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Showing posts with the label breast

Sheila's Last Oncology Follow-up

S heila and I recently headed up to Burlington for another visit to Oncology at The University of Vermont Medical Center.  This time, however, our visit was for Sheila's last follow-up appointment after five years of treatment for her latest bout of breast cancer so it turned out to be a good visit because this visit marked a definitive end to this long five year period of our lives.   The doctor did some ultrasound imaging of Sheila's breast and thoroughly examined her.  Everything looked good!  The discussion with the oncologist included diet, exercise, acupuncture targeting Sheila's specific cancer issues, and how this post-treatment care works.  The doctor made it clear that Sheila isn't being dropped completely.  If she has any problems whatsoever, she can call and get back in to see someone on her oncology team.  This latest course of treatment is behind her now though so we're hoping for a nice long break from this stuff.   Although some cancer was found in s

Last Phase of Radiation Treatment

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Today, Sheila moved into her last phase of radiation treatment.  Well... Sheila thought this same thing 11 years ago (her  last phase) but here we are again.  Sheila is now in her Boost Phase of radiation treatment and she is pretty happy about that! This last phase is a "boost" of radiation to only the area of the tumor. Up until today, she had been getting radiation to the entire right side of her chest... from the lymph nodes under her armpit to the center of her chest. Now, she is getting one focused beam of radiation to just the area of her tumor for seven treatments. The good thing about this Boost Phase is that most of the tissue and skin that has been burned and irritated over the past 26 treatments will now be able to heal without additional radiation making this large area worse. Sheila is definitely happy about this news. The itching, burning and peeling was getting pretty rough for a bit. Now, these last seven radiation treatments will be focused to a r

The Biopsy

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The following morning after we sat down with the doctor to discuss the results of Sheila's mammogram and ultrasound imaging, we were headed back to the hospital for a biopsy. Sheila has been down this road before. Her first biopsy was 11 years ago, then surgery, radiation, chemo and the years of follow-up testing, imaging and exams. But, this morning, we were back at square one again. I have to say that it was not a pleasant feeling to be back at square one again. We both were so anxious that we thought we couldn't eat. We sat down to eat but we both commented that we had no desire for food whatsoever. The funny thing is... once we started eating, we pretty much finished our meals. I think the food absorbed some of the stomach acid being pumped into our empty stomachs due to our nerves. We felt a bit better after eating. On the drive to the hospital this morning our conversation changed from a pep talk type of thing giving positive reinforcement to someone who has already

A Significant Increase in Hospital Visits

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I've said this countless times before, with my voice and on this blog, but I'll remind everyone anyway... Just because a cancer patient may appear to be cancer-free at any given moment, this in no way means the patient "beat cancer" or, an even sillier notion, "kicked cancer's ass".   The fact is... and, yes, this is a fact and not just my opinion... that cancer patients have a significantly higher incidence of a recurrence of cancer compared to the incidence of a person who has never had cancer getting cancer for the first time. Until there is a true cure for cancer, the statistics show that the cancer patient is only buying time in getting beyond the first occurrence of cancer.  Unfortunately, the time that Sheila bought (or perhaps "earned") by getting beyond her first occurrence of cancer is suddenly up.  This all started last week, Sheila and I traveled up to Burlington last week for a mammogram. This is a standard, typical, repet

Two Months of More Cancer Worries

As many readers already know, not only do I struggle with a debilitating and incurable illness but Sheila has had breast cancer and continues to deal with all sorts of things related to that. I don't often write about Sheila's journey through cancer on this blog but, today, it is worth mentioning here since she has (we have) had a rough couple of months.  Sheila has been what is referred to as "cancer free" for almost a decade but the lingering symptoms, constant appointments, tests, exams, and anxiously awaiting lab results... on pins and needles... never ends. Our past two months have been like this... yet again. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, Sheila has lingering problems related to her cancer and cancer treatment as do virtually all cancer patients but some patients have it worse than others. Since a cancer patient will always be a high risk cancer patient because history has proven that those with cancer once are far more likely to develop new