Yew and me

enchanted by Cate

Monday was to be a magnificent day. I was scheduled to go in to the Breast Cancer Center and have a few blood tests and a chemo teach, then meet with the study director to get myself enrolled in ALLTO that same day. Low and behold, another pothole in the road! Someone screwed up when they ordered my tests last week. While I was indeed supposed to have the ECHOcardiogram (a sonogram of the heart), I was also supposed to have an EKG (ELECTROcardiogram). My bad - I thought the echo was an EKG, but hey, I'm no doctor. And then they said I needed it done the same day to get into the study. I was fuming! Too many administrative mistakes with these people, and then they make absurd excuses instead of fessing up. There is not one character trait that I hate more than a dirty little liar. A poor one, at that. So, we ran around all day, working out the kinks and getting things done. And they did.

Tuesday, I received the news about the study. I made it into the group that receives only Herceptin, which is the standard of treatment without the study. I was randomized, and fate (in the form of a computer) led me on this path. I am content with fate's decision and am rather comfortable not being a guinea pig (though I would have done that as well). I am happy to contribute to medical science in this instance. Most importantly, not being in one of the Lapatinib groups leaves the door open for, knock on wood, using the Lapatanib in the future should it be necessary to further my treatment.

Come today, I started off the day (early!! 5:15a.m.) with some fresh-squeezed OJ, hecho con amor, and a delicious pita with almond butter and Bonne Maman strawberry jam. Yum! A delicious way to start out the day. We headed to the doctor for my 8:30 appointment and I had my first infusion of the new drugs - Decadron and a hideous amount of Benadryl to negate an allergy to the chemo, Taxol, and Herceptin (the hormone therapy). Taxol is "a complex di-terpene purified from the bark and needles of the Pacific yew tree. Approximately one gram of pure taxol is available from three to four trees, each 60 to 100 years old." Thank you, yew tree. I owe you one.

I was stuck at the doctor, literally, until 2pm! It was a long infusion day, since they do it very slowly the first time around. Herein starts the treatments once a week, though next week will be the normal three hours.

My favorite cousin Dani and my new cousin-in-law Victor are here from San Diego, and we're about to have some authentic homemade Mexican cuisine... so I'm off to be a glutton... chao, amorcitos!

Results

I'm half asleep and look like I was punched in both eyes last night. My endocrinologist, the darling that he is, just called with good and better news. The nodule is benign! He got enough cells to confirm. We all exhaled a big sigh of relief and shed a little happy tear. Smiles, everyone!

Biopsy news

Not much in the mood for writing (crying myself a river) but here's the update on today's events. We headed to downtown Fort Lauderdale for a visit with my new endocrinologist. Nice guy. My thyroid blood test results that had been drawn a few weeks ago show normal thyroid function. He did an ultrasound and he said the margins of the nodule look good. No funny business. He didn't see any calcifications. Then I had a few (four) biopsies. They were super easy, like the prick from getting blood drawn. (Well, the second one was a little more painful, but I'm not complaining. It only happened that way because I bragged that the first one didn't hurt.) It was a summer breeze compared to the hell of the breast biopsies. Those results should be in Friday, but he is not confident that they will be conclusive. Why, you ask? My nodule is highly vascular, so he's not sure if there are any applicable cells in the samples. It may just end up being blood. (Bon appetit!). He wants to put me on iodine treatment for a week and have me come back in for more biopsies (honestly, not a worry to me except for the time delay). He is going to consult with my oncologist to approve that and also to check with the director of the medical study to see if I can get by with the information to date. So, we're going to stop by on Friday and see if there's any biopsy news. Technically, I'm supposed to have my next chemo treatment on Monday, but I'm not optimistic that it will all fall into place by then. Without being too positive (which always backfires on me), I will say that I'm not worried about the thyroid at this time.

...


If you're dying of boredom or completely obsessed with me (or perhaps just curious), here are the links to two other blogs I have written in the past - the first, my adventures in Costa Rica; the second, my adventures in wedding planning.

Your Ad Here: http://jdangelo.blogspot.com/
A Wedding in Istanbul: http://aweddinginistanbul.blogspot.com/

Buenas noches y amor a todos!

Biopsy

La Vida Continua

(Insert photo here)

We went out on a Friday night! Wow, it actually resembled something I once knew... a social life! I haven't been much in the mood to talk to people lately. In fact, I've been downright grumpy and mean to everyone. Even to strangers. And that's just not me. I can be mean to the people I love, but being snappy with strangers?? Who does that? Anyway, I figure avoiding the interaction will prevent the attitude, in turn eliminating the guilt of being an a-hole. So, that's why most of the past few weeks I've spent as a couch fungus watching back-to-back recorded episodes of What Not to Wear. Well, a spark of motivation kicked in, we showered, and we put on civilized people clothes. It was quite a good feeling. In any case, we had us some good ol' fashioned Broward county fun. (Dinner in a shopping plaza.)

I have been a mere silhouette of my former self with regards to music. We once had a deep, loving relationship, and that has all but withered to dust. But, Shelly triggered something deep inside me, even if only for tonight. She mentioned that they like to frequent shows in Miami, namely the Spam Allstars!! Hellloo, I freaking loved the Spam Allstars! I've seen them a gajillion times, and just the fact that I haven't even thought of them in at least a year is pathetic. It was a revelation, and I hope it sticks.

