A Rainbow After a Storm

For the last two to three weeks, I have seen a rainbow coming out of a crappy cloud of my medical life and well LIFE in general. This is all after a 1. A BAD CT SCAN and also 2. A NON OPTIMISTIC SECOND OPINION (which happened the day after the bad news post).

On 11/10, I went to Cooper Hospital, which is affiliated with MD Anderson in Texas (one of the top cancer centers in the US). I met with the director, who was kind, honest and flexible considering she made time to see and review my case so fast. In summary, she did not feel that the combination of Ixempra and Xeloda after seeing Ixempra not work well in my abdomen as a wise choice of chemotherapies. She recommended that I try Doxil, but that would be the only chemotherapy I have not tried a sister drug of in the Stage 4 world. I also was/am too sick with the traech and oxygen to be considered for a clinical trial. Tears were shed. She mentioned just preparing myself for possible hospice soon since none of the treatments I have been on since April have worked and stats say that you get less time on treatments the longer you thrive with Stage 4 Breast Cancer.

I left depressed. My PleurX was back to draining more than it was three weeks ago prior to that appointment. I actually had good news to share with my doctors at the hospital follow up appointments. BUT the CT scan and my lab-work on 10/30 showed a whole different picture. I honestly did not understand, but my hope was that Xeloda would work again and dig me out of a pulmonary and Ascite hole. See back in 2015, I had Oblina the Left Lung PleurX and small Ascites in my perionetal lining (not that I had an egg then, but my digestion was all screwed and I went to the ER constipated and was for a good month if I did not use a laxative). Here I was getting IV chemo that makes me vomit and back swallowing these pink Xeloda pills (that smell like chemicals) AGAIN and was told there was no point but to try it for three cycles at least.

Did I have time to give 9 weeks of my life to see if Xeloda works... I do. I do not like giving up on a treatment before knowing it is a failure with scans, labs, and a proper time (6-12 weeks) to see if its doing something good). I told myself, give it until you go through three rounds of chemo with Xeloda and three more Ixempra doses and go get yourself a CT Scan. That would bring me to January 2nd. I guess I have to make it through the holidays huh? I guess so.

Time passed, days passed, I ate food, did PT workouts, did more chores around the home, continued with my in-home nursing visits, and started to get my Ascites drained weekly because they FINALLY documented the EGG as an Ascite on a CT Scan. I told them I had ASCITES when I went to the ER in August...bla bla bla it was poop, trust me no one has a poop that big and I do not walk around like Stan's DAD on South Park waiting to shit a giant COURIC out of me for a world record. It was not poop and I have had big poops and did spend the last few months of 2015 constipated and I was only bloated. (beware graphic GIF from a cartoon). THIS is literally what Cornell doctors told me I had in me.

The rainbow that came out shone maybe two weeks ago. I was magically able to squat, walk, and climb flights of stairs (yea that happened) with weight strapped to me without COUGHING and not needing a decade of recovery time. My Right Oblina 2 PleurX was draining less each day. My Acsite draining was draining less. What is happening? AND my Liver enzymes (although not alarmingly high) were dropping and my protein levels in my blood were rising.

So I am not sure what is happening. They put me on Lasix at the end of October because my legs were swelling and felt like CLAY. This my friends is a sign of the kidneys and liver not being able to get fluid out. The fluid was NOT improving with protein intake & it turns out I was on Lasix in the ICU and one attending doctor stopped it & that is when my feet and left arm (the one with lymphedema) blew up like a MACYS DAY FLOAT. Literally I could not fit into any shoes past 12p and my arm was 4x the size of the right arm. It did not fit in many long sleeved shirts I own. I am a size XS or S...so I had to buy new clothes for my ARM and put on shoes at 7am or just keep my legs elevated on this horrible wedge pillow I got at Walmart that only solved the problem for like an hour. It was crappy. None of my lymphedema garments fit and I can only wrap my left hand properly and the stuff to wrap my right forearm was too small or too large depending on the time of day, so I had a pop-eye forearm going on for a month post hospital.

The fluid retention and the EGG belly and the CHEMO not making me better was wearing on my hope and my faith that I could get better or at least continue to try to get better. Sometime around the whole less draining of fluid my EGG shrinks every week by a little bit. My hand & my forearm are now just 2x the size of my right arm - which has been gaining muscle so that could also contribute to the lack of weird arm/hand mismatch. Oh and my legs do not feel like clay nor do my feet and the feet only swell to the size of my UGGS, so probably a size 9 and I wear a 7.5 or 8 normally, on a bad day. I was able to wear my sneakers to PT again regardless of the time I put them on, in the afternoon they may be snug but I could get into my size 8 sneakers.

I want to say this means Xeloda is working. I saw both my Pulmonologist and head Oncologist last week. Oncologist is having my local Sloan doctor see me for two more chemotherapies based on excellent lab work (improving), better presentation, great air passing through lung, shrinking EGG belly and no more clay legs, and my Pulmonologist's good report we got two days prior. We also discussed my recent Brain MRI. The updates on my recent Brain MRI and what we are doing to those 10 spots from July that are still 10 spots because the rest of the radiated spots are pretty much not visible, but those tiny spots are and a few grew a tiny bit (millimeters). I have to follow up with my radiation oncologist via email and make an appointment to discuss what she my Oncologist and Neurosurgeon want to do. My Oncologist is suggesting adding a chemo called Avastin and doing SRS to any problematic spots they see. My Oncologist and I do not want to halt chemo if it is working to do WBR at this time. ALSO there are a lot of good trials using WBR that Sloan has and if I have the traech I cannot do them NOW and if I did WBR already I cannot do them if the traech is removed. I will know more next week once we put the calls and emails in. I am going to email them now before I forget.

The best was my Pulmonologists decision to.... wait for it....TAKE OUT THE DAMN TRAECH. YES you heard it. I saw my Pulmonologist and he wants to take out my Traech based on my chest XRay. He wants to see the CT Scan from October, but it is now 1mo old and 1.5 rounds of Xeloda have been ingested by me. He may want a new CT Scan to see if he can also remove the Right PleurX or possibly giving me another left PleurX to drain minimal fluid he thinks was there in the chest XRay, but it could me abdominal ascites clouding the left lung. We will know what he decides for 100% this week. Kyle is calling them tomorrow to see if they got my CT Scan discs, if we are for sure removing it, if they want a newer CT Scan to view my lungs in the more recent present, and when they will remove it. My Oncologist said to push to remove it as soon as possible. She has no problem doing it the week I have chemo because neither drugs affect my White Blood Cells, Neutrophils or Platelets (all of which need to be good for surgery).

SOOOOO THE next blog post will update people on when or if I am getting my traech out for 100%. Also WHAT we are doing for my BRAIN. In the new year the plan is 1.to be without a traech, 2. get a full body CT scan, 3.pray this chemo is working and 4. consult with two doctors my Main Oncologist suggested - Dr. Nancy Lin at Dana Farber regarding my Brain Mets and trials & Dr. Kevin Kalinsky at Columbia regarding my ER positive cancer and trials.

pray that the traech comes out and that whatever we do about my BRAIN is what my ONCOLOGIST suggested, because i just like her idea :-)