Cancerversary

Happy New Year! This year I resolve to be a better blogger. I hate, hate, hate it when I end up making promises I can't keep, so I hereby resolve to blog at least once a month. There, now that it's out in the universe, I will make it happen!

For me, January brings more than cold, dreary weather; a re-dedication to healthy eating and fitness plans; and NFL playoffs (go Packers!). It also brings my "Cancerversary," i.e. the anniversary of the day I was first diagnosed. Some people refer to their "Cancerversary" as the day they completed treatment or were declared cancer-free, but since I don't and frankly aren't likely to have one of those days, at least not anytime soon, I'm sticking with the first definition.

On January 14th, it will be three years to the day that I found out I had breast cancer. I think back to that day and how my mind was reeling with the unknown. Even though in my calmer moments I knew that statistically, most people survived breast cancer just fine, I couldn't help thinking things like "I hope I'm still here next Christmas." Well, I did make it to that Christmas, and the one after that, and the one after that.

And while I still have advanced disease and am still a regular at the Oncology ward at Roosevelt Hospital, I am also still thriving. I still work full-time, travel, and live a full life, despite my diagnosis.

Back on January 14, 2010, I could not have imagined that would all be true despite my dire diagnosis. So for that, I am very, very thankful. I'm not really sure how I feel about the word "Cancerversary," because is the day you receive devastating news really something to put a celebratory notion to?  But if I think about where I am now, versus where I saw myself at this point three years ago, then yeah - that is something to celebrate!

When we last left off, I had started on the new chemo regimen of Avastin and Abraxane. All went fine with that, until my next scans came up in August. Mixed results once again - some cancerous areas in my body were increasing, while others were decreasing. And no, there was still no way to tell quantitatively if there was more or less cancer in my body.

So, Dr. Sara changed my treatment once again. This time, I was put on Adriamycin, Cytoxan and 5-FU. The minute I heard "Adriamycin" I thought "The Red Devil."  You see, I'd heard about this drug. It's been around for a long time so I've read about it in various cancer articles and books. It gets its nickname from its red color (it even turns your pee orange - party trick!), but also because of it's brutal side effects.

Luckily, Dr. Sara assured me that it's not really considered "The Red Devil" anymore because anti-nausea drugs have come such a long way that they can now effectively combat the side effects.

And, surprise, surprise, Dr. Sara was right. I did have some occassional chemo-related fatigue and appetite issues (after one treatment, I only wanted to drink iced tea; after another, it was birch beer), but all in all, it was not bad at all.

Dr. Sara could tell the treatment was doing its job because the lymph nodes in my neck would either stay the same or decrease when he examined them every three weeks I was there for treatment.

But alas, you can't REALLY know what's going on until you get scanned again. My next scan was scheduled for October 30th, but you may have heard about this little incident we had here called Hurricane Sandy.  As it turned out that crane that was dangling from a building in NYC during the storm that was all over the news was just a couple blocks from the radiology place! Not to mention the fact that I was stranded in my apartment in Hoboken for 2 days until the flood waters on my street receded and I could flee to Mom and Dad's, where I was a refugee for a week and a half.

I was determined not to miss treatment though, so even though it took us FOUR HOURS to get to the hospital on the Thursday after the storm (when it should only take about an hour and a half from my parents' house), we made it.

But of course, that scan did not happen as planned, so instead Dr. Sara said we would go one more cycle, and then get scanned after Thanksgiving.

Side note - they have changed the guidelines for the no carb, no sugar diet I need to follow the day before the scan... it's even more restrictive now. So I had to change the PET scan diet routine I had gotten used to - it's all about cheese-less veggie omelets and salad now. No fruit whatsoever, not even apples and blackberries which used to be OK; no cheese; and no yogurt which also used to be allowed. Ugh; at least it's only one day every four months or so!

This latest scan showed results much like the previous two - mixed.  The cancer in all areas of my body except the liver, including my lymph nodes, spine, abdomen, were all decreased or unchanged.  But, there are new lesions in the liver, so another change to treatment was in order.

Of course, the liver is the only vital organ the cancer is in, so it's disheartening that that is the one place the cancer was increasing.  But Dr. Sara reminded me that the liver is one of the most resilient organs in the body, and he assured me that he didn't expect me to start experiencing any effects from the cancer itself, which was good news.

With most cancers, chemo tends to treat all the cancer in the body equally, as it's a systemic treatment. But sometimes with breast cancer specifically, they see cases like mine where some areas can be up while others are down.

Now, I have not been on Herceptin, or any HER-2 drug in about a year, so Dr. Sara's theory is that perhaps the cancer in the liver contains more HER-2 receptors than the cancer in the other areas of my body, which would explain why my most recent traditional old-school chemo regimen wasn't being effective there.

So my new treatment cocktail includes a return to some old favorites. Welcome back Herceptin and Taxotere! They are now joined by newcomer to the party, Pertuzamab.  Pertuzamab is a HER-2 drug very similar to Herceptin, but studies show the two drugs taken together are more effective than either on their own. And Taxotere is more of a traditional chemo drug, which was part of my original chemo regimen back in 2010.  The thinking is that hopefully the Herceptin and Pertuzamab will attack the cancer in the liver, while the Taxotere will keep the other areas in my lymph nodes, etc., quiet.  It sounds like a war strategy, doesn't it?

I've now had two treatments of this new regimen and so far, so good. These drugs are much milder on the side effects scale than my most recent regimen, and that wasn't even that bad.

I did have the new experience though of having an initial reaction to the new drug.  The very minute the Pertuzamab started dripping into my bloodstream, I suddenly got chills. My fever had risen slightly, and my blood pressure was really low. This is a common reaction to any new drug, but it was new for me as I've been on LOTS of new drugs and had never had any problems before. I was given Demerol to combat the reaction, which made me really drowsy - I basically took a nap the rest of the day in the chemo chair.  Dr. Sara was not too concerned and said he did not expect it to happen again, and luckily it did not when I had my second treatment of this regimen last week.

One side effect of the Taxotere is hair loss though, so I will not be getting my hair back anytime soon. Sure enough, right on schedule about 18 days after my first treatment, I started noticing my hair falling out again.  Now, my last few treatments have all caused hair loss and I've noticed it kind of ebbs and flows... it will come out heavily for a while starting the requisite 18 or 19 days after treatment, then it will slow down, then it might start up again, etc.  The result being that right now I have what looks like a thinning buzz cut.  It's not attractive to say the least, though Dr. Sara was quite amazed that I have as much hair as I do even after the Red Devil, I mean Adriamycin.

I have pretty much been "wigging it" since we lopped off what remained of my hair last Memorial Day. And I have added a new style to my wig repertoire as well:

I'm BLONDE! (PS aren't Claire and Ben just the cutest?) This wig is courtesy of the American Cancer Society. The NYC office runs a program providing free wigs to cancer patients.  My friend Bernadette and I had fun trying on the different styles.  Here is one we passed on; I call it my "Vegas look":

And lastly, I'm FAMOUS!  Well, not really, but back in August I was interviewed for a CBS NY special that aired in September leading up to the Komen race. They did a segment highlighting all the great programs at Roosevelt, including music therapy.  Here is the link; you can see me just before the 2:00 part. You will also see Dr. Sara and some of my favorite nurses: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/video/7706895-2012-susan-g-komen-race-for-the-cure-special-part-3/

And here's a pic my Mom took of the "shoot":

Until next time (which will be February - I promise!)...