Third Chemo

Chemo update

I was hooked up to IV for almost six hours. Dr. G. was willing to lower the dosage of one of the chemo drugs and the steroids and benedryl. I am hopeful it will still do what it needs to do without other undesirable side effects, both short- and long-term.

CA-125

BTW, my CA-125 was 115 today, down a little bit from 10 days ago. Maybe the mistletoe IV has already been working a little. Dr. W. said it would likely be too early for that though. Still… going down!

Dad

My dad drove me down today. It’s nice to catch up. He had to be at my house early this a.m.! At least the sun had already been up for an hour at that point! Ahhh, June!

Surgery

So it sounds like surgery will be the end of June, hopefully. I had misunderstood, or it hadn’t been well explained, but I thought Dr. G. had said it would be one week after chemo. What his nurse Melissa clarified today was that it would be one week after the full three week chemo cycle. And after a CT scan.

I would like to have it done before the end of June as my health insurance plan year ends then, and otherwise my deductible will kick in right off the bat. I suppose there are pros and cons to that. Anyone have experience with such a thing? Please comment below.

Energy Work

I have had the luxury of having energy work done for me here at the cancer infusion center. The same woman, Deb, has been available all the three times. She does Healing Touch but I’m also aware of and have experienced Reiki and Jin Shin. Very comforting at the very least. Moving the flow of energy in an Eastern sense. Good stuff.

Genetics

There has been a long falderall about getting the genetic testing for the BRCA genes. Suffice it to say health insurance will not pay for the test unless I have a genetic counseling appointment and things have been getting in the way of that. So it worked for said counselor to see me here today. There is not much history of breast or ovarian, or ANY cancer for that matter, in my family. My great grandmother, Elizabeth, on my father’s father’s side died relatively young of breast cancer. And my first cousin, Shelly, on my mom’s side had some sort of abdominal cancer a few years ago which unfortunately killed her, which the doctors had never seen before and they thought maybe it was a varient of endometrial cancer.

I would have thought I’d have a much higher chance of rheumatoid arthritis, and I have already fended it off with dietary change, most notably avoiding wheat.

Which brings me to my point: epigenetics shows that just because you have a gene doesn’t mean it has to express itself. There are a lot of controllable variables in lifestyle change, etc. In fact, these variables may even turn back off a gene that had been turned on. Or vice versa. In this case, it sounds like the BRCA genes normally work to prevent tumors, but if they have mutated, they are turned off when they shouldn’t be.

So, in any case, I don’t feel threatened, but will be interested to see the results.

Headed Home Now

Beautiful day! Thanks, Dad!