Results of Brain MRI

The results of my brain MRI are in! And the findings indicate that my cancer is stable, but it did find a "small focal enhancing lesion on the left thalamus" but it states that this lesion was likely present on my last brain MRI that was done on 5/5/11 and 2/14/11. Overall, there is still "stable scattered white matter foci".  It's not fantastic news, but atleast the findings indicate that my cancer is stable and nothing serious.
Stanford Doctor Visit Today

Today, I woke up early at 6AM to get ready for my 8AM appointment at Stanford. Courtesy of a volunteer from the American Cancer Society, Walt, a local San Jose volunteer came to pick me up and drive me over to Stanford. It was my first time utilizing the Driver Cancer support program, although I was still a little hesitant about it since I'm not so comfortable about a stranger picking me up and driving me to my appointment.  You know what I mean. But, nevertheless, it was nice of the American Cancer Society to have this program. 

As usual, it was great to see my doctor, Dr Neal and tell me him some of the all around hip, shoulder, back, thigh, arm, neck, knee bone pain that I've been feeling as well as some light headaches.  To that, he suggests I do a neck to knee CT scan in 2.5 weeks instead of a PET scan to check on things.  This is better than a PET scan since we also want to see how my tumor is doing in my chest, lungs and such.

I'm so glad to see him as he's always so encouraging and optimistic.  He also  wants me to be on Tarceva since CT scans shows the tumors are stable while I'm on it.

Overall, other than the aches here and there, I'm doing alright and still keeping really busy with the kids. Here are some pictures of me from today and some from the last few days. The first picture is from Emma, loving eating yogurt.  While we waited for Ethan to be done with Sylvan learning, we strolled down a few stores down to enjoy some good old healthy yogurt. The middle picture is of Ellen, sitting so good at her dental teeth cleaning and checkup. The last picture is of Ethan waiting in line for kinder class to start.

Again, many hugs and love to you all for your emails, support and prayers. Let's continue to wish for continue stableness and good news.

Aches, rashes

Lately I've started to feel some shoulder, hip, back and even knee aches and small headaches. This got me worried so I called Stanford and asked my Onc about getting a PET scan.  I've only had one PET scan done since the beginning of my diagnosis of this year in Feb so it's a good idea to get an update on the effectiveness of my Tarceva treatment. I've beenTarveva for about little over 3 months now, while hoping that it does a miracle cure to zap and shrink the cancer tumors away, I'm wondering if it is working or not and so the only way to find out is to do a PET scan.  I'm scheduled for a brain MRI end of this week at 7AM also and will find out about the results mid next week.  As always, I'm nervous about the outcome but continue to keep up my prayers and hopes.

Other than the dull bone aches, I still have a little rash from the Tarceva on my face and eyelids. I try to keep it moisturized with lotion and even apply some antibiotic cream on little spots where its irritated and this helps. Overall, I'm doing alright and feeling ok besides the dull bone aches.  I wish I have more energy to do more housework but I just don't have the energy like I used to so I can only take on little small tasks like some light cooking and caring for the kids.

Well, that's all for now.  Wish me well on my scans and as always, thank you for your support and prayers. Let's send out more good energy, prayers, wishes and thoughts to fight off this cancer.

Time Flies by so Fast

I can't believe it's already  Friday! Time flies by so fast nowadays since my days are filled with being a full time Mom. I have to say, I'm so thankful that I'm well enough to take care of my kids, cook, do some light cleaning, laundry, run errands, play with and work with the kids some academic lessons.  It does get exhausting at times but I have my routine down and take things a little easy and take rests as needed. We do have a few on call as needed babysitters to help out whenever I have appointments or need some more down time. Times are tough nowadays and income is always hard to bring in so the less we spend, the better. We try to follow the motto, find ways to save, save and spend what's needed and necessary. 

Hair

Two weeks ago, the kids and I, all got our haircuts courtesy of my sister who works at a nearby hair salon. The kids all sat on their own and did wonderful! I just got a little bit of trim and layers myself. I'm still trying to grow it back long but it takes forever to grow! Well, lately, I'm been thinking of highlighting it to hide a few white hair I have. But, then again, I shouldn't since hair dyes contain toxic chemicals. Also, the thought of what my next treatment may be, whether it's another form of chemo or 3rd line of chemotheraphy like Taxol, could effect my hair or cause hair loss. Hmm, I hope that's not a route that will happen cuz I love having my own hair.

