Tuesday, September 9, 2014

It's back

So mid-August, I started feeling a little off, almost like I had a UTI, and I made an appointment with my primary care physician. I saw Dr. Taylor on the 15th of August and she ran a urine test which came back inconclusive, so she ran a more specific one that was also inconclusive, and then ran a culture to rule out any infection.
By Sunday, the 17th, I was feeling worse so I went into Urgent Care where they ran an array of blood work and ordered an x-ray. The blood work showed elevated liver counts (ALT and AST) and the x-ray showed that I was slightly constipated. They also ruled out gallstones, kidney stones and any type of infection.
I had my regularly scheduled follow-up CT scan on 8/20 and a regularly scheduled appointment with my oncologist, Dr. Miller on the 25th.
The CT scan showed that there were more lesions on my liver and that my liver was enlarged. This enlargement is what is causing the pressure and discomfort in my abdomen.
At my appointment on the 25th, Dr. Miller ordered another liver biopsy to see if the lesions were cancerous, Dr. Miller gave me a prescription of Norco to help with the pain.
By the evening of the 26th, I was in such severe pain (even on Norco), I had Sam take me to the ER. There they put me on morphine. which took the edge off the pain (didn't get rid of it), so they gave me dilaudid which helped the pain go away. They performed an ultra-sound that showed the same thing as the CT scan and sent me home with a prescription for extended release morphine.
The morphine pretty much wiped me out completely for a week and caused my constipation to worsen, which did not help the abdominal pressure at all.
On September 3rd, I had my liver biopsy where they took four samples this time around. I have a severe bruise in the spot.
On the 5th in the afternoon, Dr. Miller called me to inform me that indeed my cancer is back. This means that I have stage IV Breast Cancer. This is not a new cancer but the return of the breast cancer to my liver. Chances are that the last time when my biopsies came back negative it was because the chemo I was on had stopped the growth, once off the chemo, the lesions were able to continue growing hence why it seemed to recur so quickly (3 months)
When I saw Dr. Miller on the 8th he started me on an oral chemo, Xeloda, which I began taking last night. This will involve me taking 4 pills with a meal in the morning and 4 pills with a meal in the evening. With recurrence, they will try to be more direct and try one chemo at a time since with the liver there will be no getting rid of the cancer completely, just shrinking and prolonging life. As of right now my prognosis is 2-3 years.
At Monday's appointment Dr. Miller also ordered an ultrasound guided drain of fluid and referred me to palliative care.
Today (Tuesday 9/9) I had my ultrasound appointment, unfortunately it found that there were no significant pockets of fluid to drain, but I did see that my liver is taking up over half of my insides (which explains why I look 5-6 months pregnant.
Tomorrow (Wednesday 9/10) I will have my appointment with palliative care. Their focus will be to help me manage my pain and the other side effects with the hope of making me more comfortable.
I know this is a lot of information, which is why it has taken me a while to update. I've had lots of great texts and e-mails from you I'm not ignoring you, but it is a little overwhelming trying to keep up especially when I am trying to stay awake to spend time with Ellie and Cora which is difficult given my discomfort level. I will be trying to keep my blog updated as much as possible. Thanks again for all the offers of help and support.

7 comments:

  1. Oh my dear, precious Meg, I am so, so sorry to hear this news. I don't even know what to say except I feel so sad right now. You are such an amazing woman and an inspiration to so many, but I know that this has to be heartbreaking for you and your family. Our God is so gracious, merciful and mighty and I pray that His will for you is 100% healing. That is what I will continue to pray for my friend. Love and hugs, Chris

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meg, my heart is so very heavy for you right now. I can not even begin to imagine what and how you are feeling. I do know that our God, the almighty healer and God above all Gods has YOU! All of you! My prayer will be very specific for you .. Everyday...

    ReplyDelete
  3. best wishs for you meg to get well -eat lots of honey

    ReplyDelete
  4. May Gods light and blessings be on iou and your young family

    ReplyDelete
  5. I do not know you, I just only saw this post. I do, however know how strong my God is. Only HE knows how long you have on this Earth. Stay strong. I pray for you, your family and your comfort.

    God Bless,
    Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  6. How I became a happy woman again
    With tears of joy and happiness i am giving out my testimony to all viewers on line, my problem with Stomach Cancer stage IB has caused me many pains and sadness especially in my family.
    I was so afraid of loosing my life, I suffered the embarrassment of visiting
    therapy hundreds of times, unfortunately they did not find a definitive solution to my problem, I cried all day and night, do I have to live my life this way? I searched all true the internet for care, I was scammed by internet fraudsters times without numbers… until a friend of mine who stays in the UK introduced me to a friend of hers who was cured of the same disease, and she introduced me to Dr Itua who cured her from Breast Cancer by this email/WhatsApp +2348149277967, drituaherbalcenter@gmail.com. I contacted him and he promised that all will be fine and I had faith.He send me his herbnal medicines through Courier servcie and i was instructed on how to drink it for three weeks to cure,I followed the instruction given to me and Today am a happy woman again. He cures all kind of diseases like__Brain cancer,Gestational trophoblastic disease,Head and neck cancer,Ovarian cancer,Hodgkin lymphoma,Herpes,,Liver cancer,Throat cancer,
    Syndrome Fibrodysplasia Ossificans ProgresSclerosis,Alzheimer's disease,Chronic Diarrhea,Copd,Parkinson,Als,Adrenocortical carcinoma Infectious mononucleosis.
    Intestinal cancer,Thyroid Cancer,Uterine cancer,Fibroid,Angiopathy, Ataxia,Arthritis,Amyotrophic Lateral Scoliosis,Brain Tumor,Fibromyalgia,Fluoroquinolone ToxicityBladder cancer,Hiv,Esophageal cancer,Gallbladder cancer,Kidney cancer,Hpv,Lung cancer,Melanoma,Mesothelioma,Multiple myeloma,Neuroendocrine tumors
    Non-Hodgkin lymphoma,Oral cancer,Sinus cancer,Hepatitis A,B/C,Skin cancer,Soft tissue sarcoma,Spinal cancer,Stomach cancer,Vaginal cancer,Vulvar cancer,
    Testicular cancer,Tach Diseases,Leukemia.

    ReplyDelete