July 17: Status Update

As with all things lately, this week has had some ups and downs. Let’s start with the downs, all related to this biopsy:

• Biopsy came back as cancer
• I have not heard any change to my schedule based on this
• Since this was here prior to the start of chemo, it doesn’t seem like they are as concerned – though this bump was still there when the other had disappeared
• Positive: I now don’t have any disease lumps in my body that are noticeable
• Negative: since she tried to close the wound with strips instead of stitches, the skin didn’t heal together and pulled apart – I now have an actual hole in my chest. This subsequently got infected (I was going to post a picture but it’s pretty gross). Retrospectively this was foreseeable, as with my WBC being so low, I was extremely susceptible to infection
• The Dr has now given me an antibiotic and I’m hoping by Friday for Chemo the surgical oncologist will clear me for chemo. I also hope that my WBC doesn’t dip due to the fighting off this infection – FINGERS CROSSED

So overall I’m pretty unhappy with the decision to do the biopsy, we should have foreseen the infection and risk to delay in chemo, and spoken with the other Doctors before doing it to see if it would change the course of action, and if not then have not done it. This was in the back of my mind, but I didn’t speak up. I’ve learned my lesson.

On to the positives:

• Chemo Side Effects – Very little with the second round
• Zarxio Shots – These were a piece of cake. I had no trouble giving them to myself. It hurts way less when you do it yourself too. I finished all 3 and hopefully they will boast my WBC count to both fight the infection AND clear me for Chemo
• Back Pain – Great news the back pain is all but gone. It’s still super tight when I breath in, but I have physical therapy next week to work through it

So basically, if I hadn’t had the biopsy I would be in a very good mood today.