103 degrees (record); Toni sets course for chemo and radiation

If the average, (I get the concept of average), summer temp should be 76 degrees, then a temp of 103 degrees (which is a record for all recorded time) isn't abi-normal? Global Warming. Hot. Burning hot. So, I told y'all we were going to stay in a hotel tonight. Get this. So the hotel was over-booked and we lost our reservation. Nicely, the Marriott put us up in the hotel in downtown Seattle for free, and then booked us at the Marriott in Kirkland for the next two nights. Bottom Line: For the price of one nights stay (usually $160) we are staying three nights. Getting downtown was pain, but we are here, and Toni has asked me to turn up the heat in the room, because it is too cold. Ah, back to normal.

Toni did get to see the oncologist. It would appear she is leaning towards combining the chemo and radiation, and may be poised to shave the chemo to a total of 24 weeks. She needs to get this all checked out through the insurance and all, but that seems to be the path she wants to take. She is going to think about it a bit more.

More on Friday.

Sweltering heat wave hits Seattle

OK...it is so hot, that Toni and I are going on a trip across town to the Courtyard Marriott to cool down tomorrow for two days. Unbelievably warm. Broke a record for...get this... the night time low... of 70 degrees. It will be at least mid-80's until after midnight. That is warm. The daytime high was 95 degrees (and about 35%) humidity. I know that in the plant at which I work, it was 98 degrees on the shop floor. By the way... the average temperature (WITHOUT GLOBAL WARMING) is 76 degrees. There was little or no breeze in the air which makes it sticky. At least in Colorado it still gets into the 50's at night... but noooo... and of course most homes do not have AC. So Toni begged me (er I begged her) to go on a romantic date away from home and into the AC for two days. (Ain't she just great!) ONE MOMENT... unbelievable, a polar bear just walked by mumbling something about moving to Phoenix to get out of the heat.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) she meets with her oncologist, Dr. Linden to discuss her progress and what her next steps may be regarding either a combined chemo/radiation regimen or the typical sandwich path. She is still dealing with a fair amount of lymphedema. Friday (following chemo), she is going to see someone who specializes in lymphedema massage.

Mr. Maggie is doing ok in the heat. I have thought about filling up the tub, just to see if he would get in. That way it would be "his" idea to want a bath, instead of me trying to give him a bath and being shredded to pieces. Toni probably does not support this behavior on my part. She says "No" because "I love you both."

So, we'll report on the weather from our air conditioned room tomorrow with the results of the doctor visit.

Freaky Friday; Part II (the sequel) 8 down and 18 to go

Real time blog from the SCCA.

AAUUGGHH, so y'all ain't gonna believe this. The &^%$^$$#@$^%$* BMW died again...in exactly the same place - 2 blocks from the house. Luckily we had the truck. We walked back got the truck and made it to chemo on time. But what a drag.

Toni's nurse today is Vicki. Toni's blood work looks good overall. Counts are down, but where they should be. She is still really tired. Monday was the worst, and then she started to improve. But today she is kind of tired; emotionally as well. Sitting in the waiting room... a few tears appeared. "Just tired of being here."

Toni's next visit with her oncologist, Dr. Linden, is this Wednesday. She will be starting to decide whether to do chemo and radiation at the same time, or do the "sandwich" thing (chemo, radiation, chemo).

So in other news: Toni will be getting a visit from her niece Beth in the next two weeks. That should lift her spirits as well.

We will be spending a lot of time looking for a new car.

Freaky Friday; and 7 down -- 19 to go.

What a Friday! You see, it all actually started on Thursday. We took the truck in to get some long overdue maintenance done. This morning, we started with this routine in mind: 1) Chemo from 7 to 10am, 2) Take Bryan to work, 3) While Bryan's working...Toni was going to do some light shopping if she felt ok, and then 4) pick Bryan up around 12:30pm - ish.

That is not the way it went. We started impeccably on time at around 6:25 leaving the house. At this time in the morning, Seattle is about 20 to 25 minute ride, based on our driveway to a parking spot at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. All was good, until the car died 1 block from the house. Mind you, we have had a "hard to pin down" electrical problem for a year. But usually, the car restarts immediately (and it is usually only when in 1st or 2nd gear and going slow). This time -- no restart. We tried for 30 minutes. We found ourselves to be officially late.

