No screaming cancer cells...on to the next drug
Well, it's been a couple months since I've updated. There's been a lot going on from a health, advocacy, and nature perspective (I mean, it is spring!). Every year I love seeing the new greenery in the woods and the flowers pop up in the yard, on a hike, or just driving down the road. I've planted some veggie and herb seeds as well, and seeing them sprout and grow is always a signal of the beginning of a new cycle, new life, and yeah, hope. Suffice it to say, I'm grateful for spring!
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| Turtles sunning themselves at the CNC. |
Spring also brings longer hikes, which again led me to suspect something was wrong. A routine oncology appointment went sideways with the discovery that my pleural effusion is back. I had a procedure a couple weeks ago to pull off the fluid (mixed bag there), and scans showed progression in my liver and lungs.
What to do...what to do... This gets harder as we get deeper into making decisions about treatments. If you know me, you'll likely not be surprised that I made a spreadsheet. I explored a couple clinical trials, but the one that would have been best is a little too rigid (well they're all rigid because, science) and requires a few too many trips up north for me, right now. I want to travel and that would make it difficult.
So, I'm going with a standard of care drug, Abraxane which is in the same group of drugs as Taxol and Taxotere. Because of an allergic reaction to Taxotere during my early BC treatment my cancer cells haven't "seen" too much of this class of drugs. This specific one has a far lower likelihood of allergy and so I'm hoping it leads to screaming cancer cell death. That's my violent streak. Die cancer, die!!
Back to the effusion though. I wouldn't care too much about it, except it makes me short of breath due to the fluid squishing the lung. And breathing is important (haha). Last time this happened I had a drain put in, so that we (read: Will, husband extraordinaire) could drain the effusion at home. That turned out to not be a permanent fix...clearly.
Therefore, we try something new (to me). On Monday they are going to "glue" my pleura together to keep the effusion from coming back. This involves surgery to stimulate inflammation between the lining of the lung and the lining of the ribs (the pleura, see below) using sterile talc. Then they suction the pleura for 48 hours to fix the "glue"- well, really to allow the inflammation to seal the pleura together. If this works (surgeon gave me some good odds, >90%) it will be a permanent fix, yay! I do get to hang out at the hospital next week for 3-5 days, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous, but it will be totally worth it.
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Some days or parts of days have been rough, but that's life- the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. I'm grateful to have my family and friends supporting me and allowing me to support them when I can. Spring is springing. I have good work that I enjoy. The progression has put a damper on some travel (missing my VA friends!) but I'm still crossing my fingers for some spring travel. We shall see.
Thanks for reading friends <3
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Helene