Joel Osteen

So a neighbor heard about me and my condition, and trying to be a good Samaritan, shared with me a  30 minute video of Joel Osteen's episode http://www.joelosteen.com/ where he preaches about having faith in God to beat your cancer. He's such an inspirational motivator and speaker! Through him, I learned instead of talking, complaining or praying about your cancer, you should command, speak to and tell your cancer to go away! So, everyday now, before I go to bed, I tell the cancer to go away and that God's commands it to dissapear. And as always, my little adorable Ethan also says his nightly prayer to God; asking him to help heal me and to make my cancer go away and that he needs him mommy. Awh, he's so sweet.

Go Fund Me!

 Created Funding Account

I learned about this funding account online from a news report and finally have started one. Please if you would like to help donate with my medical treatment bills, copay, prescription refill costs and or childcare, preschool tuition costs, please log onto http://www.gofundme.com/FawnLee to donate.  Anything would be greatly appreciated.

Ethan started Kindergarten

Recently last month, Ethan turned 5 years old and has started kindergarten! We celebrated his BIG Birthday at a local nearby park with a small group of friends and family. He's growing up so fast! He's doing fantastic in school and is loving attending school. It was a little crazy during the first week since he attended one public elementary school and then because we moved about 1 mile down from the rental home, we had to transfer him onto another school.  He's so super cute and adorable every time I pick him up from school.

Cleaning for a Reason

I finally also gotten around to signing up for http://www.cleaningforareason.org/. Unfortunately there wasn't any vendors in the San Jose area and so I have to keep checking back to see if there will be new ones added that will be in my area.  Being busy with the kids, running errands and cooking, it would be fantastic if we can get help with a cleaning service.  

I'm so glad that I'm well enough to care for my family and the kids with the day to day upkeep.  It keeps me busy and gives me a purpose to keep on embracing and enjoying every moment with my family. So, here's to many, many more healthy years with my family. As always, let's keep up our daily prayers for continued recovery and remission.

Moon Festival

This past weekend, I took the kids to a friend's place who invited us to their annual mid Autumn Moon Festival celebration or Têt-Trung-Thu (tet-troong-thoo) in Vietnamese.The kids had a blast! It was their first time celebrating it with friends and with many other kids. The tradition in this holiday is that families, parents and friends gather together with their children and tell fairy tales and serve mooncakes under the silvery moon. It is a special day where everyone gathers together with an abundance of food and kids walk together holding candlelit lanterns during dawn. Here were some pictures I took using my iphone. I was a little hesitant to go by myself with the kids since I was worry I may not be able to handle watching all of them since they had a open ungated pool. But the kids did really well! I'm so glad I was able to celebrate this special occasion with the kids and friends.

 

A visit to my Primary Care Doctor

So today after dropping the kids off to school, and since my husband was off today to watch Emma, I decided to be extra cautious and pay a visit to my primary care doctor to checkup on my shortness of breath. My oxygen levels were measured it was good at 98% and he listened to my lungs and did hear a little bit of wheezing.  He gave me a breathing treatment and I instantly felt better! He gave me a hand held inhaler to have and to use for the next few days and also gave me a slip to get a chest X-ray done. He'll call me with the results if there's anything serious.

My Oncologist did call me back to follow up on me and said if it this continues, to be sure to follow up with him for a visit as well.  All in all, I'm so glad I have a team of doctors who's here to help treat me. Let's keep up our prayers for my continued recovery.

Feeling tired

For the past few days, I've been feeling a bit more tired, have been feeling these tingly needle like sensations in my arms and legs due to the rash I get from taking Tarceva. The acne like rash on my face is still there but it's not that bad. It's the rings or circle like rash on my arms that look bad. My skin nowawdays feels rough like a lizard. I slather on tons of moisturizer lotion throughout the day and my skins still feels scaly dry like sandpaper. Its awful.
For the most part, besides little aches here and there and a feeling of tiredness, I feel alright and I think my breathing is normal for the most part but at times I feel like I have a shortness of breathe. I sleep ok and eat ok. Sometimes I wonder if this is all in my head and that I'm just feeling just overly anxious, stressed or being too worry about everything.  Thinking back 6 months ago when I had a shortness of breathe and that 3/4 of my lung had collapsed due to the pleural effusion and to the needle biopsy, I actually didn't even know that my lung had collapsed.  It was only found after my first routine PetScan and MRI done that same day that my primary care Dr called and informed me that my right lung had collapsed. From that day on, I'm always keen on recognizing any shortness of breathe I have and to get it checked out at my Dr's office.

