And things ramp up....

Well howdy.  It has been a very busy week for me.  We had such a fabulous time in Moab over the long weekend.  We got home and got back into work but I also had a business trip to Oakland.  It was a quick trip really and mostly designed for me to meet my new daily contact at my client's office.  As normal, it turns out we ran out of time so I didn't really get to share my wonderful parts of the presentation as they were cut out (honestly fine by me!).  The real trick was traveling after camping was probably not the best idea.  I was exhausted!  On top of that, my house cleaner, Trudy was cleaning so I had to clean up the camping mess before I left town.  But alas, it all went well and I made it through successfully and without incident. There is nothing like coming home to a clean house!

As I think I mentioned, I had been feeling like the lump in my eyebrow has been growing.  I woke up in Oakland Thursday, with a swollen eye.  I admit I was a little panicked about how I was going to go to my client visit with a massive swollen eye.  Luckily I had some time to put ice on it.  I also wore full makeup and practiced sitting with my right eyebrow raised.  No one mentioned it so I think I was successful.  Well okay, when I talked to my boss today, he said he didn't notice so I was successful.  But I did call Dr. L's office today to get an appointment to have him look at it.

Unfortunately, they couldn't get me in until July but with some friendly pushing and them asking Dr. L how soon he wanted to see me, I had an appointment this afternoon.  He did feel it was time to do something about the lump.  He gave me 3 choices.

1)      Chemo and radiation – is the most thorough but could be overkill and has many side effects.  Will fix the eye and any other tumors elsewhere (which he doesn’t feel confident there are any at this time).  Would be 2.5 months of chemo and then a month of daily radiation.

2)      Radiation alone – will take care of the lump in my eyebrow but would not treat any other tumors that may be growing elsewhere.  Will most likely lose part of right eyebrow as the hair will not grow back.  Would be a month of daily radiation.

3)      Biotherapy chemo – will be the least invasive and less side effects but probably won’t eliminate the tumor.  Didn't talk about duration as this doesn't seem like the right option.

As much as radiation terrifies me, I am going to explore option 2 first.  If it doesn’t work, we will do the full chemo.  I need to have a head CT scan to check my “orbits” and then I will meet with the radiology guy to talk about it further.  I want to be fairly confident I won’t lose my vision.  My Oncologist did talk to the radiation guy (he was in the office while I was there) and he thought he could do it without impacting my vision but he will need to see me and the CT Scan before we will know.  I am feeling pretty okay about it all and I am thrilled I have options although all of them suck and I would rather it just went away.  Since that is not going to happen, I'm going to buck up and get ready to FIGHT!  I've actually been getting ready since 3/7 but now we have the wheels getting ready to move.

 

I will know Monday when my appointments will be.  He does want me to move pretty quickly.  After those 2 appointments, I will meet up with Dr. L again to let him know what I decided and make our plan to proceed.

 

So this weekend is hopefully a quiet weekend for me.  I need to stop and catch  my breath for a minute.  Well more like let my body rest and get some energy back.  I have a nice huge book club book I need to finish this week so that will keep me entertained while I rest.  I have some serious kitty corralling to do as well.  They get pretty sad when I leave town.  Right now, I am forbidden to go anywhere without a ball of fluff close by.  Hopefully they will get over that soon.  And if I am up for it, I might putter in the yard.  I need to get some weeds pulled and trim back the tulips so the next round of flowers can shine.  Sounds like a fantastic weekend plan to me.

 

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend.  It is the first weekend of June you know.  Summer is showing lots of promise!!