Hi everyone,
I thought I'd post an update because I haven't been really good about keeping things up to date with me. Right now I'm battling a recurrence. I had my first breast cancer in 2002 then a second, different breast cancer in 2006, then a recurrence in 2008.
I've been going up and down with it. The first several months of 2008 were pretty good. Then I got a blood clot in my lung and ended up in the emergency room on Sept 11, 2008. But that was taken care of and I started taking Xeloda and Tykerb for the cancer (I was following some alternative options before that). Xeloda worked for several months but then last spring it started coming back. This summer it seemed to really grow and I was panicking a bit, trying to keep up the alternative stuff. We tried a couple of other things, first a hormonal drug I don't remember and then cytoxin pill form. Neither worked.
Then, a few weeks ago, it became clear I needed to do something else. And that meant getting a new port put in. I had a port from the first time I had chemo but the cancer had overgrown it -- it was all over my chest -- so I had to have surgery and got a port put into my leg. I started Navelbine about a month ago.
So far so good. It seems to be working. My chest, which looked like rotten hamburger six weeks ago, is now clean and seems to be healing a bit although there's a ways to go. And some other areas with lumps are softening and smoothing out. It's not all gone yet but things seem to be moving in the right direction.
I do feel much better, not so tired and down. I'm still trying to do the alternative stuff, too, because I feel if I can get that down, get the discipline down, there's a bigger potential for a permanent solution. And it doesn't hurt at all. I mean, eating well can hurt you. Of course, for me and anyone who's seen me, they'd know that diet has never been my strong suit. So I'm still fighting it.
I still have other treatments to try if this stops working so I'm still hanging in and kicking. I'm still working full time and I'm baking cookies for the holidays. I told someone the other day if I didn't back Christmas cookies, well, I'd be dead then. And I'm nowhere near kicking the bucket yet.
So hang in there everyone, there are so many possibilities and options out there, something is bound to work. Keep the faith.