Michelle took a little brake from everything and enjoyed life for a while. I was able to take a break because I needed some time to pass to determine if the radiation worked and to see if anything shrunk/spread. I began my trip back into the strange world of Sarcoma.
Checkup & Scan
My liver tumor shrunk! It's from the radiation treatment I did in October. That was really nice to hear. We know that radiation works to help shrink and hopefully kill these things inside me.
What did they find this month? Let's take a guess. Why is it that I don't get upset anymore? Am I that numb to my cancer spreading? I always say, " It could be worse". Then I think....Umm it's not that great is it?!!!
I do have some more tiny tumors in the liver. A few more spots in my lungs and they think in my Pancreas. We are going to watch that one very closely. This year I have newness in my Pancreas. Great! That's all I can say about that.
The tumor on the vertebrae ( T(9) , rib cage got bigger and has been hurting so much. I knew that one grew, I could feel it. I tried another ( 3 times a charm!) Nerve Block last week. The tumor is just loving my nerve. If I don't get relief they asked me about having a pain pump. Has anyone had one? I believe surgery is not an optiion because it's close to the spine. The other spinal tumors are the same, no growth.
What's next???
My Oncologist recommended a drug called Pazopanib. I take pills at night before I go to bed. Tiredness in one of the side affects. It's nice to sleep and not feel the exhaustion during the day. I have had so much energy. High blood pressure is another. I take it everyday and so far I am still my normal low. The other day I felt uncomfortable pains in my fingers and feet. My fingernails are red and feel bruised. It's like walking on blisters. Oh...and I feel like I am going to throw up every day! Mouth sores are fantastic! Side effects are awesome.
Paul and I went to Commack, MSKCC for blood work today. They need to keep and eye on my liver. We don't want anymore damage to my poor body.
More Doctors next week to go over more scans.
Hairy Details
My Hair is growing so fast. It's baby soft and curly! I have been playing around with it and trying to make it spike! I got tired of the wigs and now just wear hats. I am starting to look like myself again. It's nice to get back into the groove of living a normal life.
I just wish I had normal people around me! Wait, that would be boring. I do love my unique blend of friends that cheer me on.
Juicing so much more and eating better. I think my freezer has about 5 different organic veggie soups! I wanted yummy things to keep me warm during the winter days.
I am happy that there is a drug for me to try and let's hope it works.
Have a Happy & Healthy New Year!
8 comments:
Love you very much peach fuzz!
Jess-Jess
Michelle, you keep being strong and that's what we admire soo much.
You can do it!
PD
Dear Michelle,
As the mother of a 30 year old daughter who has been courageously fighting Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma (ASPS) for the past eleven and a half years, I closely follow your beautifully written blog and have written you once before. Our daughter had an unresectable met in the head of her pancreas (as well as mets in innumerous other areas of her body including her lungs, liver, brain, breast, tibia, spine, duodenum, small bowel intusuception, and abdomen). During the first seven and a half years of our daughter's battle, most of the mets were resected or destroyed with radiosurgery(Gamma Knife),Cryoablation, and Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) but we were told that the pancreatic met was unresectable and untreatable with radiosurgery or ablation so almost four years ago she began a systemic treatment with Cediranib which is a targeted Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI)in the same class of drugs as Pazopanib. Thankfully, the Cediranib has now provided our daughter with 46 months of disease stability with no new tumors, and dramatic shrinkage/disappearance of all of her mets including complete disappearance of her Life threatening pancreatic met! :-)I am holding VERY tight to Hope that you will have a VERY successful and sustained response to your Pazopanib treatment, and I will be holding you very close in my heart and my continued most caring thoughts. If you have any questions about our daughter's Cediranib experience, please feel free to contact me at BonniHess@aol.com.
With special caring thoughts, healing wishes, and continued Hope,
Bonni Hess
Yea! Pazopanib! Yea! Pazopanib! Who makes up the names for these drugs? I want that job. I think I could come up with names nobody could spell or even pronounce.
Supposedly there's a system to the the way drugs are named, so that if you know the system, the end of the name tells you what kind of drug it is. So the "anib" on the end of Pazopanib means it is an "angiogenisis inhibitor," which means that the drug prevents a tumor from growing blood vessels, and that keeps the tumor from growing and makes it die from lack of blood supply to the tumor. So I say, "Yea. Pazopanib."
Well, I'm just getting over a bout with the flu. Took two weeks to shake it. But I have good news: I just got my fourth clean scan in a row. One year after my last liver surgery, and I'm still clear of cancer! One year ago, when the stupid cancer came back in my liver, it was looking very, very bad for me. But I'm still here, dern it, a little worn down by it, but still kicking! So that proves it is possible to do some damage to this stupid cancer. I don't want to say "cured," because I don't want to jinx myself, but I can say I am "better." We can get "better!"
I'm glad you are growing some hair. Growing hair is good. When I was on chemo, it was like going through puberty backwards. And then when I got off chemo, it was like going through puberty frontwards . . . except certain things were not quite the same after that. It was more like being neutered, so now I'm like some lazy fat old male cat that lost his you-know-whats and just lays around the house all day.
An, yes, in November I did give the Red Cross a donation in your honor for Sandy victims, but the stupid Red Cross never sent me the ecard so I could post a link to it for you. Maybe I will bug them about that.
Hey, don't go crazy with too much juicing. Some is good, but too much fruit juice can make you end up on the pot all day. You know, moderation in all things is the best.
So very good to hear from you MichelleOnLongIsland. You are one of the brave and strong. The bravest and strongest. I think about you all the time, and name you in my prayers.
Oh I love Fartman almost as much as I love you Michelle! So happy to hear the good news both Bonni & AFM! Praying hard that Mish has similar news to report soon... :)
Jess
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