Chemo #8 in the Rearview Mirror

I am sad to say, Santa did not bring me hair and eye lashes for Christmas. Darn.
And I should start shedding again on Sunday so who knows how many hairs I will have left on my head in another week.

Chemo #8 is done.  Yay!!!  I'm not totally off the hook as I will likely be on Herceptin indefinitely which involves a half hour infusion every three weeks, but the side effects seem to be pretty minimal so that will be okay.
As long as my scans in January look good I won't have any more chemo drugs for a while.  Double yay!!

I had a very good Christmas season even without a good gift from Santa.  My excellent friend Sarah visited for a few days.  One of the highlights was finally going to the Festival of Lights at Van Dusen Garden.  I admit that I have lived in Vancouver for 10 Christmases and this was my first visit.  So worthwhile!
Here's a pic:

And here is a Seattle picture of a Macy's window.  I can't wait to go to New York at Christmas time to look at all the windows.

Christmas Eve Ian and I went to his mum's house for tourtiere.  So yummy.  All of the in-laws were there so it was really nice to catch up with everyone.  One of Ian's sisters lives in a small town in New York that I had hoped to visit during one of my training trip to Rochester.  Yet another thing to reschedule!

Christmas Day was just Ian, the pets, and I.  Ian made Liege waffles for breakfast.  Super yum.  If you have never had Liege waffles you should visit the waffle guy on West 2nd Ave at Patisserie Lebeau.  Fabulous.
We had ham for dinner since I can't eat poultry and it was a wonderful relaxing day.

I attempted to do some Boxing Day shopping with another excellent friend, Carly, and believe it or not I could not find a single pair of shoes to buy.  Oh well, that is good for my pocket book at least.
There it was a seawall trek with awesome Alison.
The rest of the day was a write off.

Thursday was psych myself up for chemo day.  And recovery day from Boxing Day.  And meet up with my cuz Tony and his girlfriend Andrea day.  A good day.

Friday's chemo was another marathon.  And it was interesting as there were more men in the room than women.  That has never happened before.  And when I left it was officially the kid room.  There were 3 of us in the room and the oldest patient was just a couple months older than me.  He seemed to be on a pretty similar regimen as I had been on originally but he had not been given the A-team of anti nauseants and it sounded like he really suffered.  Poor guy.

And I keep forgetting, I read another good book recently: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Settlefield.

And one last thing, another you tube link (and yes, Ian is cringing in his sleep again), ignore the vid, it's all about the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG2zyeVRcbs.

And now that it is rolling towards 4 am, it is time for me to try and get some sleep.

The Weather Outside Really is Frightful

The frightful winter weather started on Tuesday morning.  I am really glad I don't live out in the Fraser Valley since Ian and I had to be at Mount Saint Joes at 8 am for the surgeon consult that day.

I had not seen my surgeon since right after my initial diagnosis so this was partly just to check in with her and see what her general thoughts were about whether or not I should have surgery.
I have been leaning towards having surgery pretty much with the idea that I am willing to be aggressive with treatment if it gives me a longer life span.  The problem, of course, is that at this point in time the research done has not be conclusive as to whether or not surgery actually gives a longer life span to stage 4 patients.  In general the opinion seems to be more or less 50/50.  Hmmmmmm. So helpful.

My surgeon understands the concept of going at the cancer in an aggressive manner due to both my age and my very good state of general health.  Really, if I didn't have the side effects of chemo, like the big, bald head, no one would know that I even had cancer.

So, the final conclusion of the consult was to wait and see the results of my CT and bone scans in January.  If the scans show an absence of lesions in my bones and liver but there is still primary tumour than surgery seems like a good way to go.  If the other lesions are still present than there is less reason to go through the surgery as the random blobs are worse for my general prognosis than the primary tumour.

All in all, nothing is decided.  And so I wait.  The snow was entertaining for a few hours.  Jasper loves to b out in it so we had to do an extra walk.  But, by Wednesday afternoon it was turning in a slushy world instead of a marshmallow world so it was at less fun.
Now it is Thursday and it has been raining non-stop since Wednesday evening so most of the snow is gone.

