You can't ever forget

I hate it that I'm constantly reminded that I have cancer. It's always a news topic. I always see it in magazines. I hate the pink ribbons! I never liked the color pink anyway! 

I get angry about the cost of treatment. I get angry that organizations take advantage and use the pink ribbon for their own benefit.

Sometimes I need to take a "no worries/no stress" timeout. Sometimes I just can't deal with things and need a break. So I call it and just don't deal with crap for a couple of days. I just tell myself "ah, just deal with it on Tuesday..," :-)

Physical Therapy

I told my oncologist that I was having shoulder pain so she referred me to a physical therapist. The PT was Ellen who had already been working with me with my lymphedema in my arm. She's awesome! Ellen said my range of motion is not good (since my surgery). I have exercises that I have to do every day.

PET/CT in September

I had an appointment with my breast surgeon on Monday. She ordered another PET/CT scan of my chest/lungs. The last scan in June showed scarring in my lungs. The radiologist who read the results is "brilliant" according to my surgeon and is rarely wrong. He said in the report that it didn't look like a malignancy.

But more worry. Constant worry about something...

Oophorectomy

"Oophorectomy is sometimes recommended when the hormones produced by the ovaries are making a disease such as breast cancer or severe endometriosis worse.

In some cases the ovaries are removed in an attempt to reduce the possibility of developing a future disease, such as ovarian cancer. This is called aprophylactic oophorectomy."

--from WebMD

I am scheduled for surgery on August 5th. The doctor said the surgery takes about 30 minutes and she will make 3 incisions and it's done laparoscopically. She'll remove my ovaries and Fallopian tubes. The BRCA 1 mutation increases my risk for ovarian cancer and the surgery will also stop the estrogen production since my cancer is estrogen positive.

Not looking forward to being sick from anesthesia again. Ugh!

Effexor XR

Effexor is the drug that is supposed to help with my hot flashes. It's an antidepressant but is given in a lower dose for hot flashes. I've been taking it for 2 days and I'm not liking the side effects so far: loss of appetite, mild nausea, grogginess. I do think its helping with the hot flashes and I'll give it a week to see if the side effects go away.

Hot Flashes

From Breastcancer.org:

"A hot flash is a sudden, intense, hot feeling on your face and upper body. Hot flashes can be accompanied by a rapid heartbeat, sweating, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, headache, weakness, or a feeling of suffocation, followed by chills. Hot flashes are caused by a decrease in estrogen. When estrogen levels drop or estrogen receptors are blocked, the body’s temperature control system gets confused and the result is hot flashes.

Hot flashes are a symptom of menopause. If you’re having treatment for breast cancer, hot flashes can be more intense and last longer, particularly if menopause was medically induced."

I've had hot flashes since starting chemo and they have been worse lately since I started on the Tamoxifen. My oncologist prescribed Effexor (a mild anti depressant) to help with the hot flashes. So we'll see how that works...

Good blog article

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3539970