News from the doctor

I saw my oncologist yesterday just before chemo treatment. He informed me that my tumor marker had dropped about 10 points and although it's still far from normal, going down is a good direction - showing that the new chemo regimen is working. Other lab work showed that my liver enzymes went from high to normal as well. Another good sign.

On the negative side, I've been getting spot headaches, meaning not like a regular headache where your head hurts all over but rather just one or two particular areas will get a sharp, throbbing pain that fortunately doesn't last long. Because of this, the doctor wants to get another MRI of my brain in the next week or so. This part concerns me the most since it's the tumors in my brain that most likely could kill me.

I also have a tumor under my reconstructed breast which has been there ever since the cancer spread all over. It's kind of been my barometer for how the cancer is growing. When it gets large, usually the internal cancer is growing. When it starts to shrink, the internal cancer is most likely shrinking as well. Right now, the breast tumor is fairly large. When it gets large, the skin tightens to the point of splitting open. Usually some antibiotic ointment takes care of it and it eventually closes over but more recently, it is not closing up like it usually does. Whether that is due to the fact that the tumor isn't shrinking very much or the openings are not responding to the antibiotic ointment - I don't know. The good news is that in all of this, I don't have pain - or not enough to complain about. Now and then, I'll have a pinch or ache but compared to others who have to be on narcotics, I feel very blessed.