Friday, July 29th, 2011 - Part 1: Health Update

Hellllooooo Bloggies! It's me again!!

Yep, as usual, behind in what I wanted to do, but still plugging along :) You will notice that tonight's entry says Part 1: Health Update. That's because it's time for another health update even though I promised to do a separate entry last time about social, chit chatty type activities and what I have been up to. So not only did that one not get done, we are now on the second Health Update... so you can only imagine how long the social one is going to be. I have so many pictures and things for the next entry... oh dear, where am I going to find the time but even more important, how long can that entry be??? LOL!!

Ok... not to mix up the two... this one is the Health Update, so away we go :)

First, I better clear up a little misunderstanding from the last blog post. I think I may have led everyone to believe that Baby Blood Clot has been the cause of my difficulty with breathing and also causing all the wheezing, coughing, etc. Also, I seemed to think that when I started the blood thinner (heparin) injections, the breathing seemed to get better. Wrong. The blood thinner had nothing to do with helping get rid of any of my problems. It's purpose is purely to prevent any new blood clots from forming, while we hope that Baby Blood Clot will eventually be absorbed and disappear.

So back to the problems with breathing, etc. Turns out that my poor system was/is fighting 4 problems at once. All of these conditions were separate (bronchitis, broncialspasms, asthma response to the chemo and the blood clot). So back to my GP I went because I just couldn't continue on forever having to live with this ongoing wheezing and laboured breathing. It was wearing me out... and that's without even doing anything! I was also exhausted and had no energy, which I did blame on the chemo and why I needed a break from it.

Well, my GP changed my meds around. He added a third puffer to the two I already had, put me on a week's supply of antibiotics and gave me a prescription cough medicine. Within days I could feel a total difference!! I could breathe again!! The wheezing is down to a minimum... only really affects me in the morning and sometimes in the evening before bed. The coughing is totally under control because of the prescription cough medicine. I'm sure the antibiotics have helped with the bronchitis because bronchitis is an inflammation/infection of the bronchial tubes... but I don't think it's cleared it up totally because I can still feel some rattling around of fluid/phlegm deep into the tubes. But compared to what it was like... it feels so much better!

Now, the blood clot treatment is to be taking blood thinners (Heparin, not the rat poison, Warfarin). Warfarin is the oral, pill form, whereas Heparin is the injections. Warfarin and chemo don't get along well... chemo tends not to work as well if there is warfarin in one's system. So anyone who might have to be on chemo, gets the injectable Heparin. I will be on it for about 6 months and then we will re-evaluate and determine if I should be on it or take a break. Sharlene is saying that she will probably insist on a break after 6 months unless there's reason to suspect we have to stay on it.

So now, that brings us up to today where I met with Sharlene to go over the results to the CAT scan I had done on Wednesday.

Yep, this is my good friend, Mr. CAT scanner. Every three months we get together to go over pictures, take new ones, etc. I have no idea how many pictures of me he's taken in the last 4 1/2 years, but I expect there will be many more to come. Now if only my veins would cooperate... when they see Mr. CAT Scanner, they run deep and hide! They don't want no steenin' IV set up in my arm so that the technicians can put contrast dye through them ;)

Anywho... today, I met with Sharlene to go over the results. Interestingly enough, the tumours in my lungs, compared to the CAT scan we did in May, have grown ever so slightly. BUT, they have grown and back then I was on that nasty chemo. Didn't stop that until June 21, so it's possible the chemo held them at bay and then they have started to grow since being off the chemo. Either way, the growth has been minimal and that's with me having had a 5 week break from the chemo.

Another interesting thing is my CEA readings. I gave up asking about them because they were starting to freak me out. Well, the reading for the week I had the emergency CAT scan (keeping in mind, I was also suffering big time from the bronchitis, the asthma response and the bronchialspasms), my CEA reading was the highest it has been since I was first diagnosed back in Dec 2006. It reached 68!!! When all is under control and the tumours are not being active, my average reading is 1.0 - 2.0. So this is pretty huge. BUT, having done nothing with the tumours since then (IE: am not on chemo, did not start up a new one, etc), I only have been to see my GP and he gave me the new meds mentioned above to try and aggressively kick these bronchial problems in the butt... and it seemed to work pretty good. So this week's CEA reading, only 2 weeks since the last one, had a major drop and is at 36. From 68 to 36 is a pretty significant drop and highly unlikely that cancer activity has changed that much in 2 weeks.

So, that has got me to thinking... CEA is also very sensitive to infection/inflammation. Well, for the past how many months have I been suffering from the bronchitis, bronchialspasms, asthmatic responses to the chemo, which in turn has irritated the bronchial system? And then my GP changes the meds which seem to be working? If the bronchial infection/inflammation has gone down, then it makes sense that the CEA has dropped... and dropped that quickly since the meds were only given the week before this latest CEA test.

Anywho... other than working on getting rid of the nasty bronchitis and making sure it doesn't come back... I have been off the chemo for the 5 planned weeks that we had set up for having a break. Our ongoing plan is to still start the Vectibix treatment, but Sharlene asked me how I was feeling. I told her that, since being able to breathe again, I feel much better... and since being off the chemo for this past 5 weeks, I've actually noticed my energy is starting to come back. She said the plan was that I would start the Vectibix on Tues and I asked her... if we must, then of course I will... but would I be putting myself in any kind of danger if we took a few more weeks off? Actually, if we took the rest of the summer (August) off and didn't start until Sept? She said that she felt I wasn't putting myself in any kind of danger. There are no "new" growths and the ones we know about, although they are showing they are growing, they are growing extremely slow and will not have made any progress over the next month or so. Meanwhile, it would work in my favour if I had that much more time to get over the bronchial stuff and another month to work on resting and bringing my energy level back up to par. Soooo, I'll be starting the Vectibix in Sept.

Oh, and just as a little explanation... Vectibix is NOT a chemo. Vectibix is an antibody that fights a particular protein in colon cancer tumours. That is why she had me tested (well, actually my primary tumour that was removed in Jan 2007) for the KRAS gene. If you have this gene, then your tumours have this protein so you would be eligible for trying this Vectibix treatment. The antibody will attack the protein in the tumour, which in turn will then starve the tumour...hence, hopefully, will shrink the tumour and life will be good :)

There are a few similar side affects with the vetibix to chemo, but not nearly as pronounced or severe. Other than the one that most people get and that is a rash... which can vary in strength from annoying to severe/painful. It will go away over time as your body adjusts to having the infused antibody every two weeks but it could be a very uncomfortable couple of months with this rash. We, of course, will be pro-active and start a round of antibiotics just before starting the treatment... which has been known to be helpful for some. Also, keeping the skin well moisturized so it doesn't dry and crack. But hey, if it works and we can shrink those tumours down to nothing, then a couple of months of discomfort, whining and bitching will be worth it :) But I won't think about that until closer to when I have to. For now, despite the weather Gods being cruel and not giving us much of a summer (on the other hand, thank goodness it is not unbearably hot... I can't handle the heat), I get to have the whole month of August to enjoy, rest and regain my energy so I can start the fight over again in September :) :)

Tally ho... pip pip and all that Jazz!!

Let's see if I actually get Part II: Trying to Have a Social LIfe and Breathe started tonight or if it will get started tomorrow. I have SOOOOO many pictures and things to put up!! :)

Blogger Cheryl, signing off :)

Sunday, July 17th, 2011 -- Part I: Health Update

Hello Blogees and Blogettes!