Finally, after I had a nervous breakdown (how we were going to get Toni to chemo?), I was seriously thinking of raiding Toni's drug cabinet for anything to put me out of my misery. She calmly walked me back to the house, where I relieved my anxiety somewhat by calling USAA to tow the car to Bellevue. Fun part was... we now had no other car. And every local rental place was out o' cars. Luckily Enterprise thought they would have something around 3:30pm or so. Worse case, I was going to beg Kirkland Ford to come get me once the truck was done, or I was riding my bike about 3 miles across 4 lanes of traffic to go get the truck. AND... Toni still had to get her chemo in either today or tomorrow. Deb (her oncology nurse) rescheduled Toni for 6:30pm (which brought on other stress I was not really looking forward to either; I'll explain later).

So Toni and I worked on things around the house. And waited until 3:30pm. Finally, Enterprise was able to come get us and we had a rental car. And less than 1 hr later, the Ford guy called and the truck was ready. So things were looking up. Toni and I grabbed a light dinner, paid for the truck, arranged with the dealer to allow us to park it until we could retrieve it later in the evening. And we were off to Seattle.

Ok, I will now explain my other stress above. See we have four ways to get to Seattle. Two of them are way out of the way and involve lengthy sitting in traffic. The most popular methods of going to Seattle from the east side is over either the I-90 or 520 bridge. The 520 is a 2 lane each way floating bridge. And during peak traffic is about a 30 minute commute just to clear the bridge. I-90 is a multilane bridge with an Express lane as well. Well, with my luck and timing, the I-90 has been closed down to a trickle for repairs, so most everyone is diverting to the 520. We left Kirkland at around 5:20, and hit the bridge at a solid back up. Somehow, although it looked like a 2hr commute, we arrived with 10 minutes to spare.

Toni's chemo went mostly without a hitch. We were in an out in a little over 1.5 hours (I think that is record). Of course almost no one was there that late. We were informed that Toni is now running a bit anemic according to her red blood count, etc. Her white count is holding its own. The the anemic thing is probably why she is so fatigued now. For being that wiped out, she sure is an inspiration for getting up and moving on. Her "lymphodema" in her right arm is puzzling, and we are hoping she can get into the physical therapist real soon to try to get some relief. It is starting to bother her quite a bit. I was so relieved to get her chemo done, despite the car issues. Thankfully, our ride home turned out to be smooth and easy...

So, we celebrated our freaky Friday with a trip to Baskin-Robbins. Toni had a single scoop of Snickers something or other, and I had the patented mint-chocolate chip. Ah comfort food. By the way (it was over 90 here today... and that is steamy hot for Seattle). Thus, we enjoyed our cones and finally felt cool enough to call it a night just a little while ago. Ok, that's it, I am done. Later y'all.

Snorilicious Toni; Poised for treatment number 7

So, as we sit here tonight enjoying Top Chef, Toni is looking more radiant than she feels. Tired, but radiant. I have a ritual of ironing our shirts for work. Mind you, we (ok I) start at around 3:45am, yada yada, and around 4:15 Toni is typically getting up and heading for the shower. Ah... but not today. For an instant I thought my new T-Fal iron was making weird steaming noises. But NOOOO, it was my Toni out cold snoring away at 4:30am. By the way, (plug for the T-Fal iron)... oh, only too fun. Glides over clothes like skates on ice, comfortable to hold, and a convenient cord that doesn't leave you tangled. I love ironing once again. (Our Rowenta sprung a leak the size of Niagara Falls). Thanks to my darling Toni for allowing me to purchase such a wonderful appliance.

She did finally get up and dragged herself to Everett and put in a 10 hr day. (Wahoo, gotta make some money so Bryan can get more household appliances). Healthwise, she really is doing ok. Visibly/physically more tired, but work is a good distraction. Our house is open for visitors. Call 425-821-9691 and leave a message with Mr. Maggie, our concierge, as to when you might happen by. Seattle is wonderful in summer.

Blog Site Gets Upgrades!!!

New photo of Toni. This is a favorite of mine. I always try to surround her with love. This picture was my attempt to surround her and capture the moment.

Also, check out the bottom of each blog. Anyone can check a box by "clicking" if you think the post is fun, interesting or heart warming. I tried to put in a few other categories, but can only get three.

Trying to live blog

So here we are at the Seattle Cancer Center on the 5th floor and I am trying to use Toni's iTouch. The big discussion is around fatigue, one the most likely side affects. Toni's nurse is Maribel today. We did get to see Vicki. Yet with the schedule today we were assigned otherwise. Toni is in her chair covered with two warm blankets and is reading a book called the Cancer Battle Plan. We are also reading a meditation book at night mostly based around breathing. It is interesting.

