Cancer Journey- Part 9

Where did July go?! Oh, yes, it went to unpacking, yard work, and some fun stuff, too.

I mentioned in Part 8 that I met my new doctor and that I would tell you about that in this post. If you would like to read Part 8, click here. If you would like to read from the beginning, click here.

The New Doc

July 5th Ben and I got an early start and made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from his dad’s house up to Ft. Lewis to meet my new doctor. His name is Dr. M. A friend in Texas was also treated by him and let me know ahead of time that he is great. He was trained by my previous doctor, Dr. B. Dr. B had already emailed him and got him up to speed on what was going on with me.

He had all the information already read over and was ready to jump in. We discussed what led me to getting a diagnosis, how I currently felt, went over all the different paths that my progression may take and answered questions that we had.

He was extremely thorough and put in a referral for a PET scan and a bone density scan so that he can have more to compare to in the future. He put in the lab requests for more bloodwork than I usually do.

My shots are given every 28 days and I need to have the bloodwork done the day before, so the next day I was back up at the hospital for a quick draining. I think there were only 6 vials taken this time.

July 7th I was up once again to get my shots and meds. Dr. M didn’t have any appointments while we were in the waiting room, so he pulled us into his office to look over my labs.

Because of my lab results I went from taking 6 pills a day to this:

The green one is just once a week, but still, that’s a lot more than before. Now, would you like to know why this is a good thing? Turns out that my tumor count was the lowest it has been since the beginning of treatment. Because of this my bone marrow was able to start coming back and my anemia is almost gone! With bone marrow comes the need for vitamins and minerals to be pulled out of my blood and put to work making new blood. These extra pills are iron, B vitamins, and more vitamin D. Good stuff!

PET Scan

The next week I got my PET scan set up for Wednesday the 19th at 9:45 am. I was told to stop taking any vitamins two days before the appointment, to do a Keto diet the day before and to fast the morning of.

Wednesday had finally arrived, and I left for my appointment at 8:25. I like to give myself a bit of extra time for getting lost in the hospital. The first thing I heard on the radio was that there was an accident on the freeway and the traffic was backed up over 10 miles. My normal 30-minute total drive now took 30 minutes to just get to the freeway. Another hour (and two miles later) I texted Ben and asked him to call and let them know that I was stuck in traffic and that I was still on my way. He did and let me know they acknowledged.

The sign that normally says 10 minutes to JBLM was now posting NA for estimated time. It was a mess. Apparently, the accident had taken place around 5 am and was blocking two of the three lanes.

Sorry for the fuzzy photo. It was through my dirty windshield. No, I wasn’t on my phone while driving. I was stopped.

Just a little bit further was an exit to take the back roads. The map on my phone said to exit and go in through a back gate. About a half hour on that road, going nowhere, I got a call from the hospital. They had to cancel my appointment because the radioactive stuff doesn’t last long and I wouldn’t be there in time. They rescheduled me for the next week. So, after two hours of wasted time I headed for home.

A Fest and Picnic

The weekend was fun. My bestie, Davina, and I went up to the Sequim Lavender fest. We had to take the obligatory selfie in a lavender field. We learned a bit from farm hands of how to take care of lavender, we looked through vendors and farms full of everything lavender, ate at a super cute 50’s cafe, and headed home.

I met Davina when I was 6 and we’ve been besties ever since. In case you are wondering, that’s 38 years.

The next day was our community picnic. Ben, Little Bit and I went and talked to people we knew from last time we lived here and met a bunch of new neighbors. I was invited to join back in the ladies’ book club. I may actually read the books this time. We’ll see. There are some very intelligent women in the group. I definitely brought the IQ level down a few points by attending. The ladies that were in the book club when I was last here just remembered me for bringing cookies. I can totally do that.

PET Scan: Take 2

The 25th came and so did PET scan: Take 2. I did the diets before and fasted the day of. My appointment was at 2:15. I wasn’t getting really hungry, but I was getting a headache from lack of caffeine. I did my bone density scan first then I was called back for the PET scan. The guy asked if I had been fasting for the last 5 hours. Um, yes, plus 12. No one had said anything about fasting for 5 hours, just fasting the day of. I hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before.

He got me all set up with my IV then took me to a resting room. He put a heavy metal box on the counter, opened it up and took out a fat metal syringe to pump into me the radioactive juice. I had to wait in the resting room for 45 minutes for everything to get through my body and get absorbed in the cancerous places. Next, I was taken in for a CT scan then the PET scan.

At four o’clock I was released. I had packed a lunch with me, so I sat in the truck and snarfed. This did not satisfy me at all. I went in a shopette and got a big coke and a bunch of junk. I looked like a 9-year-old with a $20 bill. I made it home shortly after with my headache still getting worse. Ben ended up making dinner for us because I was of no use.

I have an appointment with Dr. M next week to go over my scans. I’ll let you know what comes of that.

Thank you for reading and for all your prayers and messages of support. I get messages from people saying that they wish they could help, but all they can do is pray. Please know that your prayers are exactly what I need. When you pray, you are going straight to the source of where healing comes from: the Almighty God. He hears our prayers. Never doubt that for a second.