So much has happened in the last 17 days, I truly get confused as to what people know and what people don't know. For those of you on Facebook, you may have been following the ongoing Health Journey... but a lot of you are not on Facebook, so you've only been getting the blog updates, which the last one was 17 days ago! Then there are the few emails, but those are mostly just family emails... and they are very disjointed because when I try to keep too many places up to date, I end up only confusing myself and everyone else because all three places have updates only as time permits. So I really and truly want to get back to one spot for Health updates and I'll be more conscientious of making sure the title of the blog entry specifies when it is a health update. That way, for those who are only interested in the medical stuff, they'll know which blog entry contains it... and those who also enjoy my babble/rants/chats, they can read both :D

Soooooo... this first Sunday entry is a health update! I have lots of pics and chit chat for the second one (Part II) but may not get that one done until tomorrow ... we shall see how the evening goes :)

Last you all heard from me was back on July 1st.... Canada Day! The Sunday before, I ended up at St. Paul's Emergency because of the difficulty breathing. They managed to get things back to some form of normal, so I left the hospital in way better shape than I had entered the hospital. I also had seen my oncologist the day before and our new plan was to take a break from the chemo. She wanted to hear from me in a week and hopefully the wheezing/whistling/breathing problems should all be cleared up now that I wasn't on chemo. This was because we now realized that the wheezing/asthma like symptoms were a sensitivity to one or both chemos (most likely the one that I started back in February since I had been complaining about bronchial symptoms, etc. since we started that chemo.

Ok, so now starts the continuing saga of the health update. A week after my appt. with Sharlene, the breathing/wheezing/asthma symptoms still hadn't gotten better. At least, if they were getting better, I couldn't say that I noticed a real difference. I still got tired easily, I still had problems with the breathing going up/down my 8 steps from the floor my apartment is on to the carport level, etc. So, Sharlene said she was going to see about arranging an emergency Chest CAT scan (different from the 3 month Abdominal/Chest CAT scan that we do to monitor how/if the chemo is working and that I have an appt. for on July 27th). Now, when she asked to have the July 27th one bumped up, it wasn't possible... so I'm not sure what magical words she used, or if she used her "pull" but she managed to get one right away for me. The reason she wanted me to have this now is, she wanted to rule out the possibility of Blood Clots

So, this past Wednesday I went in for a "spiral" Chest CAT scan and blood work. Well, lo and behold, they found a Baby Blood Clot. I say "Baby" because it is very small and there's only one. OMG! One small blood clot can cause this much difficulty with breathing??? For the life of me, unless others react differently to blood clots in the lungs, I can't see how anyone could possibly not report them until they are too big to deal with... I'm having a hard enough time just being able to breathe and get some air in my lungs! I can't imagine how much worse it can get!

Sharlene explained that we have caught this one in it's very small stage and the treatment is to go on Blood thinners. The idea is that the blood thinners will break up the clot and then the body will just absorb the pieces. She says this clot is so small, the body may just absorb it without it needing to be broken up. Meanwhile by being on the blood thinners, that will prevent anymore from developing (and prevent Baby Blood Clot from growing). Standard protocol will be to be on the Blood Thinners for 6 months... so yes, I had to go the next day to the Thrombosis Clinic at VGH (Vancouver General Hospital) to see a Hematologist and to have a nurse teach me how to give myself a shot since I'll have to do this twice/day.

Sharlene also explained that in a healthy, non-cancer patient, if they were to get blood clots in their lungs, it would be a big deal and they would need to go under rigorous testing to find out WHY they have blood clots. But for cancer patients who have been on various chemo treatments, it doesn't come as a surprise to find blood clots. That is quite a common reaction to everything the body/system is going through and going through it with a compromised immune system.

Sooooo, of course I had questions. I have been complaining since the beginning of Feb when we started the new (to me) chemo, Irinotecan. Even from the first treatment of it I was complaining of bronchitis symptoms that started almost right away and never really did go away. I was pretty sure it was bronchitis since I know the symptoms very well, but thought it was ironic that I haven't had bronchitis for some time but as soon as I started this chemo, I was hit with it immediately. But no, both Sharlene and my GP, Sean Fay, both assured me that chemo does not cause or trigger bronchitis. The fact I'm susceptible to it, chances are I was exposed to it and came down with it quickly because my immune system is compromised and not 100% in fighting order. Ok, that made sense. Well, as time went on, the bronchial symptoms seemed to take on the new symptoms of the "wheezing" when I would exhale. Now I had NEVER had that when I had bronchitis, but apparently this is not uncommon with those who suffer from chronic bronchitis. Ok, I can buy that, but I just know I have had chronic bronchitis for YEARS and I have never ever had the wheezing. In medical terms, the condition is called bronchialspasms and people with chronic bronchitis, asthma or COPD are susceptible to this condition. Ok... but it never did go away. If anything, it became worse and the wheezing started happening when I inhaled, not only exhaled. Well, apparently if you get the wheezing on the inhale, then you should seek medical attention immediately. I didn't know this but it was shortly after this happened that I ended up at St. Paul's Emergency because it was hard to inhale or exhale... and breathing normally just wasn't close to happening.

It was at this point that I think Sharlene had decided it was time for a break from the chemo and I had decided to tell her that I NEEDED a break from the chemo. Her reasons were probably different than mine... she realized that my immune system was not keeping up with the stuff I was being exposed to. I told her I needed a break because with this difficulty in breathing, I just didn't feel I had the strength to go through another chemo session. Of course, it was at this time that she said she wanted to hear from me within a week to see if the breathing had improved... if the breathing (aka asthmatic response to the chemo) was not having to deal with the chemo, then it should show a marked improvement. As I mentioned above, the breathing didn't improve in the one week so Sharlene wanted to rule out blood clots in the lungs. When I had the emergency Chest CAT scan this past Wed, Sharlene had 3 radiologists go over it to make sure absolutely nothing was missed.

The first question I asked was, "If blood clots are common with cancer patients, why wasn't that one of the first things that we checked for when I was complaining of bronchitis? then the bronchialspasms? then the asthma response?" Well, with each of the complaints, they all checked out as being what they were (Bronchitis, Bronchialspasms, Asthma Response to the build up of Chemo and then the breathing getting worse indicated possible blood clot(s). It is not unusual for a cancer patient to have multiple conditions showing up... but what is unusual was that I had all four at once. Considering I have a compromised immune system, my system was actually doing very well having to fight 4 conditions at the same time. I doubt anyone with a strong immune system would be able to do any better than I did... so that somewhat pleases me.

The plan now of course is to get rid of the small blood clot, hopefully it will just end up being absorbed and the blood thinners will prevent any other blood clots from forming anywhere in my body. At first, it almost seemed like the blood thinners were clearing up the breathing. I have to admit, it is a lot better in that I'm not going into that panicky feeling I was getting when I just couldn't get enough air in a breath. That is all gone and I can breathe quite normally now. The wheezing is still there but the annoyance now is the cough. It's like a bronchial cough once the tight chest has broken up. With bronchitis, that cough sounds horrible but is actually a good thing. I'm not sure what I'm dealing with now... before there was a dry cough where I wasn't coughing anything up, so I wasn't sure why I was coughing. Now it's a loose cough, so I have no idea if this means it's on the way out.. or ??

Tomorrow I have to go to the Blood Lab at St. Paul's. The Hematologist has ordered some blood tests, I think to determine if there's enough blood thinner in my system or if the dose has to be adjusted. NEXT week (July 27) I will be getting the regular CAT scan so we can determine what's happening with the tumours in the lungs. Did the 5 months of chemo actually stabilize them? Let's hope so because now that I'm on the blood thinner med, I can't be on chemo. Meanwhile, if the tumours start growing, then we have to weigh the risks vs the benefits... stick with the blood thinner so no new clots form and hopefully we get rid of this single clot and hope the tumours don't grow quickly... or, go on the new (to me) chemo (Vectibix) and stop the blood thinner, hoping that no blood clots form.

