I had my 3rd petscan this week. The first, last September, confirmed my cancer had spread throughout my body, "innumerable bone lesions" and a suspicious spot on my liver... Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. My second, last April, showed that my first line of treatment had failed and I had 10 tumors in my liver.
I met with my oncologist to go over the results:
My bones have had a "complete response with no increase in uptake" (no sign of cancerous activity). However it also shows rib fractures to my right side (thanks to my recent adventure on the jet boat). 9 of my liver tumors have also responded to treatment and show no uptake. One tumor has slowed and a new one has grown. I'll go back in 3 months (instead of 6) for another petscan to check on this.
This is good... no, great news. I am thanking God for this and at the same time, I'm still concerned. The side effects I'm experiencing on this combination of drugs are leaving me feeling like I'm 80 years old. I ache all over, swelling and arthritis in my hands and feet, extreme fatigue, nausea, etc. My "quality of life" at 45 years old leaves me depressed and discouraged...yet thankful nonetheless.
My treatment will continue as planned, at least for the next 3 months. I'll see my doctor up in Portland, the breast cancer specialist at OHSU, next week to get his input. My oncologist has encouraged me to find alternative therapies that might help with the side effects. Oddly enough, she encouraged me to see if my OHSU doctor can refer me to an integrative oncologist...but she's not paying much attention to the input from the one I've been seeing here for 3 years. It was like she forgot... It's hard not to get frustrated with her for things like that.
My prayer for now is that we are able to find helpful remedies for my symptoms.
Comments