MRI in 2 Weeks
I'm scheduled for a my brain MRI in 2 weeks. I'm a bit nervous about it but glad I'm getting it checked just for an update. I hope it's good news and there's nothing going on. 
Stories of Strength and Inspiration
Lately, I've done some more reading onto how others deal with having stage 4 lung cancer and about their treatment. It's sad though that the prognosis and statistics aren't very good.  Like many others, even though I have never smoked, I still am in shock and still wonder how I could have gotten this. But by now, since my diagnoses 7 months ago, I try to focus on positive thoughts about getting effective treatment and hope and pray for the best.
I've met others lung survivors who are now in remission from the Tarceva treatment (they have the EGFR mutation so it worked for them) and others who are surviving and living beyond 5 years! It's amazing to hear such stories of strength.  Likewise, each and everyday, the kids and I, we pray for the very best and hope for the dream of my miracle remission.

Results CT Scan

I finally got a hold of the results of my latest CT scan that was done end of August. Like always, after the CT I was on pins and needles, scared of any signs of progression and always hoping for the best that the results would show tumors shrinkage. Well, here is the latest results and it's sort of a mixed results.
The report states that overall, the tumors are stable but it did find a couple of major new findings which have been making me worry and terribly scared.  It states that that in my right lung, there are signs of lymphangetic progression and spread. And that it found a new pulmonary nodule in the right lower lobe, measuring 8 mm.

Oh my, this is terrible news! For the past few days, I'm been overly frantic, scared and worry. I didn't know about this when I saw my Onc last week, on Wed Aug 31.  He just told me that that the results overall indicated stability and that he would like for me to still be on Tarceva.  I've been waiting to read the results myself but when the imaging department this time never sent me a copy, so I finally went to get a copy of it this week.

 With my latest CT scan results in hand, I also just my pulmonologist (Lung) doctor too yesterday and discussed with him the latest results. Since most of the report is in all medical terms, I really wanted to have him explain to me the results.  He says to not worry as it means overall, the tumors are stable.  What?! Not worry when the cancer is spreading more in my lymp nodes? For days, my thoughts have ran wild with worry and fear. To me, this means perhaps Tarceva isn't working since I don't have the EGFR marker.  With worry, I've already placed a call to my Onc about switching me back over to chemo treatment again since it showed signs it was working 2 months ago.   I need to fight this disease and need to be vigilant and aggressive with treatment that will work to shrink the tumors.  I have to be my own advocate and ask the right questions and treatment options before it gets worse.
On the other hand, since taking Tarceva, the fluid in my right lung has drastically diminished down to very little that I had the catheter removed so it's a miracle that the fluid simply almost dried up. Wait, just a called back my Onc and he says that if my breathing is good and I don't have any problematic symptoms, like coughing, then he wants me to continue it and hope for more improvement. I'm so glad he called me and reassure that it's a good treatment plan for now. Let's hope it does it does shrink the tumors away. 
Stanford Lung Cancer Support Group
On a daily basis, living and coping with this terminal cancer diagnosis is all too frightening and just plain difficult. No matter how hard I try not to worry and cry, I simply do. I have my "cancer moments" and sessions where I just need to unload my emotions.  I think its healthy to unwind and let it out.  Mostly, I worry about my kids and their future if they don't have me around to help them grow through the years. This week, the pastors have started to revisit and will resume their weekly prayers with me to God, asking  him to help fight my cancer.

With hope to find some support and gain more understanding, I finally went to my first Lung Cancer Support group over at Standford this past Wed. It's a monthly meeting, held once a month, every month for all lung cancer patients and their supporters to meet and discuss everything and anything about lung cancer.  I learned a few things at the meeting and have met many others who have what I have. It's a great network of support as it let's me know how others cope with it and that I'm not alone.

Overall, I feeling ok and doing good. The kids and their activities keep me busy but it's great that I'm able to be here for them and care for them. Let's pray and hope for my continued good health and recovery.

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee