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Eye Doctor
Last time I saw Dr. B I mentioned the weird vision issue that I started having. He put in a referral for me to be seen by an eye doctor to make sure that there was nothing physically going on with my eyes. In my amazement two days later I got a call from Dr. F’s office to make an appointment. So, the referral process does work after all! I got all set up for this last Monday.
Monday, May 8th, I left work early and headed to downtown San Antonio. His office was easy to find, which is great because I hate driving in the downtown area. I had an eye test and then I was told I was going to have my eyes dilated. The woman doing the test must have seen a look on my face because she was quick to say that I would still be able to drive and that it would only affect my up-close vision. I hurriedly put my address in my maps app so that I could get home afterwards. I had a bunch of pictures taken then waited for the Dr.
Dr. F came in after a short wait. He talked about my meds and what they were for. Then he asked about my vision issue and looked over the pictures and in my eyes. The good news was that my eyes are perfect. There is nothing about them that would be causing the ripples in my vision. He came to the conclusion that it was a side effect of my meds. He did give me some eye drops because I do have dry eyes.
The drive home was fairly easy. I was thankful that I had put the address in before my eyes were dilated because there was no seeing up close at all and also thankful that the app talks to me. Once home I shut all the blinds and turned off all the lights and hung a blanket over the door to the sunroom. I then laid on the couch with my sunglasses on.
Second Opinion
Thursday the 11th I had an appointment for a second opinion at MD Anderson, a cancer center in Houston. Ben drove us down the night before so that we wouldn’t have to worry about making the three-hour trip in the morning.
Dr. I went over all my tests, scans and results and confirmed that the course of action was exactly what she would be doing also. Ben had a lot of questions for her. He had been doing his own digging for answers online and was throwing out so many names of specific tests and medicines that Dr. I asked if he was a doctor also.
She was able to answer everything we came up with and let us know that at any point in the future we are able to reach out to her for more answers. She also said that the tumor marker tests will go up and down, but they only are concerned if it jumps 50 points, that scans should be done every four months and that evaluations also include just how the patient feels.
Nothing new or course changing came out of the visit, but it’s good to know that there isn’t something out there that we are missing. When my meds no longer work there are studies being done all the time that I can be a part of, but hopefully that’s way for in the future (or not even necessary).
Once of the medicines I’m on, Ribociclib, helps the other meds to work longer before the cancer gets wise to it. I am on this one for three weeks then I take a week off. The problem with this one med is that it hinders the bone marrow from making blood. Not great when you are anemic. In theory during the week off the blood can rebound a little. This was my week off and I did get my energy back and the vision problem went away. I had done a blood draw Wednesday for my doctor’s appointment on Friday.
Check Up
Friday the 12th I went in to see Dr. B for a routine EKG to make sure the meds hadn’t changed my heart rhythm. They hadn’t. He asked how I was doing, and I told him much better without the one med. My fatigue was mostly gone, and my vision problem cleared up. He said I would no longer need to come in every two weeks for blood draws and EKGs. I would just be coming in for monthly blood draws and injections and to have a check-up with him.
He had not been able to see my lab results before he met with me because he was seeing me in between doing rounds. Ben mentioned that my white blood cells and platelets were both down. Dr. B reassured us that it was to be expected. Ben then asked if they test for estrogen to see if the injections are even working properly. He said that he knows it sounds bad, but they just assume that they are. He said he would be looking over my results after he got done with rounds and would give me a call if anything came up.
From there we waited until my injections made it up to the clinic from the pharmacy. I got a shot in my arm and then the massive don’t-look-at-it needle to the belly. The belly one didn’t hurt at all. I may even watch next time. Ya, probably not.
It was about 5:30 that night when Dr. B called. He didn’t like the numbers he was seeing in my labs. He told me to stay off the Ribociclib for another week to let my blood have more of a chance to recover. My tumor markers had jumped up 80 points and he listed something else that I can’t remember. He said he was putting me for labs again in one week and he would be adding a test to see what my estrogen levels are.
Life moved on.
Mother’s Day
The family made sure I had a great Mother’s Day. I got a cake and gifts. We went to the Quadrangle on post to feed the animals. The animal food machines had been removed so the girls just had empty cups to carry around. The animals still came over but were very disappointed.
Ben barbequed some steak for dinner and then once that settled we went out for frozen yogurt. I was pretty spoiled.
So, I now wait for Thursday to do more labs and hopefully I will get a good call from Dr. B this Friday.
Well, that’s all for now. Thank you for reading and for all your prayers.
“Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.” Psalms 116:2
To continue on to Part 7, click here.
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