I got up early Monday morning to do my PET scan. It was still disgusting, but the barium "milkshake" they gave me wasn't nearly as awful as the last time I had to drink one. The scan went fine. I got the results back from Consorti on Monday afternoon.
My lymph nodes are negative for cancer, but are still lighting up all over the place, which they think means my body is aggressively fighting it, and the two that were biopsied aren't too happy about it.
They said the lymph nodes in my neck looked a little weird, but that sometimes happens if you talk yourself hoarse, which I did over the weekend.
In between the PET scan and Consorti I spent a bunch of time on the phone, asking different people for their opinion on if it's OK to delay chemo to do the Stanford trial. Across the board they said yes, which really surprised me. They weren't hedging at all - apparently they've proven in the last couple of years that tumors don't start throwing off cells that metastasize until much later than they originally thought. Every oncologist, oncology nurse, and breast surgeon I talked to said the same thing - two weeks won't make a difference.
So I agreed to do the trial at Stanford. I go in for more tests on Monday and should start chemo around 7/16. I'm not sure at what point I'll find out which arm of the study I'm on. I'll either be at Stanford once a week, or at Alta Bates once a week, with a visit every 3rd week to Stanford to measure my progress.
I'm still feeling really tired, so I guess this is the new normal. That draggy feeling you get the day before you get the flu? That's me, all the time. I can push through it and get things done, I just know that the minute I stop I'm going to fall asleep. Which makes sense, my body is trying to fight this, and it is costing me in energy. I'm grateful for the four day weekend. I have no plans beyond a movie this afternoon and breakfast on Saturday.
Bob's going camping with some friends on Sunday. I was never going to go on this trip - I have exactly zero interest in carrying a backpack up to the top of Angel Island - but since I'm not in treatment yet I told him he should go. I expect to spend most of the weekend in bed with a book.
My lymph nodes are negative for cancer, but are still lighting up all over the place, which they think means my body is aggressively fighting it, and the two that were biopsied aren't too happy about it.
They said the lymph nodes in my neck looked a little weird, but that sometimes happens if you talk yourself hoarse, which I did over the weekend.
In between the PET scan and Consorti I spent a bunch of time on the phone, asking different people for their opinion on if it's OK to delay chemo to do the Stanford trial. Across the board they said yes, which really surprised me. They weren't hedging at all - apparently they've proven in the last couple of years that tumors don't start throwing off cells that metastasize until much later than they originally thought. Every oncologist, oncology nurse, and breast surgeon I talked to said the same thing - two weeks won't make a difference.
So I agreed to do the trial at Stanford. I go in for more tests on Monday and should start chemo around 7/16. I'm not sure at what point I'll find out which arm of the study I'm on. I'll either be at Stanford once a week, or at Alta Bates once a week, with a visit every 3rd week to Stanford to measure my progress.
I'm still feeling really tired, so I guess this is the new normal. That draggy feeling you get the day before you get the flu? That's me, all the time. I can push through it and get things done, I just know that the minute I stop I'm going to fall asleep. Which makes sense, my body is trying to fight this, and it is costing me in energy. I'm grateful for the four day weekend. I have no plans beyond a movie this afternoon and breakfast on Saturday.
Bob's going camping with some friends on Sunday. I was never going to go on this trip - I have exactly zero interest in carrying a backpack up to the top of Angel Island - but since I'm not in treatment yet I told him he should go. I expect to spend most of the weekend in bed with a book.
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