Where has the time gone?!

I must apologize. I've been meaning to enter a blog. Each day I think to myself "I better get on there and blog!" but it just hasn't happened. Now I look at the date on my last post and can't believe all the time that has gone by. So I apologize to those of you who keep checking in and finding nothing.

My oh my...what has all been going on these past (almost) two months?

I did eventually recover from all the fun and many steps in New York City! Then on October 22nd I put on some more steps and walked in the Cancer Walk at Road America. I had some doubts as to whether or not I would be able to complete the walk this year. But I DID!! It was cold and rainy and a rather unpleasant day...but surrounded by the warmth of friends and family, and with walking stick in hand from this summer's Rally For A Cure, I walked the walk and climbed the hills and fought my way to the end. It was, literally, a pain in my neck (and hips)but it was well worth it. What a great sense of accomplishment. THANK YOU to my fellow walkers!! There were approximately 1900 walkers out there, including 'my' team of TEN! THANK YOU to all of you who sponsored me. I was able to raise $820 myself!!

Today was such a MONDAY!! Grrrrr.... Dominic had a great weekend in Minnesota (helping Joe paint and move, and visiting the U of M campus in Minneapolis) but he came home coughing even more than when he left. So I did a lot of running around getting him in to see the doctor. Our fear was another bout of pneumonia but, thankfully, it's "only" bronchitis and an ear infection. He sounds like he's coughing up a lung though. THREE prescriptions later, he was back in school and I was back to work.

It was also a MONDAY because I called to check on my tumor marker number from last week's blood draw. Now, Dr K warned us that the number would probably still be going up because the injections haven't had long enough to really do their thing yet in my system. The recommended course of treatment is to get a double dose of the injection the first time. But it's very expensive and the insurance companies won't ever approve it. How stupid is that!?! I had a number like maybe 105 in my head. But it came back as a 139 instead. That's a new high for me. It sucks. Are the injections doing what they need to be doing? We still won't know for a couple of months maybe. But we already had a bone scan scheduled for next Wednesday, so that should give us some answers...again, maybe. Another thing that Dr K was good to warn us about is the fact that, now that the Zometa has been in my system for over a year, it may highlight some cancer spots that we haven't known about before and these could show up with this updated scan. Some spots may be new, some may have been there a year ago but we couldn't see them.

It was dark when I left work. But, surprising even to me, the temp was fairly tolerable and the lights were kind of pretty. I intentionally drove down 25th Street, as I've come to do every Halloween now. I love to see all of the kids, and many of the adults, all dressed up in their costumes and going house to house for their treats. It made me smile! I told Brian, it's the one day of the year that I wished we lived in town. BUT...we had a record number of trick-or-treaters at our house tonight. It was fun!

I'm certain there were many, many events that happened since I last blogged, including a visit to Mankato, and visits from Mankatoans here. I feel badly that I didn't blog those things. I'll try to do better!

When you're saying your prayers, please throw in an extra one for Mary Jo, who recently found out she has breast cancer. And include her family in those prayers as well. I often think that the worst part of this journey is the first month or two when you feel as though you're drowning in a sea of information that can't possibly apply to you. When the shock/denial/disbelief wear off, you start to face the reality. It's at that point that you embrace this new chapter in your life and boldly wear your new title of SURVIVOR!



One last, kind of important thing. I found out that I was wrong about something. I don't know if I was given misinformation last summer, or if I just heard wrong. But...my cancer is not HER2neu positive. The Herceptin that has been in the news does NOT apply to me and would not benefit me. That's, actually, a good thing. HER2neu positive means it's a very aggressive cancer, and mine seems to be aggressive enough, thank you very much. Plus there can be some serious, nasty side effects associated with the Herceptin (like congestive heart failure!). That is all...