Booking a warm tropical vacation is difficult when you are trying to schedule around your husband’s work, appointments, weather, making sure I would have oxygen with me, just making it all work out has been a challenge. I managed to book a hotel and plane tickets last minute (my world of vacation rentals didn’t work out so well… our hotel is very nice though and we have a kitchen, so Mike has been able to cook dinner and breakfast now and then to keep food expenses down (food here seems to be pretty pricey! Most of it is worth it though.
After my last Herceptin infusion it turned out my tumor markers did another 1,000 point jump. We always saw some scary progression with 100 point increases. I am now up thousands from my last PET-CT. I am really scared to see what it would look like inside of there right now (my oncologist just did a CT of my chest and abdomen to watch what was going on). My Pulmonologist uses x-rays and ultrasound.
My oncologist opted to give the Affinitor/Herceptin combo more time (I agree, I haven’t even finished my first box of 5 mg pills). My pulmonologist opted to pull my plueryx drain in my left lung, I was only emptying a tiny pocket of fluid every couple of days (50 mL). This did mean I could get out on the water during our vacation (bonus!), but he did see about 500 mL in my right lung that he will drain when I get home, it had dried up when I was on Navelbine for 2 whole months, I celebrated and then boom, it’s ba-ack.
I am wrestling with the symptoms I get only when my brain mets are acting up.
It helps me to feel alive when I have a trip to plan and look forward to. After our Marathon Key adventure is over, my hope is to go to the Living Beyond Breast Cancer Conference in Philadelphia. I am saddened by how many friendly faces won’t be there. Several because they died in the past year. My heart had broken with each death. The two main local people that I knew passed away what feels like way too fast, many friends all over the U.S. passed away unexpectedly. Mothers, fathers, daughters, cousins – we are all still dying. Don’t let the media fool you by coating everything in pink. Please consider donating to METAvivor.
