Monday, December 04, 2000
Experts Dispute Breast Cancer Test Standards - some women are being erroneously told their tumor was estrogen receptor negative.
posted by Karen Weber Monday, December 04, 2000
Tuesday, December 05, 2000
You will not believe what I found out today. I have been laughing non-stop for about an hour. Let me start at the beginning.First, Susan from Friends in Need called me on Sunday and tried her very hardest to convince me that the pain I have in my liver has been around for too long to be associated with a met. She is such a wonderful person, and so convincing, but I'm rather hard-headed and I was still worried. The pain has been getting worse since this summer. I had one really acute episode that lasted for hours where I was doubled over in pain, and we never figured out what it was. Lately, the pain has been more chronic. It's always there, and the area that's painful is getting bigger and even making my back ache. It's hard to get calm about the possibility of mets when there's so much pain in the area.
Last night, I was at another recording session for the breast cancer survivor CD, and I had an overwhelming wave of nausea and pain. I had to lie down during a break to keep from passing out. I really have never been a hysterical person or developed psychosomatic symptoms, so I was really chiding myself about being such a baby. I had a difficult time getting comfortable in bed last night because of the pain I was having. I wrote off the nausea to the fact that I hadn't eaten dinner and then stood around singing for hours on end. I know my blood pressure went way down, because I was dizzy. Sometimes I get nausea with the dizziness from that. Anyway, I thought I was just being silly.
Today, I decided that enough was enough and that I didn't want to wait for the oncologist to get around to calling me back. So I called my surgeon's nurse and told her what was going on. She told me how to get my records from the imaging place (I had tried once, but I didn't know the secret trick) and I went over and got them this morning. They even gave me the films so the surgeon can look at it. Anyway, as soon as I got them out to my car, I ripped open the package and pulled out the elusive MRI report to see what it said. Before I even got to the part about the indeterminate lesion, I see this (here's the punchline that's making me laugh so hard): I have a 3/4" gallstone! No wonder I've had all this pain and nausea! If the oncologist had just mentioned this to me, it would have relieved me so much about the cause of the pain. I could have dissociated that from the fear about whether the other lesion is a met or not instead of having it all bundled up in one giant question mark.
The surgeon's office moved my appointment with them up a week and a half and I'm on the call list in case of cancellations. I'm hoping to get in as soon as possible so that we can figure out what to do about both of these problems.
Gallstones - Common, and sometimes serious
The surgeon's office called. Someone cancelled for tomorrow at 10 am and I'm taking the appointment. Yippeee!! Now we can get this show on the road, get rid of the pain and find out what that other nasty thing is.
Acupuncture Eases Nausea Caused by Cancer Therapy
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, December 05, 2000
Wednesday, December 06, 2000
I'm just back from seeing the surgeon. He is sending me for a DISIDA Scan and gallbladder ultrasound to see if the pain I'm having is related to my beauteous gallstone. The surgeon was very impressed with the pictures of the gallstone and told me, "Good job!" I don't have the appointment times yet, but they will be doing it soon I think.More about DISIDA Scans.
New AstraZeneca breast cancer drug matches older one - Faslodex compared to Arimidex.
posted by Karen Weber Wednesday, December 06, 2000
Thursday, December 07, 2000
BreastLink.com - news and information.Today I had my one month follow-up with the radiation oncologist. She said my skin looks great and that the slight darkening on the nipple and over the ribs under the breast will probably fade with time. They will schedule me for a follow-up mammogram in January so that we will have those results when I see my medical oncologist in early February. I will see the radiation oncologist again in 6 months. Everyone got a big kick out of my gallstone story. I've named my gallstone, by the way. Grizabella the Glamour Stone.
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, December 07, 2000
Friday, December 08, 2000
Addition of Chemotherapy to Herceptin Improves Response Rate In Patients With Advanced Breast Cancer
posted by Karen Weber Friday, December 08, 2000