IT"S WORKING--HALLELUJAH!!

I'll jump right to the exciting conclusion . . . THE CHEMO IS WORKING!! 

I cannot begin to describe how elated and relieved I am--it is a state of being unlike any I have experienced before.  Thank you, universe. Thank you science. Thank you biopharmaceutical companies. Thank you Dr. S and team. Thank you to everyone who prayed and cared, and sent good karma muy way. Thank you to dentists BS& SD for first discovering something that turned out to be nothing but led to many tests and scans that caught my breast cancer recurrence in the earliest possible phase of stage 4, prior to any symptoms or further metastaseses.  ( I still need to write about the roller coaster ride and finding of this cancer.  soon, soon.) 

WHEW! I can breathe again.  (Feel free to stop reading now, or to go on, if you want more detail about the the catscan process, specific findings, next steps medically, and what I ate and drank today. )

The biggest decision of the day was whether to have the long-awaited pancakes before or after the scan.  Ph and I decided to save the pancake trip til after the scan--just in case . .  (I mean, what if the results were that a tumor the size and shape of a pancake is sitting in my stomach? I don't want anyone confusing pancakes with cancer. ) BTW, big brother (Bro) mentioned that he didn't really "get" the pancakes/scancakes thing . .  and was wondering if it was perhaps little sister's (me) cleverly disguised name for a new-fangled diagnostic.  Bro is one of the smartest people I know (I mean, the guy studies tax law and calculus just for fun), so perhaps I should clarify for other readers: the pancakes are just pancakes.  I have been craving them. Scan day seemed like the perfect day for a pancake outing--something to look forward to, while otherwise being quite anxious about (aka terrified by) the possible scan results.  

At 11 am, I drank a barium sulfate suspension, berry smoothie flavor, at home.  This was provided by Sibley hospital, and picked up last week by BFF D, as I was booked solid with doctors, dentists, visits to another hospital, and pedicures.  BFF D--you are the best! (How many friends are talented and generous enough to provide art for one's walls and one's blog, cook delicious salmon dinners, pick up barium drinks, and accompany one to blood-fusion?  Not many!) Sibley Hospital sent the 450 mL drink in a brown paper bag, including instructions and waiver of liability forms, and even a straw--which I thought was a nice touch.) Here's a pic:

Oh no! I just saw on the label that it said to "shake well prior to use", and I dont think I did!  Oh, well, I probably ran around my house enough for it to get shaken. Seriously, what does this delicious smoothie do?  It coats the lining of my esophagus, stomach, and related GI body parts, so they can be seen more clearly in the CT Scan.

At 1 pm, we arrived at Sibley Hospital, and they gave me another berry smoothie to drink.  How generous of them!  Then I went back for the scan.  CT Tech M told me to leave most of my clothes on . .  "just take off your bra", and "in the scan room you can pull your jeans down a bit".  (What? What kind of place is this?) It is a pretty quick procedure--takes only about 5 minutes of actual test time.  A petscan is much more involved--and provides more detailed information--but insurance providers these days much prefer the catscan, and make patients really work hard to justify a petscan.  If the results today had been inconclusive, I might have had a follow-up petscan.  BUT THEY'RE NOT--the results are EXCELLENT! 

Ph and I then headed to the nearest Pancake House, which had plenty of available tables at 2 pm. on a Tuesday. The nice waiter suggested the Strawberry Pancakes, as they come with fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and fresh strawberry syrup.  Yum. I checked the menu--in Montgomery County, MD, restaurants are required to post calorie content--and the Strawberry Pancakes have a whopping 1110 calories!  Could I actually order that? Yes, I could. Even the healthier sounding pancake options had 900+ calories, so why not? Well, here's the reason for that monstrous calorie content:

These pancakes could feed a family of four in the Congo (poorest country in the world, I googled) for a week. They were delicious, but I surrendered, leaving my plate half full. And yes, I got a to-go box, rather than being wasteful. 

From Pancake House, next stop: Dr. S.  We waited a long time to see him, but it was totally worth it.  He said "sorry to keep you waiting so long for your good news". WOW. A slice of heaven.  IT'S WORKING! The friggin chemo is working!! The CT scan showed that all 4 cancer "spots" are about 50% smaller than they were in November!  And, the CA 27-29 tumor marker also shows less cancer activity in my body.  YES! I can handle the fatigue; I can handle the bone pain; I can handle the tummy aches; I can handle it all if it is working.  Bring it on! I may surrender to a huge plate of pancakes, but I will not surrender to cancer or the drudgeries of treatment.

So, chemo cycle #4 begins on Thursday.  More of the same. I will have 3 cycles--hopefully ending in mid-April--and hopefully followed by a petscan. And then we'll see what the universe presents next.

Here's to making all of those nasty cancer spots--in me and too many others--smaller and smaller and smaller, until it all disappears.

CDiva