Oh well, we'll deal with each thing as it comes up... no point worrying about the "What ifs..." when we don't know what will happen next until it happens. As my GP has told me since we started this journey... one step at a time, one hurdle at a time. We aren't going to worry about all the possible hurdles that can come up, only the ones that do come up and with those, we'll fight them one at a time.

So there you have it!! It's now 11:15pm and I managed to get PART I: Health Update done. The chit chatty, fun entry, I'll see about getting it done tomorrow or Tues. Give folk time to read this one first before I do the 2nd one :D

Have a great week, everyone!!

Hugggggggssss,

Cheryl

Friday, July 1st - HAPPY CANADA DAY and Update!

Happy Canada Day, my fellow Canadian Bloggettes! And an early Happy July 4th for my fellow American Bloggettes! Hmmm... and for my fellow Aussie Bloggettes... I guess it's just a Happy weekend, right?? No long weekend for those of you down under?? :)

Anywho... still 15 minutes to go before it's actually July 1st and Canada's birthday... but I figure by the time I have typed up this blog entry, it will be July 1st!! Sheesh!! JULY??? How the heck did that happen??? I'm thinking we are still facing April weather.... not exactly sure when we are going to get our real summer weather!!

Ok... let's start with the babble about the health update. As most of you know, I've been really struggling to be able to breathe. Last weekend (June 26) the problem came to a head! Starting the Fri night it became apparent that this struggling for breath was not getting better and if anything, it was getting much worse. By Sat, I was getting scared... how could something so common be so scary? There was no way I could go out anywhere because just walking around the apartment had me gasping for breath. Come Sunday, even my neighbour, Toby, said enough is enough... there's something wrong here. Not only was I wheezing and whistling and gasping for breath... I was very lightheaded... which made me think I'm not getting enough oxygen! Duh! ("Hey, but don't worry... there's no relation between the chemo and the fact I can't breathe! LOL!)

Soooo... off I went to St. Paul's Hospital's Emergency on the most gorgeous, sunny, summer Sunday. It was BEAUTIFUL out and I'm going to spend the day in Emergency! Oh joy! I figured, since the hospital is literally just up the street about 8 blocks, it would be best to take a cab. I wasn't about to call any friends, in my building or elsewhere, to have them drive me the 8 blocks to the hospital then feel obligated to stay with me (which we all know could be hours) and totally ruin their Sunday... and yes, I've heard from some of them about that, but really... I'll save my "favour cards" for another time :)

Yes, I ended up being at the hospital for about 3-4 hours. They took me in right away... something about not being able to breathe makes the Emergency staff a little nervous. They immediately put me on one of those Nebulizer breathing machines where you have the mask on and are breathing in oxygen and a medication that is similar to the Puffers. They then hooked me up to an IV and gave me the steroid Prednisone and a big old bag of Magnesium which was infused over a couple of hours. Within minutes of being on the Nebulizer machine, the panic left, I could actually breath air into my lungs and could talk again. Of course, the also took another xray and ran the gambit of blood tests. Heart and organs are all fine. Lungs are clear, no sign of inflammation or pneumonia. Everything is just tickety-boo except I couldn't breathe... how weird! The emergency doc explained it that, since I'm on chemo, my immune system has really taken a beating and of course it is compromised, meaning it can't fight off even the simplest of infections or problems. So the breathing problem appears to be more an asthmatic reaction that the bronchitis. Of course, I have NEVER had asthma in my life, so this was new to me. The difference between a bronchitis reaction and this asthmatic reaction... with bronchitis, it is inflammation or infection in the bronchial tubes, causing the congested cough and difficulty in breathing. But I didn't have the cough. With the asthmatic reaction, it's more like the bronchial tubes are spasming, hence the difficulty in breathing. Oh joy. When will this go away? Well, the bad news, it might not... as long as I'm on chemo, then my immune system may be compromised and I'll have this problem ongoing. This is NOT good news... because I could see many trips to the ER each time it flares up badly!

Ok... jump ahead to yesterday, Thursday. I had an appt. with my oncologist. This was not a regular pre-chemo appt, but an extra one for us to talk over "options". I don't like the "options" talk because that means the current option is not working and now we have to re-evaluate and see what's left for us (IE: we might be running out of options). Soooo we discussed this trip to ER and Sharlene (oncologist) is now agreeing with me that she thinks the asthmatic reaction is not just a normal, run of the mill condition that just happened, but is more likely a sensitivity to one or both of the chemos. Yes, the immune system is not able to help since it's compromised and that contributes to the problem but it could also be that at this time I've been on the chemo for 5 months and I may have developed a sensitivity to it. It could be if we had another combination of chemos with either one I was on, I would not react in the same way. Either way, I told her that I'm really not sure I could handle another chemo session with these two chemos because the breathing problem is not under control and I feel it's only going to get worse. I need a break to 1) clear up the breathing problem and 2) regain some strength and energy that I seem to have lost big time. Of course, there are a bunch of other side affects that I would just as soon have a break from as well

SOOOOO... after all of that... here's the NEW PLAN!! TA DA!!!

1) I am now officially on a 5-6 week break from chemo!! YAYAYAYA!! I'm so excited about that!! I now do not have to plan for these two week cycles where I'm apartment-bound for 6-8 days and then have about 6 decent days. I am going to be able to feel good for the next 5-6 weeks and regain my strength and energy!!! YIPPPPEE!

2) Sharlene is applying for/doing the paperwork for me to be put on a new (to me) drug called (ready for this?) "UGIAVPANI" aka Vectibix ;) From what I understand, Vectibix is not a chemo per se, although it is used as one. It is a "monoclonal antibody, a type of protein designed to target and interfere with the growth of cancer cells"

Intended Benefits:

- This therapy is being given to destroy and/or limit the growth of cancer cells in your body. This treatment may improve your current symptoms, and delay the onset of new symptoms.
- It may take several treatments before your doctor can judge whether or not this treatment is helping.

This treatment is NOT cheap! It costs approx $30,000 for 8 weeks of treatment. This is where we Canadians really must count our lucky stars and not take our medical for granted. Now, the cost of cancer treatments are not actually paid for by our Canadian healthcare, but through the provincial Cancer Agencies. So BC Cancer Agency actually pays for the chemo treatments/therapies of BC residents... and for anything they don't cover (IE: surgeries, procedures, prescriptions (non-chemo), etc., then BC Medical kicks in. The end result... other than paying my co-payment for regular prescriptions, I haven't had to pay a cent for these incredibly expensive treatments. And no , the Canadian taxpayer is not paying for them either... that's where all the fundraising for bot BC Cancer and Canadian Cancer agencies come into play. So when someone is doing a bike ride for Conquering Cancer, or any of the numerous cancer fundraisers... dig into your pockets and spare a couple of dollars. Everyone is affected by cancer, whether you have it yourself or know someone who has it ;)

Ok... so it looks like this darn blog entry is all about medical stuff! Go figure?? It's just that I'm sooooo excited that I get a break from feeling rotten and when I do start the new therapy, I may not have to feel as rotten as I have every second week for the past 5 month!! WOOT! WOOT!! Oh, then again, the one major side affect of this new therapy is an incredibly annoying/itchy/possibly painful rash on the face/neck. We are going to take preventative measures/prescription to hopefully keep it somewhat under control, but everyone is different as to the severity. SOOOO, if I do end up being one big old face rash, then I'll probably be in hiding and you all won't see me for about a month until it calms down . Of course, my two dates tonight, Mark and David, did suggest I could wear a burka for the whole time I have the rash... I'm beginning to think that might not be a bad idea :) :)

