Sunday, March 18, 2001
Breast Cancer: My Experience May Save YOUR Life! - a patient page with lots of information.CancerTrack.com
posted by Karen Weber Sunday, March 18, 2001
Monday, March 19, 2001
2000 Update of Recommendations for the Use of Tumor Markers in Breast and Colorectal Cancer: Clinical Practice Guidelines of the American Society of Clinical Oncology - the abstract just says that they have updated the recommendations. Unfortunately, the new recommendations are not posted on the ASCO site and you can't access the full text of this article without being a member of ASCO. Stay tuned! I'll try to find these.Well, we are a few days post-miracle, and I've been trying to process some questions that linger in my mind. Here's a look at what goes through your mind when God does a big miracle in your life.
Why me? - This is a biggie. There are lots of wonderful people who have breast cancer, who suffer for years, who are prayed for and believe they will be healed. It doesn't happen. So why did it happen to me? My pastor says that God's purpose for your life is bigger than any problem you might have. I believe that healing boils down to what God's purpose for you life is. I apparently haven't fulfilled mine yet. Even that is hard to understand. A couple in our church lost their 7-!/2 year old daughter to leukemia. How could she have fulfilled God's purpose for her life when I haven't fulfilled mine? All I can believe is that God has brought me to this point in my life for some specific reason. It's my job to be faithful to fulfilling that. He will show me what it is eventually. This leads us to...
What do I "owe" God for doing this for me? - I believe I owe him the same thing that I owed him before He did this miracle - to love Him with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength. If I do that, He will lead me to discover His purpose for my life.
Is this real? - the oncologist told me last week that just because they couldn't see it, doesn't mean it's not there. I have already promised Rick that I will keep my promise to him. I will continue to be aggressive in follow-up and making sure this thing is beat. Nevertheless, I have faith that it is beat. (What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. -Hebrews 11:1)
I see the oncologist for a 3 month follow-up in a couple of weeks. My current oncologist will have moved to Florida by then (they'll go anywhere to escape working with me apparently!), and I will be meeting with one of his partners. I met a man during radiation who was being treated by the new oncologist, and his wife spoke very highly of him. So I am hopeful that this will go well. I have my blood drawn this week for markers and liver enzymes preliminary to that visit. Next week is my one year follow-up with the surgeon.
posted by Karen Weber Monday, March 19, 2001
Tuesday, March 20, 2001
Cancer Profiler - allows you to assess your risk for 14 different cancers.
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, March 20, 2001
Thursday, March 22, 2001
Phew! This has been quite a week. My computers, all of them, decided to become unstable all at once. I have been trying to keep just one of them up and running long enough to write next week's newsletters. I picked up the new version of Norton Utilities and it seems to have straightened out the machine running Windows ME (although the sound card remains non- functional). And my laptop has decided to behave once it saw that I meant business. So I'm almost done with my newsletters and feeling pretty smug. I would have been done already except that I spent most of yesterday at the shop with my car. Driving home from women's Bible study, my car overheated. I got it into the Jiffy Lube, thinking that maybe the oil was low. They checked out everything and told me it was a busted radiator hose. They cooled down the radiator for me, filled it with coolant, didn't charge me a dime, and made sure I got safely to a mechanic's shop. No charge. What a great company! Anyway, the mechanic didn't have good news. It's going to be about $700 to fix and it's going to take 4-6 days to get one of the parts. I have appointments right and left in the next week, so I went ahead and rented a little car for the week. It doesn't really have A/C to speak of, and we are running at 90+ degrees these days, so I won't be driving around just for fun.I had a great time on Wednesday meeting one of the gal's from my support group who is here from Kansas. We gabbed and had Mexican food. Great fun. I have pictures on the camera and if we're lucky, I'll get them up tonight. I still have the final hair pictures to do and I want to scan my old CT and MRI films of the liver lesion before I return them tomorrow.
In other news, I've been complaining of my shoulder hurting if I let it hang down for ever and a day now. My massage therapist spent some time on it Monday, and it's what I feared - rotator cuff. She did some strain/counterstrain and drainage in the area, and now it hurts all the time instead of just if I let it hang. Even when I swim, which I'm not too happy about. I see my surgeon on Monday for my one year post-op follow up, and I'll ask him if it's possible he overstretched the area during the axillary dissection. (Yes, that's how long it's been hurting.)
Speaking of the one year follow-up, today is the one year anniversary of my lumpectomy. We are not celebrating this. Rick is bowling in his league tonight and I'm playing with digital pictures. Life goes on, and I'm not looking back. There is something very special about today though. I signed up to be a ChemoAngel and today I was given my assignment. I'm very excited about doing this. I had a wonderful ChemoAngel while I was getting radiation, and I'm so happy to be able to be able to do it for someone else. I am not allowed to disclose any personal details, but I will be angel-ing another breast cancer survivor who is near my own age. What a perfect way to celebrate being a one year survivor!
Cyclic Breast Density Variation May Affect Mammogram
Cancer-Pain.org: Knowledge for action
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, March 22, 2001
Friday, March 23, 2001
My shoulder continues to ache today. Even the deltoid is mad at me. And the gal who works for me didn't show up for work yesterday, and today I have an email from her saying she can't come this weekend. So all of the sudden, I'm sitting on a bunch more work than I thought I was. I'm really fighting the urge to call Rick and tell him we can't go to the basketball game tonight. I'm not going to do it. I really want my life to be in balance. I'll get the work done, but not at the expense of my health - physical or emotional.I had blood drawn today for tumor markers, liver function, and counts. I asked for the written report on the biopsy attempts, but apparently there aren't any. Bummer. I also learned that my oncologist isn't moving to Florida for another month, so I'll see him for this next visit after all.
On my soap, General Hospital, Monica Q (who had breast cancer a few years back) is now fighting a recurrence scare or a new cancer. I'm not clear which. The acting by Amber Tamblyn (whose character lost her mother to breast cancer and was adopted by the Qs) is outstanding. Her scene today when she talked about cancer, and how it doesn't go away, just hides and waits for the next time, was gut-wrenching.
Thousands Turn Out for Breast Health Awareness Quilt Show
posted by Karen Weber Friday, March 23, 2001
Saturday, March 24, 2001
EarthCamTV - you can log on here and see my new web cam channel. My channel is 99649. If I'm online and in my studio, we can even chat.Rick got me this web cam for Valentine's Day (and one for you, too, mom so we can videoconference) but then he thought I wouldn't like it. He's been hiding it over by his computer, but he's been chatting with folks from all over on EarthcamTV for about a month now. He's so sneaky!
posted by Karen Weber Saturday, March 24, 2001