Good.  Tonight it is Van Dusen Gardens Festival of Lights.  It should be fun!

FAC Weekend

Yes, that is my newest acronym: Forget About Cancer weekend.  I think it is pretty good.

Ian and I packed up Jasper and took him to Seattle for the weekend with our friends Nick and Sarah.  It was a little sketchy to start with the big snow flakes falling.  They were pretty but not exactly the weather we wanted to drive in. Fortunately the snow did not last too long.
We did a little outlet shopping on the way down and had some great food.  That is one problem with Seattle, there are more food places I want to go to than I ever have time to actually visit.

It was fun and so nice to get away and not think about anything but fun stuff for more than 24 hours.
Jasper had a blast staying in a hotel.  I think he possibly thought it was the most exciting thing ever.  He was so mentally stimulated that he barely wanted to move today.  So worthwhile.

And Orchid was left all by herself.  I suspect she upset to be alone but happy to have the dog gone.  It probably would have been perfect if she could have only figured out how to turn on the fireplace by herself.

One thing I did learn on our travels is that I have been truly kidding myself about how much my energy level has rebounded.  I was okay on Saturday.  Sunday was a whole different story.
I had been in Seattle last year for shopping and eating and had no problem with walking and shopping for two days.  This time on day 2 I think a one-year-old who falls down every 3 steps could probably walk faster than I could.  I had been optimistically thinking that I was getting close to being at about 70% of my previous energy level, in reality I think 50% might be an exaggeration.
Oh well, at least my energy is improving.

Tomorrow I meet with my surgeon.  That should be informative.

And watch out Vancouverites, it might snow this evening.

The Chemo Drugs are Laughing at Me.......again

Turns out the chemo drugs were playing a trick on me.  Things have been going great since I switched to taxol and Herceptin, I continue to have tumour shrinkage, my energy level is slowly but surely improving, and my hair has started to grow back.  And then Saturday happened.  My hair started falling out again. And my eyebrows are shrinking by the day.

Oh well, 2 outta 3 ain't bad.  And really, if I had to pick one of the three to have change I would have picked my hair.  I know that eventually it will grow back.

Next up on my treatment schedule is a consult with my surgeon.  Then it is the usual appointment with my oncologist and then the biggie, last chemo day is December 28th!

In January I will have a bone scan and a CT scan to get the official word on the status of my various splotches of cancer.  The PET scan has been vetoed because chemo can affect the results and it is more difficult to determine if a lesion is active or healing.  Who knew!

After the scans is recovery time from chemo before surgery if it is approved and then last is radiation.  So long as the scan results are all good it is nice to think there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.  And so long as the Herceptin stays active hopefully it will be a long time before the next tunnel.

And now I have to go find out what Jasper's problem is.  We have already gone for a bonus walk and played and gone out on the patio for the extra yummy worm flavoured water and had an ice cube and had a few bonus treats.  Now he is being Mr. Whiney Pants.  Probably he is over tired.

Have a lovely day and I hope everyone gets to enjoy the sunshine :-)

More Random Stuff from 3 am

Great. I'm still awake.  It is now 3 am.  So, here is more random stuff for anyone with too much time on their hands.

Item 1:
There is a website for Stage 4 cancer patients that I occasionally go on.  There is a thread requesting other members for some the funniest things other people of said to them.  There are some really funny things posted and there are other comments that people are so upset about that I just don't understand.
One of the most common  phrases that raises complaints is "Your color looks so good".  Just for the record I love hearing that.  As long as it's true.  I don't need lies.  Lies don't help.
But while there is cancer on the inside I am really happy not having it show on the outside! Except for the bald head, of course, can't do much about hair loss:-)

There was another complaint from someone about "My sister just said I'm the strongest person she knows".  I don't get that one either.  Would she prefer that her sister told her that she is a weak cry baby?  I think strong is good.  That is what helps when dealing with the stupid chemo side effects, or too many tests or needle sticks, or the general thought that wow, I could die at some stupidly early age.  I like strong!