Hehehe... soooo, here I babbled on and on, and never did get to anything else!! I still wanted to talk about the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot... even though that is now old news! But alas, I'm going to have to put that off again... it's really going to be old news by the time I get to it! LOL! Maybe I'll just have to bring it up to remind everyone of it, in case anyone has forgotten or tried to put it out of sight, out of mind :)

Oh, and I'm still in the glow of having won the Jessie Award back on Monday, June 20, 2011! Not only was that night truly awesome, but it's amazing how I'm now running into people who were either there that night or have heard of the awards since... and so many people are so supportive. There are no words to describe it! Mind you, here are the words that were said when announcing that I had won the award:

Mary Phillips Award(presented by Sasa Brown):

On Behalf of David and Louise Philips, I have been asked to present this year’s very deserving winner of the Mary Phillips Prize. I should mention that the Mary Phillips Prize from this year on, will now be known as the Mary Phillips Award, and the winner will now receive a Jessie Statue. This has been a decision from the Phillips Family, in order to secure the longevity of this award and make sure that each year someone who is rarely recognized for their hard work behind the scenes, gets to finally take a bow.

This year’s recipient has been a dedicated and tireless volunteer in the Vancouver Theatre Scene for quite some time. She can often be seen volunteering in the box office for a wide variety of productions. She passionately champions the plight of small theatre companies by helping with publicity and personally getting the word out about shows. She is seen at every opening, often helping with raffles or baking for those involved in the show. If someone is in need of a pick me up, she is the first to step in and lend an ear, have a laugh or share some of her baked goods. Her generosity of spirit and enthusiasm for theatre has touched a wide spectrum of people in this community, and those who meet her, cannot help but be struck by her infectious spirit and her genuine care for everyone around her.

She is a staple at the TUTS box office every year with her little dog Bridget by her side.

This year’s recipient of the Mary Phillips Award for Behind the Scene Achievement is Cheryl Hutcherson.

Do I remember doing this? No! Do I have any idea what I said while I was up at the podium? No! :)

Meanwhile... there's Bridget who also got a mention... and what was she doing on this glorious night? Well, take a look :)

Yes... well, ok, so she wasn't really paying attention to what I was telling her :)

Ok.... I'm stopping here because now my brain has turned to mush!! Which is not unusual when I finally realize I should have gone to bed an hour or so ago . I don't know how many of you are Twitter fiends... I have basically become obsessed with Tweeting away, as well as Facebooking. Of course, it is a double whammy when I'm using my Twitter app and I can Tweet and post to FB at the same time... I feel like an obsessed thrower of stones :) :) Anywho... if any of you do have Twitter accounts... look me up and follow me @ hiyacher (or http://www.twitter.com/hiyacher)

Ta ta for now!!

Cheryl

PS: Sheryl with an "S"! I saw your comment on the last blog entry.... yayayaya.... but I don't think I have a recent email address for you!! Do send it to me (hiyacher at gmail dot com or shaw dot ca) :)

Thursday, June 23, 2011 - The highs and lows of one week

Hello Bloggers and Blogettes :)

Well, what a week or two it has been... seriously!! I think you all have heard, heck has anyone NOT heard of the horrendous riot the was downtown Vancouver after the 7th Game of the Stanley Cup where the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins. Now I mention the game, but in reality, the game had nothing to do with the reason for the riot... that was just an excuse where, because of the street parties set up every night for fans to come down to celebrate...this gave the thugs and troublemaker a great way of blending in, wearing the Canuck Jerseys and t-shirts and just blend in with the crowds. The riot was going to happen no matter what the outcome of the game. Anywho... I have a whole lot to blog about the Riots, so I'm going to save that for a separate blog. Instead, I'm going to write about this week, which is why I call this blog the Highs and Lows.

May as well start with the lows... always best to get the bad stuff out of the way. It seems my life is on a roller coaster ride. It has been since I was first diagnosed in December 2006. I think everyone who either is fighting the cancer battle or is a caregiver for someone who is, definitely understands what I mean by the roller coaster ride. Just when you think you have a handle on what's going on, it changes. And that's the strangest part... it can take forever to change so you are waiting for the other shoe to drop, or it can change very quickly and the last thing you want to hear is, "Oh, well that sure took a change very quickly!" Or, the one that gets me very nervous is, "Well it appears the tumours are growing and this chemo you are on right now doesn't seem to be working, so how about if we make an appt. and you come in next week so we can talk over your options". Hearing those words makes me think more that there are fewer and fewer options so we should talk about them.

Anywho, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. This week is a chemo week. On Monday, June 21st which was a great day (more on that below), I went in for my pre-chemo blood lab, as well, for a chest xray. The pre-chemo blood work is a given... have to do that the day before or day of chemo every two weeks. They actually do a bunch of blood tests, checking my wbc (white blood count) and a part of that is checking something called "neurifils" which are the white blood cells that fight inflammation and infection. Both of these were totally in the normal range... which just goes to show when the chemo kills off the good cells and hopefully the bad cells, my system can regenerate the good ones very quickly. So these tests showed that there was no reason for delay in the chemo the next day. I was ready to go. The CEA test takes another day or so to get the results. This is the test that measures how much CEA is in my blood and that reading will determine if there is active cancer in the body. This test is only a diagnostic tool and unfortunately, it doesn't work accurately with everyone. So far, I have been one of the lucky ones and it has been extremely accurate for me. When the tumours were being lazy in my lungs and not growing, not doing much of anything, my reading would be in the 1.0 - 2.0 range. Last spring was when we noticed it starting to rise... enough that it indicated something was going on and a couple of the tumours in my lungs were starting to grow. So, I was put on a pill form of chemo and that worked really well for 3 months.. Shrunk those puppies by 30%.... but then the next 3 months to Dec 2010... the pill form seemed to just up and stop working. The worst side affect was it really did a number on the inside of my heals (as if I don't have a hard enough time walking!)

So, over Christmas we had a break from the chemo and starting in the New Year (Feb) we would start on a new chemo. Well, new to me, not an actual new chemo. This one was called Iriniotecan. Now to tell you the truth, I can't remember what the CEA reading was when I started it in Feb... I could look back in some of these Blog entries but no big deal. What happened with the Irinitocan was that I lost all my hair. That was to be expected but still it was really freaky when it actually happened. I was on the Iriniotecan for three months but then when we had the CAT scan, there was a sign of growth. Not a huge growth but the trend was they were growing, not shrinking. Now, I know at one point my CEA reading was quite high (25.0) but then when I started the Irinotecan it went down to 15.0 which is good in that it was showing a downward trend. But, alas that was short-lived... it started climbing again. So, we added a second chemo... 5FU and that comes in the 46 hour pump you have to be attached to. So, off to the chemo unit to get my 2 hours if IV Irinotecan and then get hooked up to the 46 hour pump which means I'm free to go home since it's portable and I can take it with me anywhere. The hope was that the 5FU chemo would give that extra boost, with the Irinotecan. Now, having the two of them, did give me more side affects... mostly the queasies and of course the fatigue. Then, usually by the weekend there is some intestinal cramping. By Monday I'm feeling back to my old self.

