Posted on Aug-10-17 at 06:05 PM (Eastern) by 24.192.205.154I realized it has been an awful long time since I posted much here. I have been pretty much keeping up my site and trading with people who have signed up for emails when it gets updated. so For those of you who remember me and don't visit my trading site, here's an update on what has been going on with me lately.
Well, after 8 years, I am still in treatment for my ovarian cancer. Just can't seem to get it under control. But fortunately, thanks to lots and lots of chemotherapy, it has NOT spread at all in all these years. I have basically been doing 6-9 months of chemo, then 3 months off to recover since I was diagnosed in 2009.
I did try some newer treatments, one was a pill form of chemotherapy versus the infusions I usually do. I loved it, but unfortunately it messed up my kidney function, so doctor pulled me off that, gave me a few months to see if it would get better (it did, but is still compromised, so she watches it closely. Took me 2 months to find a kidney specialist to see me so I could get approval from a specialist before my oncologist would try any more chemo, which was very frustrating, since the chemo is what has been keeping things under control, and I was worried that it would get bad. It grew quite a bit during that break, but the kidney doctor said chemo was fine as long as my kidney function stayed at a certain level, and so far it has.
Next I just tried a new drug that also was a pill, called a PARP inhibitor. Newly approved in December by the FDA, it is very specialised. It is only for women with ovarian cancer who have the genetic mutation for both ovarian and breast cancer, have done at least 6 months of platinum based chemotherpay and that the platinum chemo seems to work on the cells. It is designed to attack only those cells with that particular genetic mutation. So, the basic idea is that for most women, it kept things from ever growing and for some lucky women, at actually gets rid of all the mutated cells and you are cancer free. Unfortunately for me, I did not fit either category, instead after 2 months I had dramatic growth, the most ever since I started this lovely roller coaster.
So now I am back on the infusion chemotherapy, using the one drug that has always been successful for me, and added another one to the mix. New schedule is one Monday of chemo with 2 drugs, the following Monday with just 1, then back for an injection of neulasta to make my bones make blood cells faster(nasty stuff, causes severe bone pain and severe flu like symptoms for 2-3 days). I haven't had that in a while, not looking forward to it next week. When I was getting it regularly, it eventually got to the point where it only last 1 day and was becoming tolerable, it didn't keep me from doing anything, just really painful. I'm hoping I still have that tolerance.
I've also had a good summer with my family. My oldest son graduated with a Bachelors of Music in May, and my youngest son graduated from high school in June.We celebrated with a small family party for the oldest (about 50 people) and a huge party for my youngest (150 people). My mom, aunt and 2 friends were tons of help, i bought the food but they all made it. Had a lot of help and it just was a really nice chance to get to see a bunch of relatives and friends who you don't often get a chance to visit.
We also had a 90th birthday party for my father-in-law. Much smaller affair, even though hubby is one of 5 kids who are all married with children, it was fewer people than my grad parties. HIs family just doesn't do "extended" family at all.
My husband and I also celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this summer.
Our only real bad time this summer was my mother-in-law passed away suddenly, the week before my son's party. Really hard on my husband, and of course, we spent days over there when she passed, getting funeral arrranged and then 2 days at the funeral home. This made it even harder for me to get ready for my son's party and my husband was simply to preoccuppied and sad, but my family and friends were great, came over to do setup and help me get my yard cleaned up and all the hard work.
We are truly blessed with some wonderful family and friends in our life. They are my support group who keep me going through all of this with the love, help, and prayers.
so anyway, those are the highlights of my summer!
Check out my site at http://suescoupons.site123.me
Thanks, Sue Edelmann
