion!! This is brilliant news! This suggests the cancer may have stopped growing already! After one round of treatment!! I didn't expect that to happen yet! So it looks like the treatment might be working. It's a good first indicator and step in the right direction. We still need to wait for another cycle of treatment, more blood tests and to see my marker reduce but also to see what happens when I have a CT Scan in a month's time. Then we will know for sure if the treatment is working. But I'm extremely happy with this first set of results. This summer 'the cancer' decided to join us on holiday, which I wasn't too impressed at! It was not invited!! However it seems that it is regularly joining me in my life although I do plan to get rid as rapidly as possible and hopefully it will not be joining us for Christmas dinner this year. There is no invite being sent - that's for sure!! I hope you have all had a fantastic summer, we certainly have had lots of fun :-)
The September editions of the Barrowby Bamboozler are currently being printed and will be available from the 4th September. Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend! Deborah x
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Well it seems the roller coaster of life isn't going to get any easier in the short term. I feel like closing my eyes and putting my fingers in my ears and going 'La la la la... I can't hear you!!'. But life doesn't work like that, I have to be grown up and so I listened as Prof explained the latest set of results to me... So my latest blood tests show that my liver is seriously struggling and my breast cancer marker has increased. The biggest worry is my liver as this could suggest the cancer has grown or that the current treatment is damaging it. But we don't know which it is yet. Prof wants another set of test results next week to see what's going on and if there is a trend. I only started the new drug two weeks ago, so we want to give it a chance to work. The plan will then be decided. I may stay on this treatment and be closely monitored to see if the tests improve or we may switch me onto a chemo tablet and do a CT scan to see if the cancer has grown. We are in limbo for a week and need to sit tight and wait. Then decisions can be made.
Prof already has another drug ready and waiting for me as a back up option that my liver should cope with better. However, we don't want to use this next option yet, if we can avoid it as this is about extending life for as long as possible and so the more options I have the better.
As far as I'm concerned...this is a small set back and simply an inconvenience in my life that I shall yet again overcome! Hello everyone! Well it's been a rather eventful few weeks and I thought I would let you know what's been going on. A couple of weeks ago my cancer markers rose a little and I had a gut feeling the cancer was back for the third time. My liver was a little sore and I was very concerned. The amazing Prof listened to me and although my cancer markers were officially in the 'ok' zone, he understood my worries of it increasing and my gut feeling so he put me through the CT Scanner. Unfortunately the cancer has come back in my liver. It has become resistant to the treatment I was on. The good news is that it hasn't returned in my bones and it is extremely early in my liver, a few tiny spots. We were due to go on holiday a couple of days later so he quickly moved me onto a new treatment regime and started me off with a Faslodex injection. We then flew the next day and had two wonderful weeks together away from all the worries. As soon as we returned I started on a new drug called Palbociclib which is a kind of targeted chemo. It is a brand new treatment which has had superb results. It doesn't have the same level of side effects as "normal" chemo but fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, neutropenia and anaemia can be a problem. The latter two tend to be at the start in the first few weeks. I started the Palbociclib this week and so far I just have mild nausea but these things do tend to build up in my system over time. I am also on a bone strengthening drug. My Oncologist is hopeful of getting me back into remission very quickly. It is of course, disappointing and upsetting that I only had just over a year on the previous treatment. It's about getting each treatment to last as long as possible before we switch to the next. There are still plenty of other options after this one too. Hope is very important in life and I certainly have buckets of it especially when looking at the drugs that are currently being researched. I love life and enjoy every day I am given thanks to modern medicine. I am planning to continue work on the magazines as normal during school term time. The September ones are already written and at the moment I plan to keep life as normal as possible. I like to keep busy and I enjoy my business during term time. I am busy having lots of fun with my family over the summer holidays. Have a great Summer, Deborah x |
AuthorI run the Barrowby Bamboozler. I spend my time writing puzzles backwards!! Archives
October 2017
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