Radiation / Surgery Update

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I have not written sooner, I know some of you have checking my blog regularly. With radiation therapy and the holidays I just really didn’t feel like writing anything, I’m sure you understand.

Well radiation therapy is over with. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t all that bad. Compared to chemo it was a dream come true. It was not without its issues though. The first annoying thing about radiation is showing up every day for it. It’s very disruptive to your schedule and each day is just another reminder that you’re a sick person. I hate that part. And you’re surrounded by other sick people; some who you know are not going to make it to the end to the month, so that’s depressing.

I did have some side effects from the radiation. Because the cancer is in L3 and L5 of my lumbar spine, they had to radiate the lower portion of my torso. To avoid leaving “hot or cold” spots on the spine, they radiated me from the front and the back. The radiation machine was actually pretty cool. Once they get you positioned, the machine rotates to different angles to treat the appropriate area. I was nauseated most of the time, specifically after treatment and was real tired. At the end of each week I also had some diarrhea. You can just imagine how messed up my intestinal track would get after 5 treatments in a row. After 2 days without treatment I’d start to feel better only to turn around and do it all over again. They told me to expect skin irritation but I didn’t have any of that.

I had an interesting conversation with one of my technicians after treatment one day. It started with me asking about the sign that read “If you are pregnant, please tell the physician and technician”. I couldn’t believe some one would be that stupid to have radiation treatments and be pregnant. She said that sign was there for a reason, someone did that very thing and the baby did not survive.

She then proceeded to tell me how radiation works. It targets fast growing cells in the body, like chemo does. Fast growing cells in the body could be cancer cells, a fetus, hair, nails, stomach lining, and things like that. What the radiation will do to cancer cells is rearrange the DNA so that it can not reproduce. If it can not reproduce then the cells will just die off. We like dead cancer cells. So it’s the hope of the Dr.’s, and me, that the radiation will kill the existing cells and prevent it from spreading.

They didn’t just treat the L3 and L5 lumbar. They also treated L4 and the bone above and below the compromised areas, just in case there are cells there that do not show up on any scans yet. The radiation that I received will keep doing it’s thing for another 8 weeks. Go radiation! I’m pretty tickled that I only had to do this for 3 weeks instead of 4. I could have stretched it out to 4 but I was able to get the recommended dosage in 3.

The day before radiation was done I had a long talk with Dr. David Schwartz, mostly asking him what he expected this to do for me. He was reassuring without blowing smoke and said that since we caught this early that he expected this to do what it’s intended to do, kill cancer cells. If it doesn’t, then I will go back and do more radiation later. He also said that technology and medicine has gotten so much better in such a short amount of time that life expectancy has really increased. He said one of his patients is nearing the 20 year mark. Now that is rare for a person living with cancer but it’s not unheard of. Now I have a target. ☺ So radiation is over.

I had another dose of Zometa on Monday, I did not have any significant side effects but the thing that I noticed while I’m getting the IV, the liquid is cold. Not a big fan of that but it’s certainly not the worst thing that has happened to me. I’ll deal with a cold IV.

I think I mentioned in my last blog that I was taken off of the hormone meds Tamoxifen. One of the main reasons was a trip to the OB/GYN alerted us to a potential problem with my uterine walls being too thick, which is a side effect of Tamoxifen but also an indication that cancer could be present. I will spare you the details but after all is said and done I had to have a uterine biopsy. I told my Dr. that I was convinced she was going to call me with news that in addition to my breast cancer returning, I had uterine cancer too. I love this woman because her response was, “Well at least you’re prepared for bad news.” As it turns out, I was wrong; thank the Lord, I got a call last Monday that my test results were benign. We love the word benign; it might be my most favorite word in the whole world. So that drama is over with.

And lastly, because I am a glutton for punishment and a good amount of the time I’m cheap, I had more reconstructive surgery on Tuesday, December 23rd, to replace my implants and do scar revision. Our deductibles and out of pocket expenses have been met so I sucked it up, took some time off work and had surgery.

It was an outpatient procedure and unlike most surgery where they’re taking out body parts that you will truly miss, I was pretty excited about this surgery. With all the previous drama of the nipple falling off and an implant slipping a little, scar tissue not looking the way I’d like, I knew it was going to end up being a better result this time around. For those of you gals who are going through reconstruction surgery, (I know who you are) forget the nipple reconstruction part, go directly to tattooing, don’t pass Go, don’t collect $200. Give me a call if you want to talk about it. In any case, I’m still sore but I am happy with the result. Of course there will be more scar revision but that I can handle.

So that’s it for now, as if that wasn’t enough, right? We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas season together, J.R. and the girls took really good care of me and we had a nice relaxing holiday. We are truly blessed. We hope that each of you also had a wonderful holiday season and wish you all a very Happy New Year! Bring it on 2009!

Love to you all,
Jen