I wish I could say that there wasn't at least one more ER trip made since my last post, but I'd be lying.  Last Saturday marked trip #4, but thankfully I've been good ever since! (knock on wood).  Thanks to a couple doctors giving me some helpful tips I think I'm finally back on track to recovery.  So this is what it feels like to go an entire week without puking my guts out.  Weird!!

I've been continuing to make daily appearances over at the U for my IV meds, and I have good news! Not only is tomorrow finally my last day for the IV meds meaning no appointments until Wednesday, but none of my blood cultures have come back positive meaning this bacterial/blood infection appears to be all cleared up.  Now if I could only get this blood clot situation under control - ugh!  Yes, you read that correctly.  I now have a blood clot that showed up on a CT scan I just had on Friday, 7/20.  It's always something, isn't it?  According to the interpreter, they think it's "likely chronic non-occlusive thrombus".  My response is, "chronic whaaaa?!".  First of all I would like to know what makes this lady think this is chronic being that this scan is the first to show any sort of clot up to this point.  Maybe she's saying this issue will be chronic going forward and that I'll need to be on blood thinners the rest of my life?  Who knows!

Dr. McClune suspects that this clot is probably from my central line as it's on the left side in a vein near my heart (scary, right!?).  I was told that this is fairly common by more than one health care professional, but I still don't have warm fuzzies about the situation, especially knowing that it's possible for it to travel to my lungs creating a pulmonary embolism.  I'm sure you're thinking what I'm thinking which is that this seems pretty serious but nobody seems overly concerned - except for me!  Dr. McClune said he'd be consulting with a clotting specialist to see if they want to start me on some anticoagulants, helping to break up the clot, but I haven't heard anything back yet.  Not a peep.  You best believe the nurse coordinator will be getting a call Monday morning to push this subject along.  I'd like to work out, but am so afraid of what this clot is/is not doing in my body that I don't dare.  I never asked the doctor if this clot inhibits any sort of physical activity.  Me being the big freak-a-zoid I am has a hard time sleeping at night now wondering if this clot is going to give my a heart attack in my sleep or is moving its way to one of my lungs as we speak! Oh good Lord - Please give me some peace regarding this matter.   I'll feel so much better once I get some answers and know what the plan is for resolution.

Besides the clot discussion, I found out that the last bone marrow biopsy I had done which was also on 7/20 came back clean.  This comes as no surprise to me.  I've never had any involvement in my bone marrow to begin with, but they still needed to make sure that the marrow looked good and that no secondary cancer appeared to be forming which can sometimes happen post transplant.  Can you imagine?  You just get done with a stem cell transplant, only to be told that a new cancer is forming?  Nothing about this is OK.  Cancer patients (and their caregivers) go through SO MUCH.  We need to find a cure to this nasty disease already!  Too many peoples lives are changed every single day by the big "C" and are never quite the same.  

I met with the radiation department at the U a second time this past Monday, and they sang the same tune as before which is that they're recommending 4 weeks of solid treatment Monday through Friday which they refer to as, "consolidated radiation".  Because the size of my mass is still larger than 2 cm, this is their protocol.  In talking with Dr. McClune about the concerns we have not only with the lenth of treatment, but with the department itself he advised us to get a second opinion outside of the U/Fairview system.  We were planning on doing that anyways, but it sealed the deal after talking with him.  I never planned on going to the U for any radiation therapy anyways as both Hubert Humphrey and North Memorial Maple Grove are considerably closer, not to mention I'd be closer to Dr. Londer if we did everything at Hubert Humphrey.  If we go in and and find out that 4 weeks of treatment is the general protocol across the map then I won't argue.  I do worry though about the greater risks for breast cancer, along with the negative effects on my heart and lungs.  As with everything else though we'll take this one day at a time.