Well, today I got the results back from the CEA test that was drawn on Monday. To my great disappointment, the reading is back up at 25.0. Now granted, I've only had the two chemos for 2 sessions, but that is a month.... and if there was going to be some trending, we would have seen it by now. So, it looks like the cancer is on the growing spree again. How much/how fast, we won't know until the CAT scan at the end of July. So, my oncologist, Dr. Sharlene Gill, would like me to come in next week (my off week). Either Mon or Tue I'll be going in for a CEA blood test, then on Thurs I'll go in and see her so we can talk about our options.

So, there you have it... the roller coaster ride where I have no idea if we are going to find an "option" that does what we want it to do, which is shrink the tumours in the lungs and then, if real lucky, make them dormant and stable. Meanwhile, for the last umpteen months (since Feb?) I've also been battling this weird bronchial bug that seems to be making the rounds. It is very weird in that there's not a lot to cough up, but you get this incredible wheeze when breathing out... and almost any physical exertion gets you out of breath. I was concerned this all had to have something to do with the chemo and the bronchitis infiltrating the lungs, but apparently not. My lungs are clear and this crud is all in the bronchial area. But between the chemo and the ongoing fight with the bronchitis... you can imagine I'm not always the most happy of campers ;)

Ok, lets change it to some good news!! We all like good news!!! And for those of you who are on Facebook you KNOW what my fantastic news is!! On Monday this week (June 21), it was the Annual Jessie Richardson Awards. This is sort of the equivalent to Vancouver's Tony Awards celebrating the achievements of Vancouver's Professional Theatre Community. I'm lousy at guessing numbers but the Awards Ceremony was held at the Commodore Ballroom which holds a lot of people. I figured there were 500 - 700 people there but someone reporting on one of the television shows says there were close to 1000 people. Suffice it to say, there was a good turnout from the theatre community and those who support the theatre community.

WELL! You can imagine my total surprise when the Mary Phillips Award for Best Behind-The-Scenes Achievement was brought out. This was one of the special awards and as the presenter was giving the speech about the winner of this award, I was setting up the next "Tweet" to go out to both Twitter and Facebook... so only had half an ear to what was being said. I do remember thinking, "Ahhhh yes, there are quite a few of us who dabble in various fields in theatre from box office, to publicity, to photography, to supporting, to administration to... and the list goes on and on. I still hadn't put anything together because I know there are a lot of people who do this... but then she said that the winner had a little dog, named Bridget who would come to the office with her. Ok, now that SHOULD have been my clue, right? But inside, I guess I was in denial that I would be getting such an honour, I thought, "WOW, Who is this girl who had a dog by the same name as mine... why don't I know her?? That is just too weird that there are two of us, involved in theatre, each with a dog named Bridget!!" It wasn't until just after mentioning Bridget that she mentioned something about Metro or TUTS that it hit me... and that's when I knew, "OMG!! She's talking about ME!!" When she then said my name, the room broke out in applause and a standing ovation! Somehow I made it to the front of the stage where there were stairs that I had to go up (but they did have helpers, thank goodness!). Seriously, I don't remember climbing the stair but even worse, I don't know what I said in my acceptance speech!

Here are a couple of pics from Monday Night:

This is a glimpse of half the room at 5:30pm when the doors opened. I had gotten there early to save seats for my two friends, Mark and David and my self, only to find we were already reserved to sit at the media table. So I didn't really need to get there that early, but better early than late :)


I really like this picture!! From left to right, moi, actor Jay Brazeau and my friend David Hannigan! Mark was taking the picture. Now what was really interesting with this picture is, he took it with my camera and we didn't have the flash on but it looks like we are overexposed even though thre was no flash. Weird, huh?


Ok... here we go... this is me up on the stage at the podium giving an acceptance speech. But can someone please explain why my shoulders are up past my ears, giving me a triple chin and a wig that's seems like it's slightly askew? I was totally in shock and had no idea this was going to happen so I didn't have anything prepared. After the fact I had so much I could have said that would have been very appropriate to how surprised I was to get this award and yet, how much it meant to me to receive it. So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to write a proper acceptance speech and post it as a note on Facebook and here. There really are no words to describe the feeling of being so totally accepted by the theatre community... amongst all those people I look up to and in awe at their talent. To have them, in turn, see me as part of the community, it's amazing!


Ok, this is a much better picture, with the shoulders down somewhat and the wig looking like it's a bit more centered ;) I am NOT used to wearing wigs, unlike the gals who perform on stage and can be wearing up to three or four wigs in one performance! I don't know how they do it!! But in this pic, everything seems to be in place and here is the lovely Jessie Award for the Mary Phillips Best Behind-The-Scenes Achievement.

Isn't she a beauty? What makes her so special to me is that this started with one person submitting my name and reason(s) why I should be considered for this award and what make me an unsung hero... and then that goes through the Committee process. I don't know too much after that but at some point votes happen and someone comes out the winner This just blows me away to get acknowledged and recognized for something that is an absolute passion for me. Not only do I love the Arts (theatre in particular) but I've fallen in love with every single person that is involved in all the productions that are done in Vancouver. Fickle that I am, I can go from one production to another and am in love with everyone in that production too. It's not a bad life at all :D


Ok, one more picture... I really like this one. Julie MacIsaac, Samantha Currie and myself. Julie and Samantha do a lot of acting/directing with Carousel Theatre for Youth... and this is one of my favourite theatres that encourage youth from the very very young to teens working with Shakespeare :)

So, as you can see... it's been one of those weeks with the highest of highs.... and maybe not the lowest of lows (it could be lower), but kind of scary stuff with the thought that we are going to have to come up with a different plan for fighting the tumours in the lungs.

Ok.. so that's it for this blog entry. I do still want to write a blog entry about the riot from June 15th. I know people are calling them the Stanley Cup Riot which makes it sound like Vancouver Canucks fans just can't handle not winning when it comes so close to getting that Cup and keeping it on Canadian soil. Yes, it appears Hockey is Canada's #1 sport... who would have thunk it?? I have never paid much if any attention to the game. I would have said it was probably a tossup between Football and Hockey but I stand corrected... Hockey in Canada far outranks the other team sports. BUT, as much as I know next to nothing about the game, the one thing I do know and have observed through these semi-finals and final Playoff games, Hockey fans are not out to destroy their own city and throw temper tantrums because their team doesn't win. Yes, they will be severely and depressingly disappointed because we were so close to getting the Cup, but destroy our city??? Anywho... I will have more to write about that later. But for now, it's going on 11:30pm and since I did get the pump taken off this afternoon, any time now I should either get the "oh oh, insomnia! I'm going to be up all night!" or "do I have to walk all the way into the bedroom? I'm never going to make it!! zzzzzzzz!"

So, nighty night!!

Cheryl

June 11th, 2011 - another month goes by!

Hello bloggies!

This is the strangest thing... according to when Iooked, the last blog entry was May 19th... yet, I could have sworn it was just in the last two weeks. It's absolutely amazing how time just flies by and yet, there are days when it can't go fast enough! I'm thinking, in particular, the Chemo weeks. Yikes... they can be nasty and slow!! And yet, when I get over them it's like my mind goes wonky and I think, "Well, those days weren't really all that bad, now were they?" The answer is YES!! They WERE bad and kind of scary and I wish I didn't have to go through them. The good news is that when the yucky days are over, they are over very quickly and one seems to go from "yucky, flu like symptoms, no energy" to "I think I can go out again!" Tonight ended up not being one of those nights, although I had plans of going to a friend's apartment-warming party if I ended up feeling better... and I did end up feeling better, but Steve called to say that it was pretty crowded and yes, warm, so I decided to stay home. I have a problem with my internal thermostat and if I go to a crowded room and it's that warm, then it becomes unbearable for me.... to the point where I feel like I'm going to faint. Sooooo, tonight's plans were cancelled before I actually began them ;)

But, suffice it to say, life has been pretty darn busy and hectic. So much to get ready for the new season at the theatre, including updating the website with all the new season information, plus this year Metro Theatre along with Canada's own JEFF HYSLOP is going to be giving two 6 day Intensive Musical Theatre workshops... one for beginners and one for youth who have had some training. Two excellent opportunities for 12 - 21 year olds! Very exciting stuff!

