Scattered Thoughts . . .

A s if having the COVID virus for a month now isn't enough, I'm also developing various secondary health problems. First, I developed a sinus infection.  Since I was still struggling with active COVID including fever, I needed to stay in quarantine so that I wouldn't infect my whole primary care practice.  This meant that when I thought I was developing a sinus infection, I had to resort to a televisit meeting with my doctor.  Since I was just video chatting with my doctor this meant that she couldn't examine me for additional problems and only had my descriptive assessment of symptoms to form a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment plan.   There was no doubt that she was right in that I was suffering from a sinus infection.  That was obvious by the symptoms.  Unfortunately, we are now thinking there were more serious underlying problems as well that had yet to show any symptoms. I got up yesterday morning at around 5am.  I hardly slept through the night mostly due to bei

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

We were back at the hospital today...  back in Oncology...  and back seeing Sheila's surgical Oncologist.   On the drive up to the hospital, Sheila and I were talking about being unsure of where our emotions are at this point in her treatment.  In the beginning, it was a bit of a roller coaster ride of emotions. Then, for a long while, especially during the months of daily visits, we were definitely a bit numb.  It was like we were on auto-pilot and just going through the motions...  one step at a time.  Then we had another roller coaster ride during her last treatment stage which included an ambulance ride to the ER.  Neither one of us is quite sure about where we are at now.  I think we're just bit weary of hospital visits.   So we headed back up to Burlington today to spend some time in the Breast Care Center at UVM Medical Center... Today's visit, fortunately, was uneventful.  Sheila's imaging looks good so that is good news.  There is no swelling anymore,

For those following this blog, you know that Sheila has been in treatment for her second bout with breast cancer.  Additionally, this time around, the cancer had spread to her lymphatic system too.  She has been through successful surgery to remove the cancer (well...  this was actually her third cancer surgery), aggressive radiation therapy and, at this point, 13 months of ten years of drug therapy targeting her specific form of cancer in order to minimize the chance of recurrence.  More importantly, as many of you already know, Sheila has been having a very difficult time with the first 13 months of this drug therapy...  although I suspect few know just how much this long-term treatment has affected her quality of life.   Sheila's problems with this drug treatment have been so difficult and so severe that she has been to the ER.  Even the ER doctors were visibly concerned and a bit shaken because the initial thoughts were that perhaps her cancer had spread to her brain.  I k

I just thought I'd write a quick update on Sheila's treatment problems.   After the ER visit a few weeks ago, Sheila's Oncology team decided that the significant symptoms she was experiencing were probably not due to her new treatment drug.  Since they were fairly certain that the treatment wasn't presenting these significant symptoms as side effects of the treatment drug, we came up with a plan to get back on the treatment plan and give it a shot again. Unfortunately, Sheila was back on this particular treatment drug only two days before one of the significant symptoms appeared again... and now it is only a week later and both of the significant symptoms that landed her in the ER are back again. At this point, we're both quite certain that these are actually side effects of her cancer treatment and they are far too severe to be tolerated for a long term treatment plan. Right now, these symptoms are more mild than the first time around but it is still only a m

After Sheila's terribly rough night (and frightening) and middle-of-the-night ambulance ride to the hospital almost two weeks ago, we had a couple of follow-up medical appointments. Those are out of the way now but a few more appointments are scheduled for the next eight weeks or so.  (Plus, a few appointments for myself in those same eight weeks for diagnostics and treatment for my own serious health issues... this is a couple of months neither one of us are looking forward to.)  To refresh everyone's memory... Sheila is in treatment and still under constant medical care after her second fight (in ten years) with breast cancer. She has another nine years of treatment to go this time around and it has been rather rough going thus far. Honestly, if we were to compare her treatment today to treatments two+ decades ago, what she is experiencing is... let's say mediocre... by comparison. That being said, her quality of life has been rather low regardless. Sheila is ol

I had another medical appointment yesterday for my own health issues... some bloodwork... some shots... some discussions and advice... and now being referred to some of my usual specialists and one new specialist. When I got back home from my appointment, I was looking over my notes and a little bit of paperwork they sent home with me... I have to say that it is a bit disconcerting to come home from a medical appointment with paperwork spread across your coffee table and one of the documents is for an "Advanced Directive for Health Care". That being said, I have a feeling that quite a few patients are being sent home with this paperwork today. I hope so, anyway. Then again, my health is rather poor and it is in appointments such as this when just how poor my health truly is becomes a bit more obvious.  I left this long appointment with three more appointments. My experience with scheduling specialist appointments is that these appointments won't be behind me until we

