Monday, September 21, 2009

A little more about my cancer




Adenocarcinoma (non-small cell) of lung origin with metastasis to the brain, liver, and bones (especially hips).

So the story is that sometime in the last year or two some cell in my lung went pffffftttttt and mutated wrong.  Some other cells decided to copy it. And then a flew like a wildfire through my body.

My beloved chiropractor has full body x-rays of me from last April.  He is killing himself going over and over them.  He has taken them to experts and no one can see anything. So this fire is pretty recent.

It's just a fluke of nature. I drew the short straw. Apparently more and more young women are being struck with this.

As most of you know, I have been dealing with the hip issues (body workers, acupuncture, then MRI's, orthopaedists) since 8/9 (Ivy's birthday party where some of you noticed me limping). But it was only the seizure that I had recently that gave it all away.  My oncologist says that it is extremely rare for this cancer to be caught prior to metastasis. A chest x-ray may not have even showed us unless taken fairly recently.  When we adopted Ivy I had to have full medical workups and bloodwork. Mark and I recently bumped up my life insurance (when you are a full-time mama you are expensive to replace) and I passed with flying colors.

Current treatment:  I have had 4 brain radiation treatments and 1 hip radiation treatment. The decision on my hips is to treat the right hip only right now. There is a fairly large lesion in the right femur at the top and there has been fear of me breaking my hip.

As far as the left hip, I am not currently in pain. That hip is riddled with cancer. It's all up in the ball joint and all over. But no one will let me walk or be on it, so it is feeling ok. We are trying to save the bone marrow there for later. And at some point I will probably require a complete hip replacement?

Next plan is a chemo blast. The only thing holding us up from starting is that we are trying to get in to someone at UCLA or City of Hope for a 2nd opinion.  Because it is a fast moving cancer, chemo should be effective and quick on the parts of my body that aren't being radiated.

That's it for now.  Love you all and thanks for your support. Thanks especially for supporting my team--my husband, children, sister, niece, and nephew.

4 comments:

Tamasin Spinney said...

wish I could be there to drive you I would like to see ur face too!

Julie said...

Sending love your way.

Gabrielle said...

Hugs and a lot of love. I will be able to do more when my house of guests leave. Thanks for your message yesterday. Hearing your voice put a smile on my face. I will try to call you on my way home from work today!

Love,
Deb

Rosie said...

thanks for posting this info it was all questions that were being asked in my household. I'm glad that it's been caught and you are fighting this thing full heartedly!

You've really made me think about the neglect I give myself. We all as mom's need to take care of ourself's and not let our health slide.