Of course, we still have one production left of this current season -- HARVEY by Mary Chase. Yep the classic movie of Elwood P. Dowd and his imaginary 6 foot rabbit. A great comedy and worth coming down to check out if you are in the Vancouver area!

I have to admit, with the chemo treatments being every two weeks, and each chemo week I'm sort of out and down for the count for 4-6 days, I haven't been able to get into doing much photography this spring. Then again, what kind of spring have we really had?? Maybe I'll blame the lack of photography on the fact we haven't really had a spring yet!! :D

Ok... last blog entry was to say that Bridget was feeling much better after her ordeal. And what an ordeal it was! But she seems to be doing just fine and has not had a repeat (phew!). She's even back on her own special diet and off the gastro diet... so life is good for my wee Bridget. This coming week I will be making her an appt. to get in to see the groomer. Poor little monkey is a bit of a mess since I wasn't going to take her in when she was going through all that trauma.

As for me... well, the game plan of chemo continues. I won't lie... this is no walk in the park :/ As a matter of fact, some of it I don't understand. I'm not sure if some of the things I'm going through are caused by the chemo, or if they are something I would normally have and the chemo is aggravating it. It's just so hard to figure out... and some of them can be a little on the scary side. For instance... back when I first started the chemo at the beginning of Feb. I would get a very congested nose every 2nd week when I got the chemo. This eventually ended up in my chest, hence I have this feeling of bronchitis non-stop. My GP did put me on antibiotics and lo and behold, it appeared to clear it up! No more congested nose or chest.... until the next chemo. Then the bronchial chest reappeared. Not the congested nose this time, just the tight chest and in the mornings, the rattley cough. Along with that I get very short of breath. Well one can assume the shortness of breath is because of the bronchitis... except I've never had shortness of breath when I would get bronchitis back before the chemo days. So I can't help but thing the whole bronchitis thing, cough and shortness of breath has something to do with the Chemo, even if that is not a normal side affect. My GP, oncologist and community healthcare nurse have all been very diligent in keeping an eye on listening to my lungs for congestion/bronchial pneumonia and the strangest thing... the lungs are perfectly clear. Even an xray proved there is nothing in them... yet, the congestion, cough and especially the shortness of breath wipe me right out.

Anywho... this week was the second treatment of the two chemos. I went in on Tues afternoon to get the first infusion of Irinotecan by IV for 2 hours. While sitting in the chair, as the chemo is being infused, I can feel the queasiness start up. So after the Irinotecan is finished then I get a small bag of gravol via IV. Once that is done, the chemo nurse hooks me up via the IV needle and my 46 hour portable pump of the 5FU chemo. I am then free to leave the building and go home. I come home and I have to admit, I'm pretty tired by the time I get home. So, I get dressed into comfy jammies and it's a given I'm going to be home for the next 4-6 days. Sure enough.. the queazies hit the tummy, the bronchitis does it's weird thing, along with the shortness of breath, and one just has a general over all feeling of having the flu and the lowest energy one can imagine. Even if one of you said "Let's go out for lunch... I'll pick you up!", I couldn't do it. Besides never knowing what the tummy is feeling, there wouldn't be enough energy to get dressed, down the stairs and into the car... let alone park and the walk to the restaurant. Stuff I just took for granted in the past... it's amazing how some of the smallest things are the big challenges.

Anywho... this week the community healthcare nurse came to my apartment and there will be one who comes every chemo week to unhook my chemo pump at the 46th hour. It's a 5 minute job. Of course, they check the states, so that's a good thing. They also ask questions to do with am I getting around ok at home... if I need help then they can arrange it. Hopefully I won't get to that point... so far, I'm doing fine, especially since Toby lives across the Hall and she has taken Bridget under her wing. Mimi comes down every morning to care for CB (my handicapped cockatiel) so the dog and bird are fine and in good care... which is a huge deal on these chemo weeks when I am just not up to being my usual self.

But then everything changes! For instance, this morning/afternoon I was still feeling flu'y and not able to go out or do anything out of the apartment. But, around 7pm tonight, voila! All of a sudden the flu symptoms vanished. I actually felt ok! I was actually going to go to an apartment-warming party, I felt that ok... but then common sense kicked in ;) I mean, here I had had my 4 days of totally low energy and here I was going to go to a crowded apartment party?? Hahaha... not one of my wiser ideas. So, I stayed home... knowing that tomorrow I'll probably be feeling just fine and maybe can go out for Sunday brunch :D I guess I just have to learn not to rush it... whether I like it or not, it's going to take a good 5 days, which seems like such a waste to me, unless the chemo is doing a lot of good.

Welllll.... it's 10:30pm. I think this is as good a time as any to curl up with a good book. I'm in the middle of reading Kate Morton's The Distant Hours. It took a bit to get into it but now that I am, I'm quite enjoying it! Hahaha... one of the things that I want to do is to go bookstore and just browse. Of course, there's no such thing as just "browsing" at a bookstore. When you do that you find books that you really want to read... especially at stores like Bookwarehouse where you can find oodles of them on sale! Hahaha... the only problem, I have 43 books that I still need to read that I picked up having wonderful afternoons like this. So common sense tells me I really should read some of these books I've already got before going and surrounding my self with more books at a bookstore :D

Okey dokey... hopefully next blog entry won't be so "Poor Me"... I'll try to remember to write the next on in a non-Chemo week :D :D

Ciao for now!!

Cheryl

Thursday, May 19, 2011 - Dog Trauma and my CAT scan results

Hello Bloggies ... another update!! :)

Hey, it's only been about a week... I'm doing better, right?? Well, I'll work on trying to make these weekly updates, but who knows ... so much to report on, so little time.

Well, for starters this past week has been extremely traumatic for a good 4 days (Fri - Mon) because of my little diva, Bridget. I know some of you were following the status updates on Facebook so this will be a repeat... I'll make it quick since the trauma is now over and she's doing so much better. It started Friday (May 13).... I should have known that Friday the 13th was not going to be a good day. I had to go for my CAT scan at 8:30am that morning (right there... having to be ANYWHERE by 8:30am does not bode well with me!). The rest of the day seemed to go without any problems. Toby mentioned when she took Bridget out for her walkie around dinner time, that she had gotten sick... just once but she threw up a yellow bile. This is not uncommon in dogs, but is something one should keep an eye on because it could be a sign that something is wrong internally. Well, it didn't seem to affect her appetite and she ate her dinner with her usual gusto... but a couple of hours later, threw that up as well. Then starting around 11pm, the diarrhea. Oh oh... just this past March she had that attack of colitis, so were we to go through this again? Pretty much so, it seemed. I was up all night with her Friday, getting her outside before we had an "accident". Sat morning I called the vet's office, explained the problems and with some discussion we agreed that we should just let it run it's course... and keep her on a very very bland "white" diet (chicken and rice). There is also a medication called ProGut, which is a paste that puts the good flora back in the gut... so Toby ran up to the clinic and picked this up. Saturday night seemed much better... both Bridget and I got to sleep through the whole night, no problems. Sunday, not so good... and Sunday night was THE worst. I can't even begin to describe how horrible it was and the poor little darling was in so much pain and suffering. Monday, first thing in the morning it was up to the clinic we went, where they kept her all day. They were going to keep her so that 1) I could get some sleep (after 2 nights of no sleep, it was taking it's toll on me since this was also a chemo week), 2) run a bunch of tests to check everything that could possibly be causing this and 3) set her up on a 4 hour IV of rehydration. After all that diarrhea, the poor little darling was soooo dehydrated. It's amazing how quickly small dogs can fall into the danger zone with dehydration and diarrhea will do it every time. Well, suffice it to say, all her tests came back in the normal range, which means she does not have any of the diseases they thought might be possible... and her pancreatitis test came back negative, which is a huge relief. Soooo, after coming home with antibiotics and having been rehydrated, she did much better... and now, she is almost totally back to her normal spunky self. The diagnosis... after having colitis, she obviously has a very sensitive "gut" and if she picks up something off the ground, or she is exposed to any kind of stress... her sensitivities act up. We are now going to work with the Vet on a diet that will hopefully keep on top of this so it doesn't happen again.

