Well, as Molly Ivins said upon hearing of her diagnosis with Inflammatory Breast Cancer, "Well, what the hell, it's been a good run." Click here to read her IBC story. I had quite a run myself there for a while. From August 23, 2005 until May 24, 2007 I was a proud member of "Club NED (no evidence of disease). Almost two years... But in May I started having severe pain in my ribs and back. The rule of thumb for me which I learned from the IBC support website is to give it a week or two and see if it goes away. To be honest, if you didn't do this, you would be at the doctor's every week, because something is always not quite right. You learn to just deal with it.
Anyway, I had a PET scan and they found some large "mets" on my ribs and spine. I had three weeks of radiation to try and shrink the large spots that were causing the pain (imagine a cracked rib) and it definitely helped although for about a week I had to resort to the heavy duty drugs. . . a rarity for me.
So now that my cancer has metastasized (spread to distant organs), I have moved from stage IIIC to stage 4. If you have ever wondered what the staging numbers mean, here is a chart and explanation from the American Cancer Society.
I started chemo last week and will continue with weekly treatments for the next 3 months. If I respond to this treatment, I should have a break then. If not, we will try something else. As I am wont to do, I must again steal from Whit Stillman's "Last Days of Disco"
"There are a lot of choices out there."And I am just getting started.
More tomorrow.
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