Big change of plans...
It's been very expensive for us auto wise this past week. First off, when I went out to go to my doc appointment last Thursday my car was dead, it had ceased to be. By the time I was finally able to get Geico out to jump it I was too late for my appointment so I had to cancel it. Since I was up and dressed any way I went to run a couple of errands, carefully making sure I didn't turn it off for the over 25 minutes like he suggested. When I went to start it up, it was dead again. That meant I had to go to AutoZone after they got it started again. Thankfully my alternator was okay but, my battery was shot, it wasn't holding a charge. So, $223.09 later I had a new battery and wiper blades for my faithful 2004 Honda CVR.
Then, I had to make an appointment for Lee's car because it had started making an awful grinding noise whenever he had to use the brakes. We took it in on Monday to be fixed. All four brake pads had to be replaced so that was another fast $519.21 that we couldn't afford. The nice thing was that he let me postdate for the 31st, when we got paid again, otherwise we didn't have it in our account to pay them. All this was happening on top of everything else going on and was horrible timing. I've had no time and not a lot of energy but I have to somehow get stuff sold just to keep us in the black and not overdrawn at the bank. Even with not paying some of our bills it'll be way too tight.
There's been no surgery scheduled for my breast and there won't be for a while. Everything changed after they had their team meeting to present my case. Which meant an outpatient visit to Audubon Hospital to have Dr. Saving place my med port two weeks ago Wednesday. It went really well considering how my Lupus normally attacks any wound I get. The pain is very tolerable and its healed well.
I started targeted chemo therapy today, Taxol, paired with Immunology drugs Perjeta and Herceptin for my HER-2 Positive tumor. Plus, I got a pre-treatment cocktail of Pepcid, Dexamethasone and Kytril to help with any nausea that might occur. My appointment ran from 10am until 4:45pm so it was a very long day. One down, eleven more to go!
I met with my oncologist, Dr. Driscoll, before my port placement. I like him. He's worked with Cancer patients with Lupus before. I'll be getting low dose treatments every week lo decrease the chance of my Lupus going haywire. I'll also be receiving the two immunology drugs, every third week. Right now, they plan on twelve weeks of chemo and up to a year on the immunology drugs. There’s a chance I won’t have to have breast surgery if I respond to the drugs like they hope and it shrinks the tumor. In all the studies I’ve read, the great news is that the weekly low dose treatments are just as effective as the three-week blast dose with much, much less destructive side effects. I'll still lose my hair but, hopefully a lot of the other problems like nausea, lowered white blood cells, neuropathy, won't be as bad.
I plan to keep myself as healthy and strong as I can and will kick this Cancer’s butt! I have a lot of things in my favor. My lymph nodes look normal in ultrasound, all my scans and labs look great. Last Wednesday I had a full Body scan plus CT scans with contrast of my Lungs, abdomen and pelvic area. All of them came back free of Metastatic activity. They showed the damage from my Lupus but no Cancer, thank goodness!
I'm going to try my best to be more active here, to use this as a true memory box for what happens next. I know that having friends to talk to will be a huge, huge help. I also know I’m incredibly lucky as I go through this. I’m surrounded by amazing friends, family and tons of love in my life. I will beat this!
*hugs* You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)
Then, I had to make an appointment for Lee's car because it had started making an awful grinding noise whenever he had to use the brakes. We took it in on Monday to be fixed. All four brake pads had to be replaced so that was another fast $519.21 that we couldn't afford. The nice thing was that he let me postdate for the 31st, when we got paid again, otherwise we didn't have it in our account to pay them. All this was happening on top of everything else going on and was horrible timing. I've had no time and not a lot of energy but I have to somehow get stuff sold just to keep us in the black and not overdrawn at the bank. Even with not paying some of our bills it'll be way too tight.
There's been no surgery scheduled for my breast and there won't be for a while. Everything changed after they had their team meeting to present my case. Which meant an outpatient visit to Audubon Hospital to have Dr. Saving place my med port two weeks ago Wednesday. It went really well considering how my Lupus normally attacks any wound I get. The pain is very tolerable and its healed well.
I started targeted chemo therapy today, Taxol, paired with Immunology drugs Perjeta and Herceptin for my HER-2 Positive tumor. Plus, I got a pre-treatment cocktail of Pepcid, Dexamethasone and Kytril to help with any nausea that might occur. My appointment ran from 10am until 4:45pm so it was a very long day. One down, eleven more to go!
I met with my oncologist, Dr. Driscoll, before my port placement. I like him. He's worked with Cancer patients with Lupus before. I'll be getting low dose treatments every week lo decrease the chance of my Lupus going haywire. I'll also be receiving the two immunology drugs, every third week. Right now, they plan on twelve weeks of chemo and up to a year on the immunology drugs. There’s a chance I won’t have to have breast surgery if I respond to the drugs like they hope and it shrinks the tumor. In all the studies I’ve read, the great news is that the weekly low dose treatments are just as effective as the three-week blast dose with much, much less destructive side effects. I'll still lose my hair but, hopefully a lot of the other problems like nausea, lowered white blood cells, neuropathy, won't be as bad.
I plan to keep myself as healthy and strong as I can and will kick this Cancer’s butt! I have a lot of things in my favor. My lymph nodes look normal in ultrasound, all my scans and labs look great. Last Wednesday I had a full Body scan plus CT scans with contrast of my Lungs, abdomen and pelvic area. All of them came back free of Metastatic activity. They showed the damage from my Lupus but no Cancer, thank goodness!
I'm going to try my best to be more active here, to use this as a true memory box for what happens next. I know that having friends to talk to will be a huge, huge help. I also know I’m incredibly lucky as I go through this. I’m surrounded by amazing friends, family and tons of love in my life. I will beat this!
*hugs* You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)