The Assertive Cancer Patient

More Test Results--Not So Good This Time

I had an appointment at my cancer center yesterday, to see a doctor and to get treatment, and also to get the last couple sets of test results. 

Dr. Lee is out of town--in Ireland, I'm told--so I saw Dr. Tolman, whom I like quite well. 

He gave me the results of the "Lance Armstrong test" that I had at the UW a couple of weeks ago and also of the PET/CT from last week. 

The LA test results were fine, which is weird, because I've been so short of breath, but Dr. Tolman did have an explanation. He said the most likely thing--since we've done all these tests and scans to check my lungs and heart and it turns out they are both in excellent shape for a 54-year-old woman with metastatic cancer--is that my cancer itself is causing the shortness of breath. 

And he used the term "tumor load," which I've heard before, just not in connection with myself.

To back this up, my most recent tumor marker, the CEA, was at 27, up from about 11 last time we checked. So I definitely have more cancer activity. 

Then, from the PET/CT, he was able to tell me that some of my tumors, including the one in my right lung, are larger than they were in January, and there are also quite a number of new spots, most of them tiny, and all of them in the bone. 

To top it off, I think some of my lymph nodes are now involved--this is new and I didn't quite understand it, so I will ask Dr. Lee about it next time I see him, which is three weeks from today.

To quote from the test results: "There is a new hypermetabolic subcarinal lymph node on image 87 ... A new hypermetabolic 7-mm AP window lymph node on image 85 ..." 

You get the picture.

My only worry in all of this is that any of the tumors in my spine might be getting large enough to press on my spinal cord--we're talking paralysis here--and the PET/CT doesn't show that kind of thing all that clearly. So I probably need a bone scan after I get home from Germany. 

Also, I have no pain anywhere, so Dr. Tolman seemed to think that I could continue with the present "chemo light" regimen until there was a more compelling reason to do a heavier chemo. So, as long as I can live with the stress of knowing about all these tumors, I can continue until either I am in danger of a fracture or a threat to the spinal cord, or until my shortness of breath makes me think I'm ready for chemo. 

We also talked about a couple of new or new-to-me drugs, and I'll blog about those at another time. One is in clinical trials now, but may well be approved within the next six months, about the time I may need it. 

If you're wondering how I am, I'm fine. This news isn't really a shock, so I've had time to think about all the "what if"s, and I haven't changed my mind about putting quality of life ahead of quantity of life. 

Definition, from the NCI Web site:

tumor load 

Refers to the number of cancer cells, the size of a tumor, or the amount of cancer in the body. Also called tumor burden. @ Jeanne Sather 2009.

Support This Blog, Please

ou may have noticed a "donate" button at the bottom of some posts on my blog. A button that looks like this:

The button is there because, with two small exceptions, I have decided to keep The Assertive Cancer Patient ad-free. The exceptions are a link to Amazon whenever I mention a book, and a Netflix ad on my Cancer Movies pages.

There are any number of ways to put ads on a blog. It's simple and easy. I tried this for a week or two when I first put my blog up. I used the ad service provided by Typepad, which hosts my blog.

But--and this is a huge BUT--most of the ads that popped up on my blog were for Web sites, products, and services that I personally couldn't endorse. And I didn't want them on my blog. An awful lot of them fell into the quacks category.

Cancer patients are fairly easy targets for exploitation--because we're sick, because we're afraid, because we'd like a magic cure that came with no side effects ... I don't want the exploitation of any cancer patient to start with an ad on my blog.

So there are none. But I still need to make some money from the blog, which takes the best hours and the best energy of my day.

The result? The donate button.

Thank you for any cash that you might be able to spare. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.

A special thanks to the cancer patients who have sent me donations, and then apologized for not being able to send more!

I know who my audience is, so I expected that if people were able to send a donation at all, it would be in the $10 to $20 range. Those $20 contributions are keeping me at the keyboard, blogging away.

If you want to read more about me, go to the About page.

