It's Been One Heck of a Year!

This post might be the hardest one I’ve had to write. I should be celebrating that I am almost through my cancer journey. I should be getting ready for my reconstruction surgery. I should be getting ready to move on.

It was this time last year that I was getting ready for the mammogram to see what this newfound lump was all about. I kept this secret just between the Hubs and I. I didn’t want to say anything if it all turned out to be nothing. There was no need to make a fuss yet. Little did I know then the adventure that I was in for.

About a month ago I started the final stage of my treatment, oral chemo pills. Everything seemed to be okay, and then wham, a sinus infection hit. Thanks to all the rain in California, allergies are at an all-time high and instead of just giving me the sniffles, I got the full-blown infection. One round of antibiotics and I’m feeling better.

Then I start another the next round of chemo pills and I start having low grade fevers and chills. At first, I just racked it up to I’m still recovering from the sinus infection and restarting chemo didn’t help. Probably not a good combo, but so be it. As my temperature increased, so did my concern. The other Friday evening my temperature reached 102.3. Okay that’s high. Popped some Advil and called the chemo doc. She had me take a COVID test (negative) and then we made a plan. If my temperature reached 101 again, I needed to call her office and then head off to the emergency room. My body was nice enough to wait until Saturday, late morning before spiking another fever. Called the doc, put together a bag of snacks and power cords, texted my mom and then off to the emergency room we went.

When we got to the ER we were in luck. Nobody was there! I got checked in right away and was taken back to my private room. At this point I was also having back pain that was getting progressively worse. Getting out of bed, getting in and out of cars and standing after sitting was becoming more painful with each passing day. I figured since I was there, I would add it to my list of things to check. Everyone’s main concern was that I might be becoming septic, so a bunch of vials of blood were draw. One set from the IV line they just placed, another set from a random spot in my arm and the third set from my port. One set was sent to the lab in house, while the other two were sent off to outside labs. I got into a tiff with one of the nurses about doing the blood draw. She desperately wanted to use my left side, so we had blood from both arms, but I flat out told her no. I didn’t want to chance Lymphedema and having my arm blow up to the size of a balloon. Once she realized what was going on she finally agreed. They also tested me for COVID and the flu.

Thankfully I came back negative for COVID and flu and the blood work wasn’t showing anything concerning as it came back. They then decided to do a chest x-ray to make sure I didn’t have pneumonia. It was pretty cool, instead of having to get and go to the x-ray room, they brought the x-ray to me. It worked out well since I was hooked up to an IV for fluids. After the x-ray I asked them for some pain meds for my back. They asked if I wanted morphine. I just started laughing and said no, we can start with something not so strong. And anyone who knows me, knows that morphine has a history of making me see pick elephants. I just wasn’t up for hallucinating yet.

The ER doc came in and said that the x-ray showed a spot on my right lung that could either be pneumonia or a cyst that would need to be drained. Next up was a CT scan to see which option would be the lucky winner. They wheeled me over to the CT room and got my IV set up for the contrast dye and got me set up on the machine. The whole procedure took like 10 minutes. They wheeled me back to my room and we waited, again.

The ER doc finally came back in. The spot that they found on the x-ray wasn’t pneumonia or a cyst, it was breast cancer that went rouge and set up home on my lung. This was such a shock and kick to the gut. It was honestly the last thing that I expected them to say. My chemo doc arrived next to the ER and gave me a massive hug. We then started getting a game plan into place. A PET Scan was already scheduled for May 19, so we kept that to see what else might be going on. She then put in orders for a biopsy of the tumor on my lung and that is now scheduled for Monday, May 22. She then warned me that I will probably have to do IV chemo again. Alright, bald girl summer part 2 here we come.

The doc wanted to keep me on the chemo pills but was worried about what was causing the random fevers, so she ordered a strong antibiotic with hope it would keep them at bay. With all this cancer talk we got home, and I realized we completely forgot about my back. Advil was working to keep the pain down, but by Thursday the amount of pain I was in was unbearable. My team called in some super duty pain meds and it has taken the edge off for the most part.

I will be honest here… I am absolutely scared to my core. There is still so much left unknow. I am doing my best taking it one day at a time, but staying strong is hard.

WHAT I NEED FROM YOU… just give me a call or a text letting me know that you are thinking of me. Let’s not have our whole conversation be about me. Your kid hit a homerun, great tell me all about it. You hit a skunk with your car, not so great, but tell me more. I need to keep my life as normal as possible.

If you call to complain about the care I am receiving from my doctors, stop right there. I will not tolerate any negative talk about my care or my team of docs. You don’t like how long the test results are taking, that sucks for you. I would rather have tests that are done properly than a rush job with half ass answers.

I go tomorrow morning for the biopsy. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. As soon as I have more info I will let you all know.
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XOXO