So, here is my Youtube link for the day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn676-fLq7I

I think I could feel Ian's eyeballs roll even though he is currently downstairs asleep. :-)

Item 2:
I am not a pink person, obviously, based on the name of my blog; but show me a product with a pink ribbon on it these days and I snap it up.
So far I have managed to resist buying any unnecessary products.  Well, except for the strawberry Tic Tacs.  I don't think those were strictly necessary.  They are yummy though so I suppose that is a good enough excuse.

Item 3:
Tassimo coffee makers are awesome!!!  If only the peppermint mocha pods were available in Canada.

Item 4:
Just since I haven't mentioned this recently: pancakes are awesome!!!

Item 5:
My husband is awesome!!!

Item 6:
My friends are awesome!!!

Item 7:
My family is awesome!!!

Item 8:
I apologize, items 4 -7 were a little bit of overkill.
But I don't really apologize because they are true.  Just blame it on sleep deprivation and chemo brain.  Oh yeah, and I have cancer so I have to take advantage. :P

Item 9:

A picture, it's an oldie but a goodie:

And here's another one that I had forgotten about.  Who needs a soft bed to sleep in?

Treatment #7 Done!!

Here we go again, it is 0045 and I am totally hopped up on steroids.  At least I can sleep in tomorrow.

Today was a slightly shorter chemo marathon, only 5 hours.  Yay!  And as always a bit of an adventure.  First off, thank you for the visit, the peppermint mocha ( another of my favourites, so yummy, and so fattening!), and the treat, Marion:-)
After you left Ian and I were serenaded by a Royal watcher and her conspiracy theory on why the queen had Diana killed off.  I thought the heads of the English couple on the other side of me may explode.  It did help pass the time though.

The next day and a half should go very smoothly until the joint aches start up again.  Hopefully they will be of even shorter duration than last time. If the weather is nice I will try and get some walks in.
I haven't decided if walking actually helps with the aches but I figure it can't hurt either.
I will also try to fit a few activities in.  If I am busy I don't think about the aches and that makes them easier to cope with.  I am so not good at sitting on my couch and moping now that I am finally getting some of my energy back!

And, on a very exciting note, my brain function has finally returned enough that I can start driving again.  Now I can go much further afield since I had been limited by either the distance I could walk or no more than 2 stops on the train (I really don't want to pick anything up now that disease season is pretty much in full swing).

And lastly, my thoughts go out to puppy dog Tess's family.  I know how difficult it is to lose a furry family member.  I never had the opportunity to meet Tess but I do know she was well loved.  By now she has probably reunited with Cody and they are both patiently waiting at the Rainbow Bridge for their family.

Twas the Night Before Treatment #7

Wowzers, it's almost hard to believe that tomorrow is my second to last chemo treatment. The time has dragged in some respects and gone so fast in others.  Regardless of the speed of time I can't wait to be done!

I had my usual pre-chemo oncology appointment today. My neutrophils were 1.2. Yay! No extra blood work tomorrow:-)
There wasn't any new information today. We discussed the 3 month plan - finish up chemo at the end of December, recover for 4 - 6 weeks then probably have surgery ( I have to get in touch with my surgeon again and see what her feelings regarding surgery for me are like before the surgery plan is finalized) then there is radiation. In the midst of that the herceptin infusions will continue; fortunately
 there don't appear to be any significant side effects. Also to be fit in will be tamoxifen infusions since my primary tumor is estrogen receptor positive as well as being HER 2 positive.

Due to the taxol my exciting new side effect is hot flashes. Yippee! Chemo induced menopause, how exciting. I have about a 60% chance of the menopause not reversing.  If it does reverse then the additional question of whether I should get my ovaries removed will have to be answered. Fortunately that is not a bridge that needs to be crossed for a bit. Thank goodness, I have had a pretty active last few days so I don't really have the energy to cross any bridges right now!