Hello,
I decided that before I head to bed that I would send you
the message that I
promised to send about the other news with my health that I
mentioned in my
other e-mail - which is in addition to the surgery that I
had Friday to have
the growth removed from behind my right knee.
When I was at the oncologist's this past Wednesday I got the
result from the
CAT Scan and Brain MRI that I had in December. THE CAT Scan
came back
pretty decent. My metastasis (spots where my breast cancer
had spread - my
liver & also my lungs they think - it had also spread to
my bones but the
CAT Scan didn't check on that) has remained stable. It
hadn't really got
better, but stable is good news. The radiologist that read
the CAT Scan
films thought that maybe that I had pneumonia in my lung. I
am not so sure
on this as I did not have pneumonia as far as anyone knew or
any signs or
symptoms. I did have a bad cough back in October till
November, so maybe it
is possible. Who knows. But at least the CAT Scan came
back pretty decent
with no news of any spread of my cancer.
But... I did not get such great news on my repeat Brain
MRI. It was done
at the very end of December to check on the 2 (and a 3rd
very tiny spot)
that I had in the back of my brain that they had been doing
MRI's on since
October. These spots were there, but none of the doctors
were sure if they
were cancerous or not so they continued to watch them. The
spots looked the
same still in the repeat Brain MRI that I had in November,
so we were
hopeful that they were benign "nothings".
I was not so lucky this time though... I have officially
been diagnosed
with brain mets (meaning that my breast cancer has spread to
my brain). The
brain MRI showed numerous tiny new spots (not sure of the
size, but real
little) in the front & sides of my brain and the 2 spots
(& tiny 3rd spot)
in the back of my brain have doubled in sized (but they were
very small also
so they shouldn't too terribly huge yet hopefully).
Hopefully this whole
thing is not too terrible yet and not too far out of control
& the radiation
will do the trick on "zapping them".
I will start whole brain radiation therapy very, very soon -
probably this
week sometime. They wanted me to come in for an appointment
to see the
radiation therapy doctor at 9:30 am this past Friday, but
obviously I couldn
t as I was to be at a different hospital (Aultman for
surgery - not Mercy
where I will be getting radiation) prepping at that time for
my 11:00 am
surgery. Obviously I couldn't be in two places at once, so
they will have
to try to find an appointment slot for me the first part of
this week
sometime. Of course they are swamped over there &
booked up as they are
down to one doctor right now they said as the 2nd doctor is
older and on a
leave of absence right now. Just my luck, but I know they
will do their
best to squeeze me in. With my situation they have to get
me pretty soon.
I am going to Mercy this time to have my radiation therapy
instead of
Aultman, where I have always gone for most everything
including radiation.
I am doing it at Mercy this time because they do it there in
a newer method
that is 12 treatments (2 1/2 weeks) vs. 30 treatments (1
month) at Aultman.
My oncologist (Dr. Rooney) told me about that being a newer
nationwide trend
You get the same amount of radiation, but Aultman will not
do the newer
method and makes the patient come longer still. My
oncologist said that
they can not get the radiation therapy doctors at Aultman to
consider
changing, and she really feels that it is so they can get
more money out of
the patient since they make you come for a longer period of
time. She
really recommended going to Mercy to get it done faster. So
we will see how
radiation at Mercy goes. I really, really hate the idea of
having to have
whole brain radiation & am actually scared. I have
never been scared of
having to go and have radiation on any other part of my body
before.
I just hate the way radiation to the brain sounds from what
I have read on
it as far as what the side affects are. What I have read
about side affect
wise are hair loss (some may or may not be permanent - hard
to say till I go
through it), skin irritation/skin burns to the scalp &
ears, extreme fatigue
edema or swelling of the brain, when chemo & radiation
therapy are given at
the same time patients may experience more severe side
effects - and of
course I am on chemo (I don't know if they will discontinue
the chemo for a
couple weeks or not?), and finally possible: hearing
problems, nausea,
vomiting, loss of appetite, memory or speech problems &
headaches. The side
effects of radiation therapy to the brain may not occur
until two weeks
after the start of the radiation. There are also possible
complications as
well. Radiation is a powerful weapon against cancer cells,
but sometimes it
kills healthy brain tissue as well - a severe side effect
called radiation
necrosis. Necrosis can cause headaches, seizures, or even
death in a small
number of cases. However, the risk of necrosis has declined
in recent years
with the advent of the newer, targeted radiation therapies
described above
and the emergence of powerful imaging, brain mapping and
information
technologies. Other complications include: neurolgical body
function losses
and return of tumor growth.
The other option though is do nothing and the tumors will
surely continue to
grow and eventually kill me. So that is NOT an option at
all and I have to
take the whole brain radiation therapy. A lot of other
people have taken it
and survived, so I have to take the risk and get it.
Radiaiton is my only
choice at the moment tretament wise as far as the
"routine" that they follow
The next step if new spots grow is Gamma Knife, which is
how I would
rather start out with. But you can't start out with Gamma
Knife first, only
second. It is actually not cutting sugery at all, but where
they use a
highly target radiation beam and "zap" any new
tumors that grow back.
I am also back on the horrible steroids (Decadron) that made
me so sick &
caused me not to be able to sleep at all for several days
(& want to eat,
eat, eat...) when I was on them back in Oct. for the
possibility of brain
mets back when this first started. I was able to get off of
them then since
they weren't convinced that I had the brain mets then &
I got so sick from
the steroids, but have no choice to take them again know
because they
prevent brain swelling. At least my oncologist was
agreeable to cut the
dose in half. So hopefully that will help.
Please pray for me as I am so very scared about this latest
development. I
was a complete nervous wreck back in October when they
orginally thought
maybe I had brain mets, but I got over it mostly since they
weren't
convinved at that time that the spots were cancerous. Now
it is all back
again. I will just have to do what I have to do treatment
wise and try to
hang in there the best I can. I am also worried
considerably about finances
since I have not worked in 3 weeks approx. because of my
serious leg/knee
problems and now with these who knows where I will be able
to go back to
work to get any income coming back in - or if I will be even
able to go back
to work at all. And of course I don't receive a penny in
alimony or child
support from Nicholas' father. My loving mother is trying
to help carry me
through financially, as even when I do work it is only
part-time and not
enough to meet all of the bills. Well, with God's help this
will all work
out somehow I know, but it still all a huge worry &
concern obviously.
I have appreciated all of your kind words, thoughts and
prayers thus far. I
guess my need for more is not going to be ceasing anytime
soon...
Mary Meister - Ohio
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