October 2012 At CTCA

Yep it's time for another trip to CTCA. This time we got here Sunday in the late morning so we had most of the day and night to do whatever we wanted. So we dropped off the luggage and off to the Chancery to eat. We were starving!!! After lunch we unpacked and yep we both took a nap and watched football. That's all the excitement we had. Outlet mall right across the street and I didn't go. Wow must be something wrong with me! Monday I had a PET Scan scheduled for 5pm. This is the scan that you can not eat 6 hours before and after the injection of radio active gadolinium you must stay still for one hour. The scan then begins and it takes 21 minutes. It's one of the easiest tests I have to do. Sleep through the whole thing. Well, ok kind of. HAHA We then went back to the hotel for a cheesehead dream hamburger!! Yum yum! My favorite hamburger!!! Then tuesday morning we went back to the hospital for my doctor appointment at noon. She told us that she was taking me off of the doxil because it was to hard on my body. After a dose of it I got a rash over my body, mouth and throat sores and body aches just to name a few things. These lasted for 3 weeks. I had one good week a month while taking the doxil. My doctor was not pleased with that and didn't want me living like that so I'm off of it and will now take Afinitor, Aromasin and Xgeva. These drugs are very costly and not entirely covered by my insurance. The Afinitor and Aromasin are a pill and the Xgeva is a shot. I will travel back to CTCA every 6 weeks for the shot and will take the pills daily. She did tell me that there is still increased activity on the bones that showed on the scan. My markers were all up also. This tells us that the doxil didn't work as well as she wanted it to. That's the main reason for stopping that drug. With the activity on the bone it's still important that I take some kind of chemotherapy. I have put a link for the Afinitor and Aromasin if anyone wants to look it up. There is side effects but nothing like any of the other drugs I have taken. Yeah!!! We return wednesday afternoon and I will come back the end of november for blood tests to see how this new drug is working. Thank you again for all the thoughts and prayers. God has been so good to me and with His help I am still fighting!! I thank Him for that and for all of You!!! God Bless!