I have been taking the chemo drug Afinitor. Side effects are not debilitating. Stomach pain has been alleviated with probiotics (fermented sauerkraut). I have had occasional days of low-grade fever, feeling loopy with accompanying headaches. But over all, I am tolerating the drug pretty well.
The last two visits to the oncologist have shown blood cancer markers to be slightly elevated, which is generally not a good thing. My doctor was not alarmed by this the first time. But after the second elevation, another scan was ordered; this occurred last Wednesday, April 6.
I have not met with the doctor to go over the scan report in detail. But in a brief phone conversation, she said that the scan revealed very little change since the last scan (late December). There has been no improvement (that is, no reduction in cancer); and there is one additional "shadow" found in the upper part of the breast where the cancer originated. The recommendation was that I should just keep taking the Afinitor, with a "wait-and-see" attitude.
So I am coasting. No longer driving the bus. The driver appears to have put the engine into neutral.
I have stopped singing, since the chronic cough I have had for almost a year affects my ability to sustain good vocal quality. No one seems to know what the cough is all about. I have been to an ENT doc, a pulmonologist, taken steroids and inhalers and antibiotics. Even my oncologist, wondering if it was related to the cancer, ordered scans of chest and lungs. Nothing found.
I suppose the fact that the cancer is not overtaking me and spreading like wildfire is a good thing. But it's still there. I try to keep my daily routine as normal as possible. Still teaching piano, still playing church gigs. Living "in the moment" is the best survival tactic.
