This past week was full of dr appts. It can be quite exhausting......you wonder where your day went and why you are so tired. Not exactly how I choose to spend my time, but, unfortunately necessary.
I stared out the week bright and early Monday morning with an appt for for a blood draw to run labs for my cancer naturopath. Mark took the kids to school so I could get there early. Unfortunately, there was a problem with one of the codes for the tests so they wouldn't do any of them. My dr office was not open that early to call and confirm so I had to come back another day. Frustrating!
Later than Monday morning I was off to the dentist for a routine exam & cleaning. My check-up went well. My gums are healing well and are not so sensitive. Chemo takes a toll on your teeth and gums. Another lovely side-effect. There were many weeks during treatment that I could not brush my teeth because the gums were so sore. Flossing was not even an option....ouch! Thankfully I'm getting back on track. My dentist was pretty impressed with my turnaround since December. Hooray!
After the dentist visit, I went for my weekly Herceptin IV cocktail, but this week I would see my onc before infusion. I see her about every 6 weeks. I asked her when I can expect to get my port out. She said I can get it out immediately after my last treatment. Which should be sometime around Thanksgiving. I'm tentatively planning to get it out in December.......what a fabulous present that would be!!! I would like to have it out before we hike the Grand Canyon around New Years. It's a quick out-patient procedure and I would go back to my surgeon who put it in. We also talked about my hair......it's growing like crazy in case you haven't seen me lately. And VERY curly! Wow! But about once a week my hair hurts. It's similar to the feeling I had when it was falling out.....very sensitive to the touch.....wearing a hat is tough. My onc said this is common, especially in people who had pain when the hair fell out. The hair follicles are rebuilding and working hard to regrow hair. They go through cycles as they get back to normal. Funny stuff you learn! At least this explains why my hair hurts!
On Wednesday, I went to my dermatologist for my 6 month whole body scan. Everything looks fine. I told her I noticed a flare up in acne in the last 2 months. She said the absence of ovaries will do lots of "fun" things to my skin including acne, dark spots, dry patches, tags, etc. Oh, I can hardly wait! Yipeeeee!
On Friday, I went to see my naturopath who is helping me with women's issues. She's wonderful. Since I saw her last, I had 2 tests. One is called an NTx which measures how fast I'm losing or turning over calcium. My number was well within the normal range. This is good news. Since I no longer have ovaries, I'm at risk for early onset of osteoporosis if I don't keep close tabs on my numbers. The next step is to get a DEXA (bone density scan) to have a baseline of my current bone health. I'll work on getting that done after summer. I might need to wrestle with my insurance since I'm a bit young for typical coverage. The other test I had done was an Adrenal stress index to check my levels of cortisol production through out a typical day. Mine were slightly out of range......a bit too high first thing in the morning dropped too sharply by noon. Why do we care about my cortisol and adrenals? In the absence of ovaries producing estrogen, the adrenals will take over and produce the hormones to compensate. This may put a drain on the adrenals causing low energy & hot flash symptoms of menopause. I'm having some very minor hot flashes.....nothing crazy. She recommended a supplement to help support the adrenals. I'll try it and see if I notice a difference.
Next week will be light with dr appts........labs on Tuesday morning and Herceptin later that morning. I'm moving to a Tuesday because of the holiday, then to a Wednesday in 2 weeks. It's pretty flexible when I get it as long as it's about 7 days apart.
I pulled a muscle in my lower back that has sidelined me a bit. It's getting better, just requires time and patience.......which I don't have enough of. I hope to run tomorrow. I have a half marathon on my radar for November and a sprint tri on July 4th.
Later, srb
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