On the health front, I had my appointment with Dr. Stewart, the breast oncologist, last Monday. First on the task list from that visit was look at the rest of my body for possible metastases - bone scan and CT of chest, abdomen and pelvis. Both were scheduled quickly - one Thursday and one yesterday. Will review the results when I see Dr. Stewart again 2 weeks from tomorrow. From that appointment I also learned that the chemo I had post mastectomy surgery wouldn't have covered the brain as the blood-brain barrier would protect the brain from those chemicals. So likely the cells that caused the tumours in my brain have been around since before the mastectomy. Apparently they only see maybe 1 of those cases a year (rare is a 4-letter word sometimes). Doesn't change the plan forward but does answer some questions I had.
So some more waiting - 2 weeks for the "beyond the brain" picture and about 2.5 months for the brain picture. I had some new side effects creep up this past week - muscle spasms in back and neck - that impacted my sleep considerably. I now have another medication and a few other tricks to mitigate but it derailed my week a bit.Outside of that, I was able to have a few more visits with some friends and family - including an awesome unexpected coffee with my cousin Sonia who was in town, an ice cream with Tasha and her family to celebrate her birthday, and watching Davis and Jack at one of each of their soccer and ball hockey games. I'm making some plans for the next 2.5 waiting months to get stronger mentally and physically and to live as fully as I can within energy (and budget!) constraints. My family continues to provide me with incredible care (and friendship) and the support, energy, thoughts and prayers from so many people constantly fuel me.
June 21 also came and went, marking 20 years from golf day 1997 when this whole cancer story started. Rather insane what has happened since then, and rather remarkable that I'm still alive and living life considering all of that. I received a beautiful flower delivery (above) on Friday - this year's golf day at PwC. 2 PwC partners sent it - Scott drove me to the hospital and Dave was in my golfing 5-some back in June 1997.
Beautiful flowers, beautiful people, beautiful life. Cheers. Tricia
