Last week’s round of imaging to see what’s what

Last week’s 3 CT scans showed some response to the new (since-December) chemo combo in my chest/abdomen/pelvis: very good news, though not all the new mets are gone.  Some are just unchanged or smaller. My various brain/spine MRIs showed leptomeningeal effects still in the central nervous system but nothing worse than late January when we started the […]

Brief update

Chemo vs. scans to see what’s been accomplished inside of me 🙂 I also have 3 cranio-sacral therapy appointments set up for March to work on my spinal cord and brain from a different angle.  Back when I made the appointments in early February, before starting I didn’t really know whether I would still be […]

Ups and downs

The last few days have been frustrating because just as I felt like I was getting substantially better in the strength and muscle department,  I lost some of it somehow. My thighs were no longer able to get me to a standing position without pushing with my arms, and my knees kept wobbling out on me […]

Vanities: smarts

(Part four of four musings on vanity’s role in my life.)  Finally we come to my final vanity: Vanity about smarts. I have always considered myself a smart person.  Besides this, I have had to navigate in the medical world,  specifically the world of breast cancer, on and off since 1995.   Before my diagnosis of […]

IT Methotrexate is working!

I’ve been getting intrathecal methotrexate (methotrexate injected into my cerebro-spinal fluid) for about a month now, which makes for a busy chemo schedule twice a week in Albany along with my other chemo regimen. But it seems to be working! I don’t know what this means for my chemo schedule in the next month or so, […]

My report card

Recently a few of my closest family members and friends got together and wrote up a report card for my recent course load at the University of Oncological Resistance (UOR).  It is pretty funny so I thought I would share it.: Ellen’s report card Today is “quick” chemo (just methotrexate) and my stepsister Deb, who is visiting, […]

The evolving bucket list

Originally my sparse “bucket list” featured taking my family with me to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where I had been but they had not.  Then there was spending relaxed time in France, which we did for almost two weeks last summer; and I wanted to go to England again, too (which I did […]

Weekend update

No, not that Weekend Update! Dealing with Fatigue: Boy, do I sound tired! Possibly more tired in my voice than the rest of me.  I did notice today that my voice was really weak, so you are getting to hear what that sounds like.  Not much like me, at least to my ear.

Post-chemo report

Today was almost completely taken up with “double chemo” along with a day-one-of-the-cycle appointment with the nurse practitioner who works with my oncologist. My oncologist is on vacation–and I hope he is vacating enough because he’s got to last me and not burn out!  How is that for thinking long-term? I still like to think […]

“Quick” chemo today

A bit about today’s trip to Albany Med: Late this afternoon, after Jesse and I watched some episodes of “Elementary,” our friend Arti stopped by with some homemade creampuffs. And I replied irreverently: