Dearest Liver,
When I was first diagnosed with cancer in 2005 everyone told me that I should make a blog. I was in a much different head space the first time around and didn’t see how it would help me. Then I was diagnosed with metastatic cancer 2 years ago and everything changed. I was struggling with a way to cope and decided to give this a try. It seemed like a good way to vent my thoughts and spare my family and friends from having to talk about my cancer all of the time. Read more
Dearest Liver,
You’ve probably noticed me complaining about my Neupogen shots (or Skele-gro as I like to think of it), but I don’t know if I’ve ever explained it. The chemotherapy treatments that I get have the known side effect of lowering white blood counts. White blood cells are what help fight off infections in your body, and neutrophils, a type of white blood cells, fight infection by destroying harmful bacteria in the body. When your neutrophils get too low, your chances of getting an infection become a lot higher. If they become too low you can even be at risk for an infection from eating fresh fruit or veggies or from even being around fresh cut flowers.
In order to try and avoid all of that mess and to make sure that my neutrophils are high enough for my next treatment, I get shots of Neupogen. Neupogen is used to stimulate the growth of bone marrow, the place where your white blood cells and neutrophils are made. This hurts like hell. Bones that I didn’t even know existed in me start to hurt. Hence my name for it: Skele-gro. Read more
Dearest Liver,
Why is that that the good news always comes with the bad? My tumor markers are even lower than they were at my last post (163!) BUT my jaw is a mess.
When I was first diagnosed with metastatic cancer my bones were the biggest issue. I was put on a shot called xgeva to strengthen my bones and help kill my bone mets, but was told to go to the dentist and watch out for osteonecrosis of the jaw. Don’t google it unless you want to be traumatized by the pictures for life, but it basically causes your jaw bones to die and to look like you’re an extra from the Walking Dead. Instead, I like to call it zombie jaw. Read more
Dearest Liver,
You haven’t been so nice to me lately so I thought this blog might give us a chance to get to know each other a little better.
When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, you weren’t even a thought on my mind. It was all about chemo, radiation, mastectomies, reconstruction, hormones and eventually lymphedema. Did you get jealous of all of the attention given to other areas of my body? I thought that I was keeping you entertained with my casual love affair with wine and gin, but I guess it wasn’t enough for you. So here we are… 1.5 years after being diagnosed with metastatic cancer and you’re the star of the show. My bone mets have been kept pretty well under control with the various study drugs and chemo, but you are still a pain in my ass. Read more