In case anyone hasn't figured it out... my little Bridget means the world to me ;) She's a character and a half, she's been with me for 13 years, through the good times, the bad times and the everyday times. A lot of you will remember that she started out as the Box Office dog at Metro Theatre... as well, she was both the Box Office dog and the Office dog at TUTS. She didn't come to work with me back when I was working my government job, but all the more reason it was important she came with me everywhere else. She quickly became adept at charming everyone who she met at the various theatres. She has been my sidekick all this time and she is so very rarely ill that when it happens, I will do anything and everything to get her well again. She's my little hero :)

Then there's me.... sheesh, it never seems to just rain, but it pours. As I mentioned, I had a CAT scan Friday morning. The purpose of this CAT scan was to see if the latest chemo (Irinotecan) I've been on since early February is doing it's job. As a recap, the cancer we are dealing with right now are multiple nodules in both my lungs. The primary cancer was colon cancer and the primary tumour was removed 4 years ago. The spread went to my lungs but appeared to be very indolent (lazy, wasn't growing). Last spring, the nodules started growing, so I was put on the oral chemo (Capecitabine aka Xeloda). That worked until Dec, then it just up and stopped working. Unfortunately, that's one of the realities of chemo... it can be working really well but then the cancer gets used to it and becomes immune. So then one has to try a new attack.

Well, long and short of it... it doesn't appear the Irinotecan chemo is doing a great job on it's own. When comparing the most recent CAT scan with the scan in Sept... there has been growth... not a lot, but the nodules are bigger than they were in Sept. What my oncologist and I think is that the Irinotecan has slowed down the growth, but it hasn't done the job we wanted it to do which is to shrink the tumours. So, my oncologist is suggesting we try adding another chemo (5FU) to the Irinotecan we are already on... so it will be a combo chemo. Now, the 5FU is the chemo I was first on (it is also the IV version of the Capecitabine/Xeloda). It's possible the combination chemo might be the extra kick that is needed for the tumors to be affected and start shrinking.

I'm certainly (obviously) willing to give this a try, but it does not make me a happy camper. The reason why? The 5FU is given in the same IV when I go in for the Irinotecan, only since we are adding it to the existing Irinotecan, that will increase the time I'm in the chemo chair. I'm not sure how much longer I'll have to sit in the chemo chair, but I do know I will also have to be hooked up to the 48 hour portable pump. Some of you will remember I was hooked up to the pump and would come down and do the box office at TUTS. Of course, back then I did not have the Irinotecan as well, so adding this 5FU chemo is not going to get rid of the side affects I am currently getting. Hopefully, I won't have any NEW side affects because of the pump. I tolerated the 5FU very well last time, so I'm expecting to again this time... but it has been 4 years, so it's possible that it may produce side affects that I didn't get last time.

Also, through the wonders of technology... a request has gone in for the research team to do testing on the original primary tumour that was surgically removed back in Jan 2007 to see if it is KRAS mutant. This is a gene or some such thing that if I have it, I would not be eligible for two other chemo treatments (Ertibux and Vertibux). Both of these have their own side affects, one of them being a very painful rash that breaks out on the face. So, I'm torn as to whether I want to be eligible for these two options or not. But, we are getting our ducks lined up in a row as to just what options we have left. Right now, my oncologist is not too concerned... but says the realities are there are only so many options so we have to cover all our bases and make sure that these options would actually do something for me. She says we are not to jump ahead of ourselves... we'll plan for 4-6 months at a time, because options can change, new ones can become available, etc. at any time.

So that's where we are right now. The CAT scan was not what I wanted it to be... and now we are about to add to our existing chemo treatment plan. And yes, after typing all of this, I'm now tired... so I'm going to go have a wee nap so I can be awake to go check out Broadway Chorus's performance at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island tonight :)

Cheryl

Friday, May 13th, 2011 - A long overdue blog entry

Heloooo bloggies! Yes, it's Friday evening and the sun is just starting to go down. Actually, I'm thinking it's more the clouds are rolling in than the sun is going down. It's going to be a dark and stormy evening... the wind is already a'howling. Not sure when this started since it was a gorgeous, gorgeous sunny and fairly warm day today. Go figure?

Well, surprise, surprise... it's been a good month since my last blog entry. I am really not sure how I'm going to be able to break this bad habit I seem to have gotten into. I mean, the whole purpose of blogging is that one keeps up an ongoing dialogue, even if it is pretty one sided. hehehe.. one needs people to write comments on each entry for it to be more a "conversation" style blog... or else it's just me rambling on. Hahaha... now that is certainly not a surprise! It seems whether I'm on a "bulletin board forum", an "email list", our good old Facebook or here in bloggy-land, rambling and babbling is something I tend to do. The only one that has me limited is Twitter... with only a 140 character maximum then babbling is not a possibility.

So what's there to report in the last month?? Chemo brain sets in and seriously... the last month just becomes one big blurr! I know the term "Chemo brain" is used quite often when someone is getting chemo treatment, no matter what kind of chemo or what kind of cancer. Chemo is sort of all put in one category and all cancers sort of get bundled together, even though we all know they are so very different. Likewise, treatments for all these various conditions are very different.. hence reactions are and can be different. I remember the first chemo treatments I was on (we are going back 4 years now) and although I can't say any of it was a walk in the park, I did feel I handled them all exceptionally well. I remember going down to Theatre Under The Stars every day, then doing the box office for both shows 7 days/week. Oh, the good old days!! Taking all the challenges of handling crowds of 1100 or more, using a computerized system during the day and a manual system at night... and there I was, with a fully functioning (or so I thought) brain, while being on chemo. Yep, I would have my chemo pump attached to my port and kept the small pump (the size of a baby bottle) in a fanny pack around my waist.

