Monday, April 16, 2001
Cycle of Hope - Lance Armstrong's empowering site.Clinical Significance of Occult Metastatic Cells in Bone Marrow of Breast Cancer Patients
Chemotherapy of Metastatic Breast Cancer: What to Expect in 2001 and Beyond
Hepatotoxicity of Chemotherapy
posted by Karen Weber Monday, April 16, 2001
Tuesday, April 17, 2001
DRUGFACTS - breast cancer overviewI am behind in my posting. Please bear with any typos you see here - my left arm is bandaged from fingers to armpit for lymphedema. It is pretty difficult to do much of anything, especially computer stuff.
First, I have to share some very bad news. Boomer, the walleroo, died on Sunday. We are very sad, and praying for Boomer's mom, Dee, who is missing him fiercely.
Next, abouy my visit to the oncologist Friday. They were able to see the lesion again. It may be bigger. Or not. We will do another CT scan in July, and that should tell the tale. The onc now says that he doesn't believe it is malignant, depsite the PET results. At this point, I am not worried. God may not have removed the lesion (or this may be scar tissue from the healing - 2 nurses have said that was possible), but he did heal me of the fear of this thing. That, believe it or not, is a bigger miracle than a physical healing.
The CT report was a mess. The radiologist had apparently never compared the scan to the one done in October, even though the order specified that was to be done. Nor did he read my jacket or the history they made me fill out before the scan, so he didn't realize that I'd had breast and axillary surgery. The first two sentences mention that the skin over my L breast is thickened and suggests that I should be evaluated for inflammatory breast cancer. The next sentence mentions a 3 cm mass in my left breast. Well, the skin thickening is due to the lymphedema (which my oncologist mercifully now agrees I have), and the mass is most probably scar tissue from the partial mastectomy since it is located in that exact spot. Which the radiologist would have known had he taken a couple minutes to do his job thoroughly.
More disturbing is that he consistently referred to the thing in the liver in the plural. My wonderful Taiwanese onc hadn't picked up on that, but when I pointed it out, he became quite flustered. Rick and I sat for quite a while as they scurried around trying to get the radiologist on the phone to ask about this. Finally the word came back that it really just is the one thing in the liver. So we wait and watch.
I have more to say but my arm is dead!
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, April 17, 2001
Wednesday, April 18, 2001
Aggressive Breast Cancer Linked to SmokingFifteen-year prognostic discriminants for invasive breast carcinoma
S-Phase Fraction and DNA Ploidy in 633 T1T2 Breast Cancers
posted by Karen Weber Wednesday, April 18, 2001
Friday, April 20, 2001
Get a Second Opinion on Breast Cancer DiagnosisThe Role of Weight Control and Physical Activity in Cancer Prevention
posted by Karen Weber Friday, April 20, 2001
Saturday, April 21, 2001
Margie's Speech given at the Relay for Life, April 2001 - a wonderful speech given by an angel in my support group, Friends in Need. Very inspiring.
posted by Karen Weber Saturday, April 21, 2001