Root Beer Float Me

1 chilled pint glass
1 cold bottle Virgil's root beer
2-3 scoops Haagen Daaz 5 vanilla bean ice cream

Pour the root beer down the side until 2/3 full. Drop in the scoops and watch me foam. Eat me with a long-handled spoon and smile.

EKG

done!

Next on the agenda is the thyroid biopsy, which is scheduled for a week from now... theoretically, assuming an efficient system with competent and knowledgeable workers (ha!). I had to push paper today, 9 to 5, just to get a fifteen-minute sonogram. Hallelujah, today's work is done.

Thoughts

I'd rather be...

- Basking in ablution, nightswimming in a placeless pool, on a warm summer night, with my ethereal, long locks floating in the water

- Fifteen pounds slimmer, in a bikini, soaking in some rays on a Costa Rican beach eating a warm, juicy, ripe mango freshly picked from that tree over there, juice dripping down my face

- Smoking a cigarette and drinking a cold beer, anywhere, saying fuck it all with a smile on my face

- Sitting next to the radiator, drinking mediocre black tea, one lump of sugar, crossing the Bosphorus by slow ferry on a crisp, sunny winter's day admiring the view out the window

These times are trying for me. And for everyone within a five-foot radius. Most of the time I'm feeling like I've got this thing licked. Then there comes another bucket of water right over my head. It's really not a big deal, I suppose. I'm done with that first three months of chemo. For the second three months, I was planning to partake in the ALLTO medical study, a dual-therapy trial specific to the type of breast cancer I had. Rewind to a few months ago, there was a CT scan that found a nodule on my thyroid (which are very common, though mine is quite large). So, I've been waiting and waiting and waiting to see an endocrinologist, the waiting based on insurance hobblegobble. I *finally* was able to get an appointment for July 24 so in due process this back-burner minutiae was supposed to disappear into the rearview mirror, in my little fantasy brain thought. Well, the message was relayed to me today that in order to do this study they are requesting a biopsy on this nodule. Biopsy - an acquaintance of the C word. Can someone please get me out of this box of hell?!

My oncologist had previously mentioned that I couldn't do the thyroid biopsy after I started the chemo, and although she wanted me to see a specialist, she said it probably wasn't a big deal. And she doesn't think it's cancer because breast cancer does not metastasize to the thyroid. Anyway, the relayed message infers that she gave the go-ahead for the biopsy so I guess it's not a biggie. I am also scheduled to have my three-month EKG in the morning. Here's to hoping for good results! *clink*

Savannah

Gainesville & Micanopy

And I finally got a bicycle

Due to popular demand - popularity based solely on the six previous comments - I am back in business. For today. So, I got bored with writing the blog. There hasn't been much going on medically and I didn't want to just blah blah blah my way through just to put up some words. Sometimes you feel like writing, and sometimes you don't. Today is a semi-feel-like-writing day. A lot has happened in the past few weeks. We went on a getaway to Gainesville and Savannah. It was super! I hadn't been back to Gainesville for about three years (wow, that long?), and there wasn't anyone in particular that warranted a visit. I just wanted to bring Celal to my last real home in the States - I lived there eight years! - and give an overview tour. We stayed at a great B&B, Sweetwater Branch Inn. So cute! And we got a great deal since we did everything last minute. And who doesn't love a good deal? (I'm quite the cheapskate these days.) We ate delish sushi at Dragonfly, the best sushi on the planet. I didn't have any raw fish (except the roe) and I didn't dip in soy, if ya'll are wondering. Must eat Godzilla roll. Heaven in your mouth. "Smoked eel, crab, cream cheese, cucumber, scallions, and roe, topped with slices of avocado and strawberry." And the crab wontons.

Savannah was the charming darling we had imagined, and boy did we eat our way through that place... I had reflux after a few meals and my Nexium had a big sad face on it every one of those days. Those southerners know how to cook up some good fixins. Sadly, the place we stayed there was shiteous and unromantic, and the staff were full-on twilight zone freaks. However, it had a great location a stone's throw from the Mercer house (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and Forsyth Park. And it was also a good deal.

My faves in Savannah... the trees, depression glass windows, the groomed and ungroomed ivy on the building and walls and steps, Leopold's ice cream shop, a funny eight-foot-unicycle comedian that put on an amazingly hilarious show (one of his milder jokes: "Sir, is that your wife or are you on a business trip?"), socialite southerners in weddings, Baptist quartets, the historical architecture, and delicious grits and seafood.

Anywho, for those still paying attention to my treatment, I am finishing my last lap of the first half of chemo!! Cue the confetti!! Today was my last dose of AC chemo (adriamycin, cytoxan) -which was the regiment for the first three months - and my second segment of the treatment (also will be three months) will begin at the end of this month. July 27th to be exact. So, I am almost halfway there! Yes, I am really this excited about almost being halfway there.

I did take some Savannah photos, but you see, I'm out of practice... I will not be lazy and I'll put some up in a jiffy. Please don't judge me.

P.S. - Anonymous commenter, please identify yourself! :)