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Showing posts from July, 2023

Still alive!

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Does this look like someone with brain cancer?!? I am beyond grateful for my oncology team and the many nurses supporting me. I did not want brain surgery, but I trusteed that they knew me and what is important to me and my treatment. My oncologist got me to United hospital and they have taken good care of me here.  I had a good sized lump removed from the back of my brain. They have worked to wean down my pain meds and remove the drainage tube. I got a shower today and will go home by the end of the week. It feels pretty good for brain surgery!  The pathology came back as the same breast cancer, which was to be expected and I think is good. We plan to treat the tumor bed with focused radiation to kill off anything that couldn't be cut out. Then I'll get a combination of chemo drugs that will protect my brain better this time.  Prayer That there is limited to no side effects of the radiation and new chemo.  Pray for continued recovery from surgery. I’m feeling pretty good and r

Not the update I wanted

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Yes, I swam in a triathlon the weekend before I found out I have a brain tumor. It was terrible, but that’s how I roll   I am coming up on three years from my diagnosis and two years from finishing active treatment. All of my PET scans have been good and I’ve been tolerating my maintenance treatment. I was happy to be getting stronger and living life without constantly thinking about cancer. That’s why it was a huge shocker to me and my oncologist that I have a brain tumor large enough that it needs to be removed immediately.  I started having headaches three to four weeks ago. It seemed like a sinus headache, so that’s what I was treating it like. Taking Sudafed, doing the sinus rinse and finally getting amoxicillin. When none of that helped and I realized this was a headache like no other I’ve ever had, I asked my oncologist to schedule a brain MRI for me. My regular PET scans have all been good, but they only scan from the base of the neck to the knees. This MRI is the first time th