A note about using PayPal: You can make a donation by clicking on the donate button and going through PayPal without setting up a PayPal account if you don't want one. There is an option to simply donate with a credit card.

@ Jeanne Sather 2009.

New Bracelets on 'Charmed Bracelets'

I have several new bracelets for sale on my Charmed Bracelets site, and will be adding more over the next few days before I leave on a trip to Germany.

The one-of-a-kind bracelet in the photo is jade and sterling silver, with an old abacus charm from Japan (@1940s-1950s) and an old silver Japanese coin made in Taisho 11, which was 1922, the year my father was born. 

Here's the link: Charmed Bracelets  

Photo: Monica Strasen

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Flying into the Swine Flu?

I saw this headline this morning, and it made me wonder for the first time if Younger Son and I will be flying into the swine flu:

UK says 100,000 new flu cases and 40 dead per day by end of August

I guess I should google Germany and "swine flu" and see what pops up. I do think, based on what I've read about the swine flu so far, that Younger Son is at greater risk than I am, because he doesn't have much natural immunity like us older folks. And my blood counts are good, so my immunity should be pretty good. 

Maybe we'll take those masks I was collecting as I did my round of doctor's appointments in the past few months when the swine flu first hit Washington state ... 

Read the story: Britain Facing Swine Flu Upsurge

According to a recent story, Germany has almost 300 confirmed cases of swine flu:

Swine Flu in Germany

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Vegetarians and Cancer

Vegetarians are less likely than meat eaters to develop some types of cancer, according to a report from the BBC.

The study, which was published in the British Journal of Cancer, found that vegetarians developed notably fewer cancers of the blood, bladder, and stomach. However, the study found no difference in cancer of the bowel, which I find rather surprising. 

The article from the BBC didn't mention breast cancer, so I don't know if the researchers didn't look at breast cancer in this study or if there was no difference. I would expect that vegetarians would have lower rates of breast cancer.

I, of course, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 43 and with melanoma in my early 50s, and I have been an ovo-lacto vegetarian since age 15. Younger Son is also a vegetarian.  

Read the article: Vegetarians 'Avoid More Cancers'

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Test Results

I've written several times recently about all the tests and scans I was getting during the past month or so, but I haven't yet said much on my blog about the results. 

One of my readers, someone who is fairly new to my blog, reminded me today in the most gentle fashion that she (and probably other readers) was a bit worried about me because I hadn't said anything. 

So, apologies for that. The news, what news I've gotten, is mostly good. I don't have the results from the PET/CT I had on Thursday, and I don't have the results from the exercise test I had at the UW a couple of weeks ago, because that doctor, the lung specialist, was out of town all last week and no one else in her office seemed able to give me the results. 

That's a bit annoying, but at the same time it is so "business as usual" when you're in the cancer world that I just don't let it get to me anymore. 

But the other tests and scans, when lumped all together, showed that both my heart and my lungs were in pretty good shape, in excellent shape considering that I've been poisoning myself on a regular basis for 10 years straight with chemo and radiation both. 

I do have some gastric reflux, aggravated (probably) by recent radiation to the spine and also by the Tykerb, which makes me nauseous. I'm trying "behavioral changes" as a first step to get that under control. That was my choice. I said no to the endoscopy Dr. Lee wanted, at least for now. 

And the CT I had of my chest and abdomen showed that my cancer was behaving itself pretty well--the bone mets were read as stable, and the met in my lung has grown slightly, which I am refusing to worry about. 

So that's it so far. I feel like it was a lot of my time and energy--and my insurance companies' money--to find out so little, but when I think about it a bit more, less is more in my case. 

I'll call tomorrow or Tuesday to try to get the last two sets of results, and if nothing much shows up there, the only thing left on my cancer radar screen in the near future is to decide what treatment I am going to do next. Not that I'm not getting treatment now, but I declined any more conventional chemo drugs, so Dr. Lee and I need to come up with a new plan. It's not likely that the Herceptin, zometa, and Tykerb will keep my cancer in check for long. 

Now, I can focus on my next adventure, which is a trip to Germany with Younger Son. We're calling it The Military History Tour, Part II. 

Because about four years ago, when YS was 14, I took him to Japan for a week and I let him choose all the places we visited, and they were, with one exception, all places that had something to do with Japan's military history. I was fine with that, because my goals were to spend time in Japan with Younger Son--and also to see some old friends there--and I didn't care all that much what we actually did. 

So we went to Yasukuni Shrine (which has a fantastic military history museum), Himeiji Castle (samurai era history), and Hiroshima (WWII). And one day when I was taking a rest day on the couch, Younger Son and the friend we were visiting, a military history nut herself, went to the Japanese Self-Defense Forces PR Center. That was a highlight of our visit for both of them. 

The only place we went that was non-military was Meiji-mura, an outdoor museum that covers acres of land and has a collection of Meiji Period (1868 to about 1912) buildings that were moved to the site from all over the world. It is amazing. My favorite is still the prison, and I don't even worry too much about what that says about me. Oh, and the Emperor Meiji's personal train car. That's also pretty amazing. Plush. Rich red velvet and lots of gold everywhere. 

Those of you who have been readers of this blog for awhile will recall that Younger Son and I took a train trip together last year. It makes me very happy that YS still likes to travel with me, and we do have a good time together. 

Older Son, on the other hand, hasn't wanted to travel with his brother and me since he was about 16, and there's not much I can do about that. The other night, he was acting like he felt a bit left out, but the reality is if I offered to buy him a ticket, he'd refuse. So I have to be OK with that, and I mostly am. 

Here's the link to last year's Mother/Son Adventure: Home Again, Home Again

@ Jeanne Sather 2009.

Free at Last III

That's my hand in the photo, with the baby praying mantis. 

We decided to release them yesterday, because we were afraid that we couldn't capture enough aphids to feed 50 or so hungry praying mantises. 

I'm going out to the garden now to see if I can spot any of them. 

Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Free at Last II

Here's Younger Son, releasing the praying mantises onto one of our rose bushes in the front garden.

I'm hoping they will keep the aphids and other pests under control.

I discovered that Younger Son doesn't like to have insects crawling on him. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Free at Last

Yesterday, Younger Son and I released his baby praying mantises into the garden. 

There were at least 50 in the jar, maybe more. Never having hatched praying mantises before, we documented the whole experience. 

The photo at right is the jar that we put the egg case in as the babies were hatching. We added aphid-infested leaves and a bit of soil, and sprinkled it with water daily. 

See also:

Free at Last II

Free at Last III

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

How to Drive Your Doctor Nuts (Or Not ...)

The link to this article arrived in my mailbox this morning, and I thought I'd pass it on. 

Please note that No. 2 on the list of ways to drive your doctor nuts is to NOT TELL him or her about the herbal supplements you may be taking. 

I've had any number of cancer patients tell me over the years that they are taking some herbal concoction without telling their oncologist about it. Their excuses are usually "it's natural"--meaning it can't hurt them--or, "He'll be angry"--meaning the doctor. 

So, Excuse No. 1: If the supplement is powerful enough to have any benefit, it is powerful enough to do harm. 

Excuse No. 2: Not telling your doctor about something you are taking takes passive-aggressive behavior to a whole new level. Be enough of a man (or woman) to fess up and discuss it with the doctor. You might save your life. 

Here's the link to the full article: Six Patient Behaviors That Drive Doctors Nuts

@ Jeanne Sather 2009. 

Baby Photos

Younger Son took this great shot of our baby praying mantises. 

They're in a vase with some aphid-infested greenery and a bit of soil. We dampen the greenery with a few drops of water every morning, and the babies are thriving. They are noticeably larger than when they hatched, only two days ago. 

We're planning to keep them inside until they get just a bit bigger, and then release them in the garden, to continue their pest-eating ways. 

Click on the photo to enlarge. There's a baby upside down on the glass to the upper left of the jar. 

@ Jeanne Sather 2009.