Healthy, Just Have Cancer

So, just a little update on what has occurred over the past year - a longer update about what happened in the past 12 years may need to be done in small chunks as we go along!

Last winter, I was swimming at the Y and taking a riding lesson about once a week. Around March, I started to have some pain in my chest that seemed to be activated by pulling myself to the edge of the pool when I was swimming and when I was lifting bales and heavy things around the farm. I went to my Dr. and we determined it was probably a pulled muscle as I had no other symptoms. We treated with muscle relaxers and I went home.

Had a physical in May. The muscle pain had gotten much better. Dr. told me she felt I was doing well, gave me instructions to get regular blood panels and a mammogram and colonoscopy. I went home, put the papers on my desk and promptly forgot about them once something else was put on top of them!

Toward the end of the summer, I started a new position in my company and stress levels climbed! I ended up not riding as much as I just didn't have the time to make it to my lessons! In October, I started to have some time but some back pain that kept me off the horse because I just wasn't comfortable. Wasn't really sure what was causing the pain, it kinda moved around and was not all the time....so of course I didn't contact my Dr!

Leda had a Dr appt in early November and a blood panel was requested (she's fine, just normal!)...since I had to schedule her for the lab work, I remembered I had some things to schedule of my own...so I got my blood work done as well...that same week, I started having the pain again in my chest that I thought was muscle pull related...since it really didn't subside and seemed to get worse, I went to the Dr. Again, we thought it was a muscle pull, prescribed muscle relaxers and steroids to help with inflammation. A few hours after that meeting with Dr. I was called about my blood work which had just come back - totally normal except for one panel which can indicate a few things, one being a possible muscle pull! So, my Dr. ordered a follow up lab for 2 weeks later, just to make sure it gets better.

Two weeks later was day after Thanksgiving. At this point, my back pain and chest pain seemed to subsided enough, I didn't seem to notice it much if at all. The following Tuesday, Dr called and said all my panels were good except the same one panel which had actually gone higher. So, my Dr. was going to possibly order another lab and/or an MRI, they were thinking it might be something in my bones....but they weren't sure.

That evening, as I was settling down to go to sleep, I had intense pain on my right side of my chest, same basic area of the muscle pull pain I was having on the left side....enough that I ended up taking myself to the ER (Brock was in NY for work, he was aware of what was going on but unfortunately 3 hours away at the time).  Long time in the ER to find out they could find nothing on my right side, no issues with my lungs, ribs or gall bladder. They chalked it up to abdominal pain and told me to go see a Gastroenterologist. I went home, called my Dr to set up a follow up appointment for Thursday and went to sleep!

Thursday my Dr. sent me for a CT scan to get a view of what was going on in my chest....turns out, what we thought was muscle pain was a fractured rib. Along with a fractured scapula. And a lump in my left breast, lymph nodes and numerous legions on my bones. Cancer. That was December 2, 2021. The beginning of most bizarre, surreal voyage into finding out I have stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.

December was a blur....mammogram, biopsies, bone scan, additional CT, bone biopsy and meeting with an Oncologist. In the same month, my sister Aimee came for an already planned visit (we have had tickets to go see Shaun Cassidy (shut up!) since June 2020), Brock's family (Dan and Maggie, Claire and Bobby and our niece Sarah and nephew Scott) came to celebrate Christmas with us (postponed from Christmas 2020!) all while also trying to work! What we subsequently found out is I have HR+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer that has metastasized to the bones (HR+ basically means the hormone estrogen can act like fuel to any remaining cancer cells, helping them to divide and grow). We have one of the best oncologists in this area in one of the best cancer centers in the area at a hospital that is only 20 mins from our house. When we met with Dr. V for the first time, it was only 7 days after finding out I had cancer but before we knew for sure what it was. She was amazing. I can't quite describe what I was going through that first week....I think I felt like I had lost all ability to direct my life, like I was in a tail spin....Dr. V made me feel like I gained back some control and pushed me to focus on being positive in the face of an incurable disease.

My diagnosis basically means that the estrogen in my body helps the cancer grow. And because I am of an age to be close to menopause but I am not yet completely there, we need to put my ovaries to sleep. We are doing that medically by a shot once a month. I am going to be taking anastrozole, an aromatase inhibitor that will take care of getting rid of the estrogen produced in other areas of my body other than the ovaries, and Ibrance, which is basically chemotherapy in pill form, will help slow the progression of the cancer. I am lucky - the treatments for my cancer at this point in time are the least invasive and can work for a very long time and my quality of life should not change much. I will also get a shot once a month of XGeva which will help prevent fractures of my bones. I have started taking everything but the XGeva at this time. I will start on that next week.

We did speak with my primary Dr and my Oncologist about getting a second opinion. We really are comfortable with our care team at this point and didn't think we needed the expense. Dr V (Oncologist) welcomed the second opinion and suggested that we should go to an institutional oncologist as she is a clinical Dr and doesn't have direct access to clinical trials, but that an institutional Dr. would. So we decided to go have a second opinion with an oncologist associated with the University of Pennsylvania. We had that meeting on Tuesday this week.

I'll post more about our second opinion in the next post. Just know that I am doing okay. I am healthy (except for cancer!) and based on the information I have learned since my diagnosis, this is a marathon, not a sprint! And positivity is VERY important to beating this cancer (okay, yeah, I can't 'beat it' but I can make it quiet for a long time!). And I can live for a very long time! That doesn't mean I don't have my bad days, but I am not going to let them rule my life! And if you really know me, you know that pessimism is my middle name! So hop on for the ride, this should be fun! LOL!