Life has been busy over the last few months. Oh, who am I kidding, the last couple years. Hello, parenting.
However, it has been the best couple of years I would say. Luke has brought so much joy and spunk to our life. It is really fun and incredible to watch him grown and explore the world. We have been doing many things around the city as well as taking another trip east.
All of which is always slightly overshadowed by the looming cancer investigations. Currently, my team and I have decided on a 10 – 12 months wait between these assessments. Be that as it may, I often become more and more anxious as time since the last appointments lengthens.
Constant wonder
There is always that constant wonder if there is something going on in my body that we are unaware of. Every little symptom gets over analyzed by my brain. You know, every night sweat, every bout of diarrhea, every little pain that stays longer than a few days. All of which keeps running the “is the cancer back? Has it spread?” lines on the never ending anxiety train.
There are quite a few days when I am able to go through most of it without thinking about cancer. Sometimes it is even a stretch of time. The side effects of the cancer journey are what I notice most these days. It’s not so much actual cancer symptoms right now.
What bothers me the most on the regular are my swallowing issues. Thank you again for that radiation.
Most recent assessments
This time around, all of the worry was thankfully for nothing. Thank God.
Over the course of the last week, I had all of my tests, scans and appointments for this year.
June 27th I made my way over to the Cross Cancer Institute. I haven’t been there since July 2021, when I was there for my last set of scans. Covid has made appointments a little less of a hassle. I mean yes, sometimes that is not a good thing. Sometimes things get a little lost in translation on phone appointments. But then again, having a toddler, not having to commute to and from appointments is not always the easiest either. Hence, I now kind of prefer phone appointments. All of this to say, that is the reason I hadn’t been to the Cross Cancer in that long.
A quick look back
If you have been following my journey for any length of time, you might remember our trip to Germany for scans in 2019. If you are new here, this would be the blog post to read if you are interested in that part of our path. We travelled there, because Germany was offering a Gallium 68 scan which, at the time, was not available in Canada and didn’t look like it would be any time soon.
A short 1.5 years later, the scan finally did become possible in Canada as a study. I was lucky enough to be part of that study. I discuss how all of that happened in this post. Since then, which was January 2021, my oncologist has been able to see everything he needs to see with contrast CTs. So, that is the scan I had again when I went to the Cross Cancer Institute.
The week before that, I got all of my lab work done. I usually do it right before appointments, so my doctor has the most up to date information.
Blood work results
Blood work resultsMy blood work hasn’t changed all that much over the last 6 months. In November 2021, I had a bump in both my calcitonin and my CEA numbers. (As a reminder, those are my cancer markers in my blood.) Before my very first surgery, they were around 2900. At my lowest they were around 950. Currently, they are hovering around 2400-2500.
There was a concern that the bump was caused by my pregnancy with Luke. The worry was that the increase in the Calcitonin, would lead to new tumors showing up, or growth in existing tumors within 12-18 months. Well, this was the 18 month post pregnancy scan.
One of the most important scans I have had so far in many ways I think.
Scan results
As I mentioned at the very beginning, my fears were thankfully unfounded. My scan results are unchanged.
There are still tumors of course. The ones around my clavicle and my sternum are still there. However, they are unchanged. When I look back on my previous scans, they have been mostly unchanged and stable for the last 3-4 years. Praise God. The tumors have grown miniscule. Honestly, its so little, the radiology reports are reading it as unchanged.
Moving forward
On Monday, July 4, 2022 I had an appointment with my oncologist. He randomly called me instead of sticking to the scheduled appointment on Wednesday. At first I was caught off guard, but it turned out to be better that way for our life and other things going on.
He called to give me the results of the scan which I already looked at a few hours before on the MyChart App. I am so grateful that App is a thing. I was able to thin about what the results mean for me and questions I might want to ask before he actually called. We talked about the results and what this means. He agreed with me, that it seems my cancer falls under one of the slower growing Medullary Thyroid Cancers. What a blessing!
New treatment opportunity
We spoke a little bit about the side effects the increase in Calcitonin has caused for me, mainly some bouts of diarrhea again as
well as night sweats. He explained to me there are medications that are available for me that might be able to help with this. They are called somatostatin analogues. They are designed to stop certain hormones from being excreted by the body. However, they also come with quite a few possible side effects. These include malabsorption and changes to how insulin works in my body which are probably
the ones that stick out the most to me from the list.
Hence, why I am hesitant to start something like this. It is similar to any of the ‘chemo’ drugs for my cancer, once I start them I will be on them for a long time. Maybe even for the rest of my life. So it definitely deserves very careful consideration. Right now we came to the conclusion to wait. The symptoms are more of an annoyance for me rather than something life altering. Whereas the side effects of the drug could possibly be that, life altering.
Staying the course
All in all, we are staying the course. My cancer is currently kept at bay which is more than we could have asked for. Really, all I can say is God is good!
Medicine can wait a little longer with all the things they have to offer. For now, I will go back to enjoying life to the fullest. This past week, that included a trip to the mountains for a anniversary getaway. I was also fortunate enough to celebrate my 32nd birthday.
We have been enjoying the warm weather and like I said… enjoying life to the fullest.
