Some Good News

I had to absorbed a lot today at my appointment. As soon as he came into the room, he checked my lymph nodes under my arms and my throat. Usually he sits down and looks at my chart on the computer, so thought something was wrong. The CT scan showed a lymph node under my left arm, that seemed to measure larger then normal. At the size that it measured he would have been able to physically feel it and he felt nothing. He thinks that when they measured the node it was measured a different way then the first time it was measured. I know that this sounds confusing, but he drew a picture of it and it made sense. In conclusion he does not think its cancer.

Then he asked if I had any concerns, which normally I don't have too much in the beginning to ask, but as the conversation goes on, that's when I start piping up. At the discretion of my husband I did let him know that I occasionally have headaches. I have never been a person to get too many headaches and Tylenol seems to help. He then proceeded to ask me other questions if I get nausea when I get headaches and if I have been seeing well, which everything has been fine. He scheduled a MRI on my brain just to make sure. I have not had one since I was first diagnosed, so he thought it would be good to have one done. Better safe then sorry. I know that will put both Bryan and I at ease. This will be on Tuesday along with an ultrasound on my ovaries.

On the CT scan one of my ovaries showed a cyst or something to that nature, so just to make sure that it's not a tumor the ultrasound will help with that. He then asked me if I had my menstrual cycle return and I have. Because of this he ordered a genotype blood test to be done. This will show if the drug tamoxifen, that I'm taking, which is suppose to get rid of the estrogen that your ovaries produce, is working for me. It is not unusual for someone my age to have their ovaries come back after chemotherapy, but that means that they are not shut down and I'm still having estrogen go through my body. This is what fed my cancer initially, so we don't want the estrogen. Regardless if I got my menstrual cycle or not, the tamoxifen is suppose to work the same, but just to make sure I am having this blood test done. I should get that result in a week or so. That will then decide if we need to take additional medications to shut the ovaries down. Lupron is a popular medication that is a shot that is taken by many pre menopausal women. There is also an oral medication, I can't think of it off the top of my head, but that too would shut them completely down. I did not ask about removing them because I know that the answer would be that he wants to wait until I'm in remission for a full year. Just knowing that I am not in full menopause and what may be coming does not thrill me. I'm sure some of you reading this can agree to that. Menopause is no fun, especially at 29 years old, but if it saves my life, it's all worth it.

My MUGA scan was 61%. It has gone down since last time. Because of this, I will do another scan in 6 weeks. Normally it's done every 3 months. He thinks that it will hold stable. We don't want it to get lower then 50%. If that happened I would have to discontinue the Herceptin until my heart got stronger. If this was to happen I would go on an oral medication called "super herceptin" , there's a more technical name, but this would do the same as Herceptin and if not better.

My labs showed that everything was in the normal range. My tumor marker did go up slightly 17.1. I think it was 16.7 last time. Still in normal range.

So in conclusion, everything seems to be going well. We just want to be cautious and get a clearer picture on some items. He also told me that he would be leaving in July, so I will see him one last time before that date. I can choose whomever I want as my doctor. I think I will go with the one that was suggested unless I ask around at my next infusion and see if anyone suggests someone else. There will be someone taking his place, so I could wait and see.