April 2013 at CTCA

It's been three months since I went to see my team of doctors. Those months went so fast! Some of my supporters Robbin, Wendy, and Patti went with me this time. Much needed time together to get caught up and have lots of laughs. This visit was a more detailed appt. It started out Sunday with a blood draw then at 6am Monday with a PT scan followed by a MRI of the brain. I was done by 8:45. I love those early appts. There's time for a fun filled day after. We went to a breakfast house for one of the biggest plates filled with eggs, hash browns, sausage, and gyros I have ever seen!! Not my plate but Robbins. He couldn't even eat it all! We went back to the hotel to change clothes then to the outlet mall. Oh boy, my favorite place! After shopping for about 5 hours we had lunch and a rest then back to shopping. Can you believe Robbin hung with us the whole time? He was very patient and surprised us all. No complaining and didn't even buy anything for himself. "I don't need anything" he says. Lol. The next day at 9am was the doctors appts. I was so anxious to hear all the results. Once again my doctor spent about 30 minutes with us and everyone got all their questions answered. The scan reports where good. They showed no new activity! Two areas where concentrated on and those showed significant growth. The blood tests did show a significant increase also. This was a concern for the doctor because they had gone up at least 100 points on the cancer markers. With this there is three options...higher dose of Afinitor, or two different kinds of chemo drug infused. I choose to increase the dose of Afinitor. You see this doctor has taught me to exhaust all drugs that I can. I'm now taking 5mg so she wants to increase it to 7.5 then go to 10 the highest dose. When I first started this drug I was taking 10 and my body could not tolerate it. I was so sick for about 3 months. I'm praying that by increasing the dose slowly I can do it. She wants to see me in 4-6 weeks so I will be returning June 3rd. By then I will know if I can stay on this drug or have to go to a chemo infusion. I also pray that I don't get sick with the dose increases. If I don't this will be a drug I can stay on for the rest of my life. My quality of life has decreased and I'm adjusting to that. I can't do as much as I use to, fatigue is my main complaint. But that is something that is ok with me because of the benefits. If I have to start on a chemo drug there will be lots of changes.....staying in Chicago for 6 weeks, home for 3 weeks then back for another 6weeks. Because of the team of doctors I have there I will do what it takes. They have saved my life and all my trust is in them and of course The Lord! After all the appts Tuesday you can guess what we did. Yep...shopping! This time Robbin stayed at the hotel and us girls finished up. We picked up Robbin and went to a movie that night, packed and came home early the next day. As you can imagine I was exhausted but would not give up a moment of the time spent with my family. The next day the xgeva shot hit me. I had muscle aches so bad that I stayed in bed all day. I'm hoping to get up and around today. Still achy but I'm thinking that getting around will help push the meds through my body. I want to tell Wendy and Patti thank you so much for going with us, taking care of me when I needed it and of course for all the laughs and fun. And thanks to Robbin for making this a safe trip, for being so patient with all his girls and making us laugh so hard! It was a great trip! Also thanks so much to Merikay for taking care of our dogs. The friend staying in the house fell on the deck and broke her hand. Ended up having surgery the next day! Poor thing!! I also want to thank all of you reading this blog for the support you give me! I will never forget what you have done and I ask God to bless each of you! All my love, Gwyn You have to laugh through life!!!!