Mixed Results

I do love a dahlia

I've been so busy living my regular life that I haven't written in a while. 

There hasn't been much to report lately. The navelbine chemo treatment I started a couple of months ago has been pretty easy and life's been smooth. I've been busy with work, and there's plenty to do at home and with friends this summer.

CT Scan

I had a CT scan to check on things yesterday, and the results are mixed.

The good news: Several of the liver mets are smaller. Yay! I haven't had this kind of good news since November.

The not-so-good news: The cancerous spots in my bones are larger and there are more of them. I don't even have a specific number. Let's call it several to many. They are in different places in my pelvis, spine and one in a femur.

The mystery: There's a spot in my lung that could be cancer but it's too small to tell. It's larger than it was in the last scan.

I don't have any pain. I'm very grateful for that. So all in all, it could be worse.

And it could be better.

The Plan

I will stay on this navelbine treatment for another two rounds (about six weeks) and then have another CT scan. Hopefully the liver mets will still be shrinking.

My oncologist says that especially as cancer spreads to other areas it may not all be responsive to the same treatment. She decided since it's very important to keep the liver mets under control, and that the navelbine has been doing that, we'll continue with it even though it is not shrinking the bone mets.

At the dahlia garden at my favorite park. You know, the one with the Conservatory!

How I'm Doing

Scan and results days are never fun ones. So my week so far has not been the greatest. But overall, I'm doing very well. The past nine months are some of the best in my life, and they've also been some of the hardest. Funny how it works that way.

I haven't been asking for much help lately for several reasons. One is that I've been feeling good most of the time, so asking for help feels strange. Another is that as long as I don't ask for help I can tell myself how well I'm doing and then that's not so depressing. And yet another is that even with the Helping Hands website up to make it easy, I still don't find it easy. I'll work on that.

In the meantime, we're going on a vacation in about 10 days to San Francisco, and I'm really looking forward to that. We're going to spend Labor Day weekend on a nearby island with old friends,  I've got a weekend lined up in September with my two BFFs from college, and time with sisters-in-law here right after that. It's always good to have fun stuff on the calendar!

I hope you are having a wonderful summer, and I'll keep you posted.