CA15.3 and more

If there is no wind, row.

~ Latin Proverb









Cancer marker CA15.3 has continued to rise and is now up to 60.  This has been rather disconcerting so I had a CT and bone scan to get a better picture of what is going on.  The good news is that there is no cancer in the liver and lungs.  The bad news is that there may be new tumours in the sternum and sacrum.  Both of these are at the joints i.e. at the join of the right clavicle with the sternum joint and right sacroiliac joint.  This makes it hard to differentiate it from arthritis which is showing up on both sides at these joints.  No pain in these areas at this stage.  No change in treatment either.  This is good as I am feeling reasonably well and chemo would have made me feel sick for quite some time.  There is also a limit to how much chemo is given over a lifetime and this means it can be held in reserve if it is needed later.

On recommendation of one of my doctors I had a break from most of my tablets (10 instead of 84) for a few days.  I actually had more energy on those days.  Not sure if that is coincidence or not.  Will have another break in a few weeks and see if I get the same result.  I have contemplated and have discussed reducing my tablet intake with the doctor but it is hard to know which ones to stop.  It is impossible to know which are helping and which aren't.  Maybe they all help but maybe I don't need them to stay healthy.  I have actually increased the tablet intake by adding alpha lipoic acid which is supposed to help with the peripheral neuropathy.  There does seem to be some slight improvement but I will see how it goes over the next few weeks.  It does seem to be a side effect of the thalidomide and basically means the sensory nerves to my feet, and occasionally my fingers, are firing off.  This gives a combination of numbness and hypersensitivity, which seems contradictory but occurs nonetheless.  I am reluctant to reduce the dose of thalidomide at this stage.

I am managing to do my yoga and meditation each morning and walk the dogs, weather permitting.  I have improved my diet a bit again with increased vegetable juice and raw vegetables.  I am hoping that will increase my energy levels.  Weight gain continues to be a problem with it being a side effect of two of the drugs I am taking even though I have reduced my food intake.  Just when I had discarded all my 'fat clothes'.  

Went to Melbourne and saw the Tutankhamun exhibition, it was fantastic.  The craftmanship of the statues and jewellery was amazing.  Beautiful.

So it is steady as she goes, monitoring continuing with CA15.3 over the next couple of months and enjoying life as much as possible.

Surviving and thriving

Linda

More on CA15.3

 

 Perseverance is not a long race; 

 it is many short races one after another.

~ Walter Elliott






The last cancer marker result was disappointing.  It has gone back up to 52.  This is not much of an increase from 49 but 49 is already a bit high.  That result was from blood taken on 5th April.  I will get another one done next week and will be seeing the oncologist on Friday 13th, hopefully it will be a lucky day and the cancer marker will be going down again.  If not I will need to reasses treatment options.  Have had a blood test to be sent to Greece for a cancer cell count.  Ideally I would like to get this done more regularly but it is very expensive.  There is not really any one test that is definitive for where the cancer is at so a combination of non invasive and non radiation type tests seem to be the way to go.  The PET, CT and MRI's all use radiation so want to minimize those when possible.

Symptom wise nothing much has changed other than increased nausea.  Not sure if it is the side effects of medication or just too many tablets for my stomach to deal with or cancer progression.  Joint pain continues, muscle cramping is somewhat under control with large doses of magnesium.  Energy levels are not too bad, managing to walk twice around the park with dogs but still pretty tired in the afternoons.  Toes and end part of feet are still a weird combination of numb and hypersensitive.  Hot flushes preceded by adrenalin rushes (anxiety) continue but are not debilitating other than waking me up during the night.  Back pain is intermittent but not radiating around the chest.  Morning yoga is helping with lower back pain and eases the cramped muscles in my legs and back. Haven't seen the Xray report yet but the Xrays of my spine look ok to me other than possibly some compression of T9.  Will get the report when I see the oncologist.

I have had a thermography done.  This is a non invasive scan of the body which picks up soft tissue inflammation by detecting and mapping temperature variations on the skin.  Can pick up soft tissue tumours (e.g. liver) but not any use for bony lesions.  Thought it might be a good way to keep an eye on progression.  Also trying a few other alternative treatments.  One is a electro-dermal screening mechanism which works on detecting out-of-balance meridians and then tries to re-balance them.   Have made an appointment with an Intuitive healer who includes Reiki and psychology.  It would be good to be able to reduce the side effects of the cancer and medications so that my quality of life is the best it can be. 

We had a wonderful 2 weeks holiday in the rented campervan.  It was a slow trip up the coast to Byron Bay and down again.  We were going to go inland and back down but it was so lovely at Bryron Bay we ended up staying there and enjoying the warm weather and ocean.  Saw some lovely spots on the way up, highlights were Harrington, South West Rocks, Queens Lake and Iluka.  We were very lucky with the weather considering how much rain there has been.  Had rain first few days but it always seemed to clear up for a lunch stop and the rest of the holiday was lovely and sunny and warm until the last day when the rain returned.  Would definitely rent a van again although we will try a smaller one next time and see how that goes.  I would like to try a caravan as well.


 

I am having some overdue maintenance done at home by a handyman.  I kept thinking I would get well enough to do it myself but 3 years later it is just not happening so I am getting someone else to do it.  Just had tree loppers in yesterday to prune some trees and remove a tree that had come down in a storm.  Gearing up to get some paving done on the back patio as well.  I will concentrate on doing some gardening, that is about all I can manage.  At least I am still above ground and my quality of life is pretty good really so I am grateful for that.

Surviving and thriving

Linda