News From MSK Appointment

I'm thoroughly exhausted from our trip, but elated with the outcome. Part of me is also scared with what we are getting ready to try because I have been on chemo for so long now & have managed, through God's grace, to keep it out of any major organs. Here is what Dr. Veach recommended...for me to continue the Arimidex orally that my doctor started me on a little over a month ago. It is a hormone therapy. Also I will continue the Zometa, the bone strengthener which is given IV. He said that since I probably haven't gone through menopause yet, (chemo usually throws one into it), that I should receive Lupron injections to shut my ovaries down. With all this said, chemo will be stopped, because he doesn't like the idea of mixing hormonal therapy & chemotherapy. After two months of this, I will have a PET scan & CT to determine if it is working. If it isn't we will add the Avastin (IV) back & probably Xeloda (oral). This is an answer to prayers, because no one knows how tired I am of getting chemo & going to the doctor's office every Monday. He also mentioned that chemo tends to stop working after a period of time, so if we add one drug at a time we will have more options. The bone pain is also an issue, which he said if ibuprofen & Darvocet are taking care of it for now, to just continue. He did say that the bone cancer can spread into other areas. Radiation is not an option for me since there are so many places of involvement.There was nothing we could have done any different back in '03 to have prevented the recurrence. Even though it was DCIS, I had aggressive cells probably already in my lymph node around my collar bone. He agreed that I was just one of those rare cases. As he said this, I thought it was just God's plan. The flight did make the bone pain worse, which I figured out this summer when we went to Hawaii. He answered many questions & was so kind. Dr. Veach reminded me of a cross between Dr. Hester (for those of you that know him) & Michael Cain, the actor. We were thrilled walking out of the office. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face or take the bounce out of my step. I actually think I will have some normalcy back in my life for the holidays. I wrote a verse down on my list of questions before the appointment. "The Lord will give strength to his people; The Lord will bless His people with peace" Psalm 29:11 HE did exactly that yesterday!!

NY Bound

I just printed out our boarding passes & I actually have started getting stuff together. For those of you that know Anthony & I well, we do not pack until the very last minute. It has always been this way at our house. We leave Nashville at 4:45pm & come back Tuesday night around 10pm. Thank goodness it is only overnight. Kinda dread flying back on election night, but otherwise I would be glued to FOX news. Please pray for a safe flight, knowledge to ask the right questions & most of all for them to offer a cutting edge way to treat me. I went for six days straight without pain meds, but had to take some last night & twice today. I thank God for the nice respite. Also remember my sweet mom while she stays with Abby & Austin, & of course Winnie.