Extremes

What a wonderful weekend and fantastic party we had to celebrate my parent's 50th anniversary!! Seeing family (both immediate and distant), seeing old friends, meeting new friends...it was all good. The energy and love all weekend long were just absorbed into my system and it did my heart and spirit a world of good.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty darn good. Since I started the new anti-nausea pills last Friday I have not thrown up even once. That is a HUGE barrier to be over. I feel my appetite slowly coming back and hopefully will regain some of my lost strength very quickly just by eating.

I got a call at 8:15am from the clinic to cancel my appt with the gastroenterologist. I was ok with that because I figured that since I'm not vomiting any more I didn't really need him and the scan was just precautionary. BUT...Dr Kumar wanted to see me today instead to go over the results. It didn't click with me right away, but eventually I figured out that that was a bad thing. To confirm this suspicion I called back and asked the nurse if she felt Brian should accompany me to the appointment and there was no hesitation when she said 'yes.'

What we learned this afternoon is what I suspected all day. The cancer has spread, and there are now spots on my liver. This is a very bad thing. The liver can be very difficult to treat. We are looking at two options, however, and I will try to explain them the best that I can.

Our first choice right now seems to be to try and get an appt with a doctor in Florida who has had some success with treating liver metastases with high-dose estrogen therapy. We're hopeful he will find my situation to be one that makes me a candidate for this treatment. Dr Kumar has heard this man speak at seminars and is familiar with his work. His name is Dr. Charles Vogel and, apparently, he is someone who thinks outside the box. We hope to hear back from him within the next day or two.

The second choice is to begin another infusion, this one being Avastin. It is used primarily for colon cancer patients. The trials with breast cancer patients have shown good promise. And while not FDA approved yet for breast cancer patients, my insurance company has already okayed the treatment.

It is undetermined yet if I will need a liver biopsy or if I can maybe be spared that procedure.

This is all I know for now. Well...this, and the fact that I am now scared out my mind. Suddenly I feel as if there are lots of loose ends that need to be tied up.

So, as always, please keep praying for me. And pray for each other too. This isn't easy for ANY of us!!