So she is starting her chemo (8:15am). Saline is done, and now she is getting her anti-nausea med. Now the M of her CMF chemo (8:25). That has all taken place in about 10 minutes. And now she is getting the "F" (8:30). So we'll be done in less than 5 minutes. I think she is looking forward to a nice nap.

Post day note: Other than the 1 hr wait for her blood work to be done, we were in the car at 9:11am. Total trip including driving today was around 3 hrs.

Radiologist added to Toni's Xmas Card List

Toni visited with "her" radiologist. As you might know, Toni's initial schedule was 13 weeks of chemo, 6 weeks of radiation, and then 13 weeks of chemo. In a strategic move and a stroke of luck, Toni will be under the care of the Radiology Department Chair for Evergreen Hospital. She thoroughly enjoyed her visit with him. Statistically, Evergreen has a 98% cure rate. So read that as a 2% re-occurance rate. On average across the country, other hospitals top out at a 60% rate (read as 40% re-occurance rate).

In his dialogue with Toni, Dr. Hunter explained the risks factors that may have caused the cancer. Latitude was one risk factor. The further south you are of Colorado, you get more Vitamin D (less chance of breast cancer). It all has to do with the angle of the sun's rays and Vitamin D. Or the lack thereof. Another factor... no kids before 29 (disclaimer: I could not have helped with that, at least then), and a list of others that may have contributed as well.

So, Toni does have a rather aggressive type of cancer. It is possible that it started about 10 to 15 years ago and began to duplicate. The reason the cancer grew fast and became a surprise was the doubling of the cells. Think geometric. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc.... in 10 or 15 years you have a bunch... or at least 2.3 cm worth. Good news was it was Estrogen + and HER2-. If it was the other way around... it would be very bad. Much harder to treat and the prognosis would have been 50/50 for the 5 year outlook.

He is ok with Toni doing a combination of chemo and radiation at the same time. This would mean she could be starting radiation within two months. If the sandwich method mentioned above would continue to be the course Toni is on, it would be 13 weeks chemo, a 2 week break, 7 weeks of radiation and then 13 weeks of chemo. Yet combining, all would be done in 26 weeks or less. Dr. Hunter's prognosis of Toni's cancer was "you might be cured as you sit." So, Toni left Dr. Hunter and promptly added him to her will and the Christmas card list.

Tomorrow is #6.... and we are counting down.

Week-starting update

So back to work for Bryan (tomorrow) and Toni (today). It appears the chemo might be starting to have some effect on Toni; she is having stronger headaches and is a bit more on the queezy side. She also has some minor lymphodema in her right arm. Mostly this is a comfort thing, so she has asked for a referral to get some treatment. Toni is in good spirits though and did ok at work today. We tried to rest well this weekend, and hopefully that will get her through the week.

Allowed the kitty to spend some quality lap time with me today. I let him lick and rub on me a bit under the chin. Oh my, a bit of an error. See I am allergic to the kitty, but I was doing ok, so I thought, eh... let him do what he does to Toni. I soon discovered I was having a significant reation...like bumps all over my chin and and neck. Man, did I swell up. Good news is... the swelling has disappated, so I should be fine by morning.

Toni has a busy week ahead. She is going to visit with the radiologist tomorrow, mostly to discuss options. Then, on Friday, she marks the start of the half way point in the first "13 week session" of chemo. As this is the 6th week, she'll get the full monty on the blood work. That may or may not lead to some chemo tweaking.

She remains so very positive, and focused on getting better.

We're back...

Well, treatment number 5 is done. Things went well as always. We had our regular nurse, Vicky. My white blood and platelet counts have dropped but are still within the normal range. If the trend continues, it will be at least one or two more weeks before they will be below normal. I'm not exactly sure what the target is my doctor is looking for.

We discussed my radiation treatment with Vicky and told her of my plan of doing it concurrently with the chemotherapy. Because that can intensify the side effects of both treatments, I've not gotten warm fuzzies from anyone when I bring it up. But Vicky was able to look up Dr. Linden's notes from our last appointment. There was only a comment about the concurrent radiation and Vicky said that if Dr. Linden really thought it was a bad idea she would definitely say so. My first appointment with the radiologist is on Tuesday so I'll see what he thinks. It would be nice to get everything done with this year.

It was so good to be home. It was a comfort to both of us to be surrounded by so much love. It means a lot to know you are there supporting, loving and thinking about us.