Here we go again!

[Lisa]

Just less than 3 months ago, I had my regular scans. Everything looked good and mets continued to shrink. This week I had the same scans again. My brain looked good, except for continuing white matter that makes me loopy. And L4 on my spine looked good. That's the good news. (Don't let it overwhelm you.)

My liver is now more involved than EVER. I have mets growing on several vertebrae, several ribs, many, many lymph nodes, including those around heart and stomach, and pelvic region. It's like I just spent the past 2 years sitting on a stationary bike, working hard, but going nowhere.

I'll be changing from Gemzar/Herceptin/Zometa tomorrow to Xeloda/Herceptin/Zometa. And I had a STAT MRI of my back today to look at the tumor on L12. We're afraid it's moved too close to the spinal cord, just like Mary Crawford's. I've yet to have any direct pain on it, or had problems walking. If it looks bad, I assume we'll be doing radiation very soon.

I've been doing weekly Gemzar for months now, but it caused low white blood counts. Thus, it was actually done every other week lately. Apparently not enough to hold the cancer in check. And Herceptin doesn't appear to be doing a lot, if any, to help.

As my onc says, there's something about my cancer than it just comes back with a vengence. There's my latest. I hope others have much better starts to the New Year.

Love and light,

Lisa