It's now 4 years later... this time the chemo is different. I go in to the chemo unit every two weeks and get chemo infused into my port via an IV. It takes about 2 hours and then a couple of extra minutes to get some anti-side affects meds put in. Then I'm free to leave... no pump, nothing to take home with me. But this chemo reacts soooo differently than the stuff I had four years ago. For example... I had the chemo on Tuesday afternoon. For the rest of Tues, Wed and Thurs, I pretty much have to stay home. I'm not necessarily sick or anything (although there are times when I feel a bit on the queasy side), just lack of energy. Just the thought of leaving the apartment and either getting into someone's car and going somewhere or getting into my own car and driving somewhere to meet someone... takes way too much energy. So, the first couple of days I just hang out at home... and thank goodness I have way more to keep me occupied what with theatre work on the computer ;) But even that... I have to really watch... because it's amazing how much energy/concentration computer work actually requires. Which brings us back to the term "Chemo Brain". Chemo is a systemic toxin/drug. It does not just go straight to where you think the cancer problem is (in my case, nodules in my lungs). The chemo goes throughout your whole system, via the blood stream and the lymphatic system. Hence, it does get in the brain... and that's where the fog/memory can be effected. So when one has chemo brain, sometimes the simplest of tasks become quite the challenge. And then other days, when one gets a lot of tasks done, well, we feel we are quite the heroes :D

Today, Friday, May 13th, I had to go first thing in the morning to get my 3 month CAT scan. It's been three months since I started this particular type of chemo. It is this scan that is going to tell us whether the chemo is doing what we are hoping it will do. Obviously, we are hoping the chemo will be shrinking the tumours/nodules in my lungs. The plan is, that if we can shrink them down back to small nodules, then I will be able to have a nice break/period of time off the chemo. Since the tumours are throughout both lungs, it's not like they can go in and just cut them out. If there were only one or two and they were close together, that would be an option... but alas, that's not an option for me because they are throughout both lungs.

Now in the past few weeks, actually maybe longer when I think about it, I've been fighting a bronchial bug. It appears to be a bronchitis bug that a lot of people have gotten and had to fight off. Back in my younger days, when I was a smoker, bronchitis was something I got all the time, so when the symptoms showed up, I knew exactly what it was. What I didn't account for was this weird closing of the bronchi (??) airwaves so that when you inhaled, all was fine but exhaling produces this wheeze/whistle. Some say that is what it's like to have asthma... but I've never had asthma before and highly doubtful I have it now. But I did get the tight chest which is not comfortable. My GP put me on antibiotics and it seemed to take almost the full 10 day cycle but the chest is all clear now. Still got the wheeze but not as bad as when I first got it. Meanwhile, my oncologist ordered a chest xray to rule out pneumonia... phew! That's all I would need.

Soooo this past couple of weeks had been kind of meh! I mean, there's the usual chemo symptoms to deal with and then add on top of that bronchitis, antibiotics, chemo, anti-chemo symptom meds... come on now, a girl can only be so spunky :)

But, spunky I've sort of been... when I've managed to get out and about. I did go out for a wonderful lunch with my friend, Nelli, at Seasons in the Park up at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park. It was one of those gorgeous sunny spring days and they had just finished planing a garden full of hyacynths. OMG!! The smell was divine!! I swear that has got to be one of my most favourite flower smells!! Here are a couple of pics... and I went blonde that day :)

These are planted outside the front of the restaurant in the park. But there are also tons more throughout the park. Such a glorious smell!!

Here I am in my blonde bouffant. I have to admit, I'm not too sure this is a look for me. It will do to be different, but it hasn't really grown on me. And no, I'm not fond of the double chin, which of course I blame on the blonde hair

My friend, Nelli!! Her lovely yellow blouse is PERFECT for this day we had. We were surrounded by yellow flowers and yellow is the perfect colour for spring!! Do you think I have ANYTHING in yellow?? Noooo... hmmm, and I was just shopping today! My bad... I should have been looking for some gorgeous yellow!

This is at the entrance to the restaurant. Lovely daffodils lined the entranceway, even though it is a little late for daffodils now. April is really the month for them... but I like them anywhere, anytime!

And this is the view we had from inside the restaurant. It's views like this, the flowers, being in the middle of a park, and on such a warm, spring day... well, it makes for a nice long lunch! Needless to say, we were there for a couple of hours, just catching up and having a girls' twosome lunch! Ahhh... the life of retirees!! :D

Now let's see... there was another stretch of days... this is while I was fighting the bronchitis in the chest and I really wasn't feeling all that hot. So again, better to be safe than sorry, I stayed around the old homestead. Again, bronchitis, like the chemo, really takes a lot out of the old energy system. So here we were having this stretch of lovely spring weather... the kind of weather you just want to get out and be outside. As we all know, when Vancouver has the good weather, there are so many things one can do outside. Ok, so some of us aren't THAT physical , so going for a run on the seawall, or a bike ride around the city, or taking the dog on a hike... not going to necessarily happen. BUT, one does get the overwhelming urge to just be outside soaking up the Vitamin E, and just feeling good about being in the fresh air.... but alas, I was homebound and feeling a tad on the depressed side. This is so NOT like me not to be out and about. More and more I've been having to stay close to home just to rebuild my energy reserves... and I'm hoping it's all a combination of fighting the bronchial bug along with the ongoing chemo battle... and as soon as I get over this bronchial stuff, I will be back to my usual running around self :)

Sooooo, my friend, Joan called me on one of these gorgeous days to see how I was doing and of course I whined to her about how I was missing our latest days of spring. So, bless her heart, she drove over and picked Bridget and I up and off we went to Spanish Banks to get some fresh air, a bit of sun and just the freedom of getting outside for that afternoon.

Sitting on a log over at the beach at Spanish Banks, looking back at the West End (which is where we came from since we both live in that 'hood). Hahaha... you can almost see my apartment building in this pic, but not really since it is sort of tucked behind one of the buildings on the far right of the picture.

This is showing how the tide is actually coming in (sandbars are getting covered over, but when the tide is out, you can almost (almost) walk out to the freighters sitting in the bay waiting to go into the port of Vancouver). Like I say, a lovely spring afternoon... and one where even just sitting on a log and able to get a few pictures makes for a lovely day. Unfortunately, I couldn't go for a bit of a walk because I was fighting the darn shortness of breath from the bronchitis... so I sat on a log, while Joan took Bridget for a little walk. Then we went off for a White Spot milkshake :D

I know I'm forgetting a few things... we had the big Federal Election. Don't even want to go there... for those of you on Facebook, you know what I think about that. So I won't put you through that again. Meanwhile, there have been a couple of openings of shows, some I made it to, some I didn't. But the ones I did I had a heck of a wonderful time. Fighting Chance Productions, THE WIZ was wonderful!! Metro Theatre opened 42nd STREET and had a very successful run. This past weekend, Metro opened HAUNTED which runs until June 4th, so if you get a chance to see it... please do!! We will then round up our season with the last production HARVEY, which is a play I know a lot of you have seen the movie... the fellow with his imaginary 6-foot rabbit friend?

Ohhhhh... and for those of you in town who have kids who love musical theatre and would like to take some training... have I got news for you!! Metro Theatre and Theatre Adventures (founded by Canada's own JEFF HYSLOP) will be doing two 6-Day MUSICAL THEATRE INTENSIVE WORKSHOPS. Yes, imagine being in a workshop lead by Jeff, as well as other phenomenal instructors - Mark Carter, Artistic Director for DSR Productions and Caitlin Hayes, Musical Director extraordinaire! The first workshop is one that will be 6 half days (mornings) for children 12-15 yrs. The second workshop will be 6 full days (morning/afternoon) for young folk 21 years and under. There will also be invited professional guest instructors. A workshop not to be missed!! PS: Although the starting age is 12 years old, if your child is someone we know who is under the age of 12 but has had theatre performance experience and/or training, then I'm sure we can work something out so they can attend. But you will want to sign up pretty darn quick! Once word gets out that Jeff is doing these workshops here in Vancouver, they will sell out pretty quickly!!

Ok... I think that's enough for tonight. Once again, I say with tongue in cheek... I will try to be a little more regular with the posts ... better than once a month because when I leave it that long, I forget what I've done over the past month!! And really, I think I've been pretty busy... at least, I think I have!! LOL!!

Huggggggs!

Cheryl