Ruth's musings

I have been dealing with breast cancer for a while, and have been sharing my journey with friends, family, and prayer partners. This blog brings all my updates together in one place, and leaves me free to muse on other parts of my life. Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Ruth Update #1

This one was dated February 19, 2006

Dear Friends, Relatives, and Prayer Partners,

I have had a little over a week to get used to the idea that my cancer has returned. I have been doing okay, really. One thing I want to clarify: In my first message, I said I had been "suffering from hip pain." That is a bit of hyperbole. My pain is more annoying than anything else, most of the time. It is Motrin pain, not Percoset pain. It had been intermittent, but, of course, got worse as soon as I got the news that it was not bursitis. At least, it seemed to get worse. I still manage pretty okay with Motrin, though I take Percoset at bedtime. I have been sleeping pretty well, too!

I saw my radiation oncologist on Friday. This is the same doctor who treated me with radiation of the chest wall. She assures me that this will be much easier to take. There will only be ten treatments, as opposed to about thirty for the chest wall. Also, she said that bone mets respond much better to radiation than soft tissue mets. Good news. This should clear up my pain.

I have a bone scan scheduled on Tuesday, with another visit to radiation oncology on Wednesday to get set up and marked (tattooed) for my radiation treatments. Later that day, I meet with my medical oncologist for more discussions. I hope to remember to ask her the questions that I couldn't come up with on the initial visit. I expect to start radiation treatments next week. They will be five days per week for two weeks, then done. After that, I expect to start chemotherapy, depending upon how we can schedule things.

God has been sending me angels. I spoke to one woman at Timmy's school, somebody I didn't know, and she said her aunt had gone through this kind of treatment four times, but has had a clean bill of health for seven years. That tells me to never give up. Also, never stop visiting your oncologist. A friend of mine, who has also gone through cancer treatment, sent me a note: "I know this must be incredibly hard, and if I were in your place, I would smack anyone who told me to keep a positive attitude or who brought me down to a negative attitude, so you just feel what you feel and do what you have to do. I'll just hang out here and pray that you'll feel the love and strength and protection and healing of God during your treatment."

Thank you all for your words of encouragement. They have warmed my heart. I hope to have some more news later in the week.

Get your mammograms. Do your self-exams.

Love,

Ruth

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