All before noon

• Neupogen injection at Siteman West County and CT scan at Barnes West County Imaging Center

Window view

• Bloodwork and treatment (Irinotecan #11) at Siteman West County

Orange bits

• Neupogen injection at Siteman West County

See the nice orange plastic bits... Neupogen, not it's cousin Zarxio that causes me so much bone pain. (I'm not injecting myself in the leg here, I'm just holding the syringe to warm it up while my nurse takes my vitals and asks me the 100 questions they have to ask each time.) I bet that I could repeat them here by memory. "How are you feeling?" "How's your appetite?" "Bowels moving okay?" "Any falls since we saw you last (yesterday)?" "Any new numbness or tingling?" "Any pain that you acknowledge?" "Any mouth sores?" "Any fever?" "Drinking enough fluids?" "Any bone pain?" Hmm I am missing a couple, I'll pay closer attention tomorrow.

Napping

• Bloodwork and treatment (Irinotecan #10) at Siteman West County

Myth busted

Have you heard the story about a woman feeling and finding her colon cancer tumor during a wedding dress fitting? Apparently that woman is me? MYTH BUSTED. That story is FALSE. FALSE.

You can find the details surrounding my diagnosis if you go back to the beginning of my blog and June 2014. https://cartwheelscupcakescancer.blogspot.com/2014/06/ I only bring this up today because recently, and for the second time since my diagnosis, someone brought up that story to me. And all I could say was...

WHAT?!?!?!?!

I have never been able to feel any of my tumors, not my colon tumor, not my ovarian tumors, not my liver tumors, not my lung tumors and not my peritoneal cavity tumors. Any pain that I have ever felt has been from what those tumors have been doing to the tissues and organs surrounding them. The ovarian tumors (cancer that had already spread from my colon) started compressing my right ovary and that is the pain that I felt in June 2014 that sent me to the ER. I have felt pain but I have never EVER been able to actually feel any of my tumors.

Hopefully that brings an end to that myth. My only 2 dress fittings were in August 2014, two months AFTER my diagnosis, and absolutely nothing could be felt. MYTH BUSTED.

The truth is super important to me because awareness about colon cancer is something that I am now passionate about. My doctors believe that my cancer started growing 5-10 years before that ovarian tumor caused pain and sent me to the ER. If I had ever, EVER, felt any tumor or related pain before then, I would have been at the doctor that day, but that's the problem with colon cancer, by the time that it starts causing any symptoms, it is often very advanced. It is NOT like breast cancer, where feeling the tumor (a lump) is often the first sign. It is important to know your colon cancer risk factors and detection signs. Here's a good link to the American Cancer Society's information page: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer.html.

After my diagnosis and initial surgery, we jumped right into chemotherapy and tried to keep planning our wedding. It took many months for us to talk to friends and family in detail about what happened, perhaps that delay allowed for this myth and maybe others to develop. But how is it possible that almost three and a half years after my diagnosis, that this myth even exists?? I hope that if anyone reading this has any questions, that you will direct them to me rather than trust second or third hand information. The truth is super important to me and nobody has that about my cancer journey but me. Every detail about my wedding day was so perfect to me and having my dress fitting somehow connected to my cancer diagnosis is upsetting to me. I would hate for anyone to have that connection. MYTH BUSTED.

Wait for it

• Appointment with Dr. S at the Pain Management Center at Missouri Baptist Medical Center

I definitely jinxed myself by writing about how smoothly my last appointment went here. This one involved a lot of waiting, but that's okay. I got to see Dr. S, we're going to make an adjustment to one of medications, and I got to read through 4 or 5 old issues of People magazine.

Platelets

• Bloodwork, appointment with Dr. T and NP A and treatment at Siteman South County

Two weeks ago I noticed in my bloodwork results that my platelet count was higher than usual. I looked back through my history and I noticed that my platelet counts had only been that high right after surgeries and radiation procedures. I thought this was interesting but figured the higher count was probably due to my pneumonia. So I was really surprised when Dr. T popped into the room today to tell me that my platelet count was too LOW for treatment for today. TOO LOW. And it's actually the big change from high to low in just two weeks' time that he is concerned about, so we need to delay treatment for a week and recheck my platelet count next week before I can have chemo.

Hector and I shared our Chicago marathon stories with Dr. T, NP A, K and some of his other staff
and they were so happy for us. We've been talking about the marathon for almost a year now and they have been so supportive.

Although disappointed about another delay in treatment, I left the office feeling pretty good. We have my next few weeks scheduled out, including my next CT scan, and I have a lot of positive energy in my life right now. So I was really bummed this afternoon to see that my CEA tumor marker test result has risen again today. If this chemo is working, my CEA should be going down...

Don't poke a sleeping owl

It's taken a week of sleeping about 18-20 hours/day, but I'm finally feeling better after being sick, developing pneumonia, traveling and having chemo in just a few days' time. I was a little worn out.

Good to go

• Treatment (Irinotecan #9) at Siteman West County

Clear

• Bloodwork and chest xray at Siteman West County

The decision to go to Chicago on Friday afternoon was a tough one, but I had a good conversation with Dr. T’s office that morning and I agreed to be back today for a repeat chest xray and bloodwork. Aaaaand today’s chest xray is all clear (no signs of pneumonia.) It was a warm October weekend in Chicago so that helped, cold air would have kept me in the hotel. And I rested when I needed to. I’m not sure I’m able to capture into words what the weekend meant to me, but I might try at some point down the road.