Sheila's followup appointment with the surgeon was the other day so we were back at The Breast Care Center at the hospital. Sheila still has weekly appointments for her ongoing treatment plus daily therapy to do but the followup appointments at The Breast Care Center are slowing down.  As expected, Sheila is healing well. Her lymphedema looks good which means it is no worse than what is "normal" for patients in similar situations...    scarring is minimal and healing nicely...   and she is beginning to regain some of her energy. This newfound energy is in spurts at this point but it is some very welcomed energy after months of exhaustion and seemingly nothingness in her life.  Life sort of stood still for many months during treatment... and, in hindsight, feels a bit like it was a whirlwind at times. But, this was a period which we both see as nothingness and blackness on our calendar.  The imaging was normal so that is great. There is some fluid where the tumor

Back in August, when Sheila was first diagnosed with this latest cancer, she received a lot of love and attention from all her friends, family and co-workers. Visitors and telephone calls were very common during this period and it was all very much appreciated not only by Sheila but by me as well. Besides, we needed some social interaction and, actually, still do very much. The social interaction is a nice break from the seriousness of cancer and we don't get much social interaction since the cancer has returned. Although Sheila had changed jobs a year ago, her old co-workers all got together to provide a card and some much needed cash to help with any of our expenses. That was definitely appreciated by both of us. Thank you, everyone, for that! Around the same time, Sheila's old boss from her old job called to ask what she could do for us. Wilhelmina has always been very thoughtful and a supervisor anyone would want to have on their side so her question came as no surprise

Heading back to Radiation Oncology... she looks as though she is walking with some purpose, doesn't she? I'm very far behind in blog entries as well as being very far behind in accomplishing things that need to be done around the house so it is time to try to put together a few blog entries in an attempt to doing some catching up.  My health over the past couple of months has been rather poor, generally speaking. As a result, I feel as though nothing has been accomplished since before Sheila's cancer diagnosis... so, nothing really has been accomplished since around the time of our time at the lake house last summer... and that's a loonnnngggg time! We had a short break in Sheila's treatment from Thanksgiving until the first week of January. This was a much needed break for both of us but not nearly long enough. Now we are back into hospital visits and medical appointments a couple of times each week. Unfortunately, I'm still exhausted! Sheila feels th

At this point, Sheila is most of the way through the final homestretch in her radiation treatment and she's quite excited... and fatigued... and burned... but mostly  experiencing subdued excitement punctuated by occasional outbursts of excitement! So, to quickly update, at this point she's experiencing some relatively minor pain in the tissue of her right breast. The burned skin and itching has been  mostly   soothed through the use of various lotions (including prescription). On the positive side, the Radiation Oncologist was happy to see in today's visit that Sheila is not showing any signs of blistering and there are only tiny signs of some peeling. So that is good news. Sheila already went through some peeling when radiation treatment first started. She is now quite red at this point though. Well... some areas are a deep, bright red while other areas are showing what appears to be a deep tan.  Sheila needs to endure only two more radiation treatments... tomorrow

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

Another lunch in the hospital cafe. Sheila has moved into a new stage of side effects. This new stage of side effects has appeared only about a week before she moves into a new stage of radiation treatment. More on the additional change in treatment another time because I want to write about the current issue... burning, peeling and itching. At this point in radiation treatment, Sheila's skin is showing some burns. She has already been showing signs of a "tan" for weeks and we have known that the tissue beneath the skin has been getting irritated but now she's getting into burn territory.  Sheila has been a little bit swollen since her surgery and the radiation isn't really allowing the swelling to go down. She had already been feeling "tender" in the tissue under the skin and that continues to slowly worsen. Sheila says it isn't bad but it is obvious by her guarded reactions to things that she does feel tender in various areas.  The other

The rooftop garden at the hospital... the cafe's fresh vegetables are grown here. We began our week feeling positive and energized which was awesome because this is the first time we began a week in this way in months. Sheila had about five days off in a row so she could catch up on sleep and continue to recover from her recent surgery, the beginning of radiation treatment and a terrible cold that developed at a very inopportune time. By the fifth day of rest, naps, and recovery, Sheila was acting more like herself and showing a bit more energy so our week started off with both of us feeling great! The one danger of feeling great during a long and trying period of treatment is that it is very easy to overdo it by doing more than the body can handle over the next few days. We were both careful about keeping each other in check because we are already well versed in managing energy due to my own continuous health issues. That being said, it is now Thursday and we are running