Yesterday was my usual follow up appointment with labs, Doctor and Xgena treatment and thank goodness, my good dear friend R (Moanie) met me there at Stanford. I'm so greatful for this big day of news with results and findings from my CT scan for her to be here for moral support, friendship and company. I started the day working from home and then headed off to get my CT scan. This was the first time ever that I had scheduled my CT scan, Dr and treatment all in one day. And I'm glad I did as it all worked out well. It's just easier now that I hardly drive during the weekdays now that I carpool to and from work. And also, getting poked once for scans, blood lab draws, getting flushed with heparin all about once per day is just ideal and just less pain and agony.
Other than the crazy traffic, congestion due to the rebuilding, expansion happening at the Stanford campus which will take about 5 years to complete, I was able to weave my way through all that madness on time.
CT Results
So, after lots of waiting, I finally saw Dr. Neal. He came up with a smile and said, "I have great news! Let's take a look at the results of the images from your Ct scans today." So we looked through the images together, with side by side CT images from Sept and he explained what the before and after image mean after about 1 month on Crizotinib treatment. The images of my right lung now look so so much better than images from Sept! He pointed out how dramatic the differences were, like how the tumors looked almost to be "melting" away. Definitely fantastic news. I was amazed to see the images and results. The actual findings or study from the official radiologist reading will be coming soon to confirm the good news. I'm just thrilled for great news that this pill is working. I hope it keeps on working more and more to melt all the cancer tumors away so that I can one day be cancer free. That would be the ultimate dream come true.
Busy, Busy
Work, kids school studies, their activities as well as my additional "to do" items around the house seems to keep my super busy. Since the last post, while I had the flu, I ended having take antiobiotics for 9 days so that I could shake off the miserable cough and fever. I tried letting my body fight it off, and after 3 days of fevers and coughing my lungs to point it started to hurt, I had to resort to antibiotics. And it worked like wonder! But, as soon I was out from the flu, on a Friday night 2 weeks ago, when I took my usual Crizotinib pill at night before bed, the unthinkable happened. The pill got stuck in my throat or esophagus, burning like crazy all night! I was in mierable, miserable pain all night and all of the weekend, with the most brutal heart burn and acid reflux all day long. It probably worse than labor pain. I couldn't really eat or swallow much except water and light soups for 3 days until it finally subsided.
And of course, when this happened, I made calls to my primary care doctor right away to see what I can do. I took Zantic and tried everything. Oh, when I had the flu, I drank lots of Orange juice, and even tried the old fashioned Vietnamese "saum" where my nanny boiled ginger, lemongrass, etc and then I would "blanket" myself with this boiling, steaming hot pot of water so that I can "sweat" off all the viral germs. I did this a natural remedy to try to fend off the fever and cough, but to no avail, it didn't help. I guess this method is like sitting in a sauna to sweat off bad germs. Perhaps I tried this method a little late in the game and it didn't work. And thank goodness for good, modern medicine. And yes, while having this miserable cough and cold for 2 weeks, I worked the ENTIRE time and never took a sick day. I did work from home 2 days straight. I guess I didn't want work to pile up and with taking the meds, it helped me get better each day as I was fighting this flu off.
The kids are doing great! Emma's attending preschool 5 days now and their dance and soccer is coming to an end next week. For now, with the upcoming holidays, I may just want to hang out with them in the weekends as a family and enjoy being toegther; without overdoing myself and them with too much activities. We'll see, since they already want to start Karate, cubscouts perhaps for Ethan, and maybe even swimming and or piano lessons.
I'm just overjoyed and delighted with wonderful news from Dr. Neal about my current treatment. Hoping for continued good progress. Lots of Love.
Other than the crazy traffic, congestion due to the rebuilding, expansion happening at the Stanford campus which will take about 5 years to complete, I was able to weave my way through all that madness on time.
CT Results
So, after lots of waiting, I finally saw Dr. Neal. He came up with a smile and said, "I have great news! Let's take a look at the results of the images from your Ct scans today." So we looked through the images together, with side by side CT images from Sept and he explained what the before and after image mean after about 1 month on Crizotinib treatment. The images of my right lung now look so so much better than images from Sept! He pointed out how dramatic the differences were, like how the tumors looked almost to be "melting" away. Definitely fantastic news. I was amazed to see the images and results. The actual findings or study from the official radiologist reading will be coming soon to confirm the good news. I'm just thrilled for great news that this pill is working. I hope it keeps on working more and more to melt all the cancer tumors away so that I can one day be cancer free. That would be the ultimate dream come true.
Busy, Busy
Work, kids school studies, their activities as well as my additional "to do" items around the house seems to keep my super busy. Since the last post, while I had the flu, I ended having take antiobiotics for 9 days so that I could shake off the miserable cough and fever. I tried letting my body fight it off, and after 3 days of fevers and coughing my lungs to point it started to hurt, I had to resort to antibiotics. And it worked like wonder! But, as soon I was out from the flu, on a Friday night 2 weeks ago, when I took my usual Crizotinib pill at night before bed, the unthinkable happened. The pill got stuck in my throat or esophagus, burning like crazy all night! I was in mierable, miserable pain all night and all of the weekend, with the most brutal heart burn and acid reflux all day long. It probably worse than labor pain. I couldn't really eat or swallow much except water and light soups for 3 days until it finally subsided.
And of course, when this happened, I made calls to my primary care doctor right away to see what I can do. I took Zantic and tried everything. Oh, when I had the flu, I drank lots of Orange juice, and even tried the old fashioned Vietnamese "saum" where my nanny boiled ginger, lemongrass, etc and then I would "blanket" myself with this boiling, steaming hot pot of water so that I can "sweat" off all the viral germs. I did this a natural remedy to try to fend off the fever and cough, but to no avail, it didn't help. I guess this method is like sitting in a sauna to sweat off bad germs. Perhaps I tried this method a little late in the game and it didn't work. And thank goodness for good, modern medicine. And yes, while having this miserable cough and cold for 2 weeks, I worked the ENTIRE time and never took a sick day. I did work from home 2 days straight. I guess I didn't want work to pile up and with taking the meds, it helped me get better each day as I was fighting this flu off.
The kids are doing great! Emma's attending preschool 5 days now and their dance and soccer is coming to an end next week. For now, with the upcoming holidays, I may just want to hang out with them in the weekends as a family and enjoy being toegther; without overdoing myself and them with too much activities. We'll see, since they already want to start Karate, cubscouts perhaps for Ethan, and maybe even swimming and or piano lessons.
I'm just overjoyed and delighted with wonderful news from Dr. Neal about my current treatment. Hoping for continued good progress. Lots of Love.
I am so glad to hear the good news, just started following your blog and am praying for you everyday.
ReplyDeleteHi! Been following your blog for a few weeks. So glad to hear great news for you. You and your family are in my thoughts!
ReplyDelete