It's Not Fair

Time to update, I had my 1st round of the Herceptin only on Wednesday and so far no real known side effects. Here I thought that I would be in and out of there faster than I was, but with my oncologist being gone last week he was very busy seeing double the patients and he got behind, which made my infusion get behind. So I started at 9:30 and did not get out of there until 1:30. The good news is that my next infusion should only last 1 hour total by the time I get checked in and out because I don't have any lab work or an appointment with the doctor. I'm definitely looking forward to that. It is not my favorite thing to do with my free time is to wait around at the cancer center.

My oncologist was very happy with my scan and that everything was still cancer free. I asked him if I was considered to be NED (no evidence of disease)and officially I'm considered NED, which I have been since my scan that I had in October, but I wanted to hear it from the doc. In regards to the inflammation that was seen on the scan he thinks is related to the chemo and if I have any digestive issues that I think are abnormal to let him know and they will perform a test that puts a scope down into my stomach to investigate, not sure what the technical name for it is called sorry to all you medical people. I'm bad with terminology.

I had my bloodwork done and my hemoglobin is still low at 10.8, but rising. There were tears brought to my eyes when I saw my alkaline phosphatase result. Your alkaline phosphatase(ALP) is an enzyme that is in your blood and if it is high it is usually related to a liver or bone disorder. It has been indicated that this test is the most sensitive test to indicate metastatic tumor(s) to the liver. When I first had my blood drawn back in August, my ALP was 219. The normal range for this is 50-136. On Wednesday my ALP was 75, the lowest it has ever been. I was so excited that I couldn't wait to share with everyone. Of course my tumor marker test was much higher and drop tremendously, but the ALP concerned me a lot since it was the test directly related to your liver, that I dwelled on it in the beginning although I have read on some of the discussions boards for some women of it being much higher then my has ever been.

In regards to discussion boards, I have listed on the site a couple of websites that I visit frequently for support. The Young Survival Coalition is one that I visit often and I feel like I know some of these girls without even meeting them face to face. This website has really helped me keep positive and stay strong besides all you of course who read this and leave me comments. There are a number of girls who are stage IV and they have given me alot of HOPE. But at the same time I feel for the ones that their treatments are not working and they struggle and at times some of them pass away leaving behind their children, husbands and other family. It's not fair that young women who may be mothers or wives have to go through this. It's not fair that children have to grow up without their moms. It's not fair that husbands have to be widowed way too young. With all of this said I want everyone to visit this site http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amytaylor and know that life is way too short and we need to cherish it everyday and thank God that he has given us one more day to spend with our families. Even though I have never met Amy, her story has touched me and she has been taken way too soon from her family and they have been robbed by this horrible disease, but I know someday, SOMEDAY no more families will have to face what her family has faced. I feel fortunate that my treatment has responded so well, but there is that 1% that I fear could this be my family someday. Thanks for letting me vent, I don't express my feelings too much, but felt that I needed to share with everyone what my thoughts have been lately.

On a much happier note to celebrate Bryan's birthday we all went out to eat and bowling tonight and it was FUN by all! I included a couple of pictures to share.

Brock watching his ball go down the lane with the help of dad


In picture is our niece Paige, Bryan, brother-in-law Brad, and nephew Noah