Good Calls + Echo

I got a call from Dr. Cole Wednesday evening. My phone was on silent, she left a message:

“Hey Melodee it's Dr. Cole. I just wanted to let you know that I spoke with the radiation oncologist and he reviewed all of your images and it looks like that funny spot that we saw on your scan that  was done here has been there before and it doesn't look like it's changing at all! There is  nothing we need to  do now other than watch it.  he did say that he  wanted to  set up some follow up MRIs, but I’ll  talk to him about whether we could just do them up here and then have you see him as needed if something changes so that you don't have to   keep going back downtown. I just wanted to let you know that everything  looks awesome and good and there's no signs of anything new going on and so that she's very reassuring that you're stable OK I'll talk to you later bye-bye…”

That’s pretty cool, plus a literal weight off my brain.  

I also had an appointment for an echo at Dr. Raza's {my new cardiologist} office.  I thought it was silly how I nearly matched the curtain behind which I changed.  It was the most thorough echo I've ever had.

Later that evening, Dr. Raza called me personally.
My echo showed my EF at 55%, which is in the normal range.  She's not too worried about me.  It doesn't necessarily mean that they are taking the diagnosis of cardiomyopathy off my chart, but now I'm just on a "monitoring" plan for now.


It's good to have good news.  

H&P #47 + appt. with Dr. Cole-io

Thanksgiving week this year was a bit tough.  

THE WHOLE FAMILY 

experienced the joy of a 24+ hour stomach bug.  

I was the +, as I was in bed for most of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after Thanksgiving.  

Being in that state makes me realize how lucky and thankful I truly am for the miracles that have happened in my cancer journey to make it possible for me to be in the state I'm in.

I keep thinking back to the radiation oncologist nurse who came into the room and asked,

"YOU'RE the patient?  Oh, I was expecting someone who looked MUCH WORSE,

after reading your file."

It's blessings upon blessings upon prayers and more that have made it possible for me to be alive at all, let alone in this state of health.  

It's also crazy that I've been doing this maintenance protocol for 47 times.  That's nearly 150 weeks of this treatment, and still going.

There are some really hard days and sad days and days full of fatigue, pain, and frustrations, but there are days of joy and family and traditions and making new memories.  There are days of laughing and working and reaching goals and music and remembering old memories and experiencing record-making football games and watching children grow into incredible humans and love.

  

I have much for which to be thankful.   

I love that I get to watch the seasons changing on the leaves outside the window.  

I wonder how it will look in December.  And the next December after that.  

Much love and cancer kicking still to do....

H&P #46 + Zometa

We are still at it with Herceptin and Perjeta.  Just another day on this long journey.

My nurse, Diana, got the port access with no problems.

Things went well.

I'll see them all again in three weeks!  

Dr. Wardak

Another Monday, another trip to downtown.

Radiation Oncologist was the one thing

Dr. Cole didn't want to scrimp on.

She didn't want some "Joe Schmo with a 100 year-old machine" working on my brain.

When you put it like that, I'll make an exception.  

I do like this place.

I love the free valet for patients.

I love the amazing check-in girl, who I bonded with and we made each other laugh.

I love that my BP was down to 104/72, after being around 130/80 something.

I like Dr. Wardak.  He's young.  He's a little cocky.  He reminds me of Dr. Boutros, in that he seems to have a right to act that way because he knows what he's doing.  No "Joe Schmo" here.

He also had a resident shadowing him.  That says, to me, that you're good enough to have someone learn from your work.  

I didn't get many photos.  

Just my sad brain face.  

There's a small arrow in the middle, right about the "sad mouth"

that points to a small spot they are talking about.  

There's also some spots on this slide.

Dr. W thinks that these are probably the same ones described in my chart.

We won't know for sure until----you guessed it.

We get the previous images with which to compare.