An Anniversary

This week marks the 6th anniversary of my diagnosis although technically I didn’t know I had cancer until a month after this, but the initial surgery and tumor removal was on December 15, 1999. We don’t plan to “celebrate” this day, but we will acknowledge it and the fact that I’m still here. Fortunately it’s also the birthday of our youngest nephew, Keagan so perhaps we will have a cake on this day anyway! A lot has happened in the past 6 years and some of it has even been good.

I do have a little bit of health related news to pass along. Remember my urinary tract infection and subsequent kidney blockage which resulted in a brief hospital stay in September? Dr. Karian removed several polyps during that procedure which should have unblocked the kidney, however I’ve had two ultra sounds done since then and they both showed that my kidney still was not draining properly. We’ve been watching and waiting, trying to see if the problem would resolve on its own, but it hasn’t. I’ve become accustomed to the constant nagging pain and have finally gotten both Dr. Karian and Dr. Lange to talk and agree that this was not being caused by the Erbitux. I read through all the fine print on the Erbitux literature and found that kidney failure was a possible side effect. However the ingrown toenail I had removed in October was probably a side effect of the Erbitux. Just picture me shaking my head at this point….

Back to my point. I’m having an IVP (intravenous pyelogram) done on Tuesday. This test has been ordered by Dr. Karian to get a clear picture of what is going on between my kidney and the ureter. We don’t know what the possible options are though we’ve done some speculating. I assume he could place another stent to hold the ureter open, but that’s not a long term solution and at this point I don’t want any more temporary fixes. The IVP isn’t invasive (except for the night before bowel prep that I have to do – warning, do not call me on Monday night!!). And considering the amount of pain I’ve been experiencing lately, I suspect I will hear back from Dr. Karian sooner rather than later. I’ll post an update later this week when I have news to share.

I did make an executive decision and cancelled my treatment for the week because I think the IVP is enough to deal with in one week . Besides my skin is drying out, flaking off, and breaking out, so a week off will give me a chance to rehydrate, exfoliate and clear up. Now that winter is officially here (whew…only 7 inches in Somerville on Friday, though a snow storm that included thunder and lightening was something I never experienced before) I’ve stocked up on my moisturizer and lip balm. I won’t complain too much about the weather yet – there’s plenty of time for that over the next few months.

I’m on pain meds right now and that seems to be affecting my ability to put 2 sentences together tonight, so apologies if I appear to be babbling. Until later…