It was on April 1, 2019 that I announced to “the world” that I had cancer. I made it clear it wasn’t a joke. And now I am here again, 5 years later, saying almost the same thing: my cancer has progressed again and it’s not a joke.
If you have cancer, you know that you shouldn’t let unusual pains, aches or strange sensations in your body go unchecked. It has been a few months that my right hip had been getting progressively worse. I was between scans so I reached out to my oncologist. Within a few days, I went in for an urgent CT scan. The next day, I had the results. My hip was fine, but my lymph nodes weren’t doing as well. My prevascular (near the Superior Vena Cava, by my heart) and left supra-clavicular lymph node were enlarged. There also seems to be the appearance of a nodule on the upper lobe of my left lung. While the lung nodule is only “suspicious”, it is also conveniently located in the same area as the other tumours.
My oncologist is fantastic. By the time I spoke to her, she already had plans A and B. The basis of both plans is to get bloodwork, more scans and a biopsy done to get the pathology to determine the best course of action. Plan A assumes that there is no mutation and my cancer is still hormone positive. If that is the case, we will attempt to treat it with a different hormone therapy. Plan B occurs if my cancer is no longer hormone positive, in which case we look at chemotherapy, combined with ongoing targeted therapy.
This new development is less than ideal, especially since I was so excited to hit the 5 year mark of my diagnosis. This is a milestone only 22% of metastatic breast cancer patients are lucky enough to see. I was one of those lucky ones.
I am hoping my luck hasn’t run out on me and remain hopeful to be around for… well, for at least 40 years and 21 days, because that seems like a good amount of time to be around!
I could use a “pick-me-up.” If you want to buy me a coffee or contribute more through my site, I won’t object.