It's a Numbers Game

55...52...69...Hike!

No, it's not football, it's my tumor marker number. Again, last week, we thought things were on a downward trend, but then we got the latest results and there's been a spike in my number again. 52 to 69 may be a significant jump. One theory is that is has to do with my meds (Femara) and my body may have run its course with that drug. There tends to be a window of 6-12 months with most of this type of drug and then the effectiveness wears off.

So now I'm being switched to something new. The "problem" for me is that instead of having to take a little pill each day (something I have managed to work into my daily routine quite nicely, thank you very much) I will, instead, get a shot in the rear end once a month. Isn't that special!

Of course my first question to the nurse was "how confident can we be that this is entirely meds related, and do we need to be doing a scan of some sort again?", to which she replied that Dr. Kumar had not mentioned that, but she would certainly let him know that I mentioned it and they'll get back to me tomorrow.

Ironically, before I got the call, I was just looking up some info online today about metastatic breast cancer. I saw another number there: 20. (20% that is.) 20% of women with metastasized cancer live at least five years once diagnosed with the spread of the cancer.

20 is a nice round number.
I would like to be part of that 20!
I need to be part of that 20!
I WILL be part of that 20!