Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I'm Still Alive and Kickin'!

Well, it's 2010 and it is the 10th of February...and it's been over 3 months since I last posted on my blog. Naughty, naughty me! However, I've had some challenges with THE cancer (one of my New Year's Resolutions is to stop calling it "MY" cancer, because I don't want to own it, or let it belong to me anymore!), that it is in my body and being killed off by the chemotherapy that I am on. I used to be on Taxol but while I was on that treatment, after the cancer appeared to initially go down -- about October (treatment began in June 09), THE cancer began to grow again. So, in December of '09, I was switched to Adriamycin and Cyclosposphamide (spelling?).

I also had a radiation treatment on my left leg in the first weeks of December that resulted in an unexpected response whereby the pain that they were radiating me to reduce, actually went sky high instead! Boy, was that a surprise and a painful one! My radiologist immediately stopped the original 2 week radiation schedule and said, "Your body is telling us that right now, radiation is NOT your friend". I was put on steroids and Fentanyl patches to reduce the pain feeling and result in my bones. After Christmas, I was able to stop using ALL pain medicines (by then I had already had one dose of Adriamycin +)!

At the time of the first dose, my CA-15-3 test had risen from a low of 40 to over 100. That was not good to say the least! It peaked at 133 after 2 doses and now, after 3 doses, it is down to 71 (the goal level is 0-31). I've also had an MRI w/ and w/o contrast that shows nothing has increased or decreased at this point. I may not have gone down on my 3 little lesions in my liver, and one on my sternum, but hey!, they didn't grow either. So, I'm happy!

Now that the update has been provided on what I was "busy" with when I was not posting, at this time I think I can say I'll be better able to keep up with my posts for the forseeable future.

Thanks for your patience with me!

With Gratitude For All!

Elizabeth Gregory

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