Feeling normal...again.

Hello everyone! I haven't blogged in awhile so I thought I should give a general update. I have some good news and some not so great news, so let's start with the good news. I don't think I've shared yet but on my birthday, I had an appointment with the spine doc and he said I was healthy enough to go brace free. Yay! No more neck brace and my next neck appointment isn't until September. I'm finally getting over this whole neck surgery thing 6 months later. I've also been back to work part time and have been successfully working around chemo and doctor appointments without taking too much time off. It's good to be back in the world of the living again!

Today I went in for chemo and turns out my tumor markers haven't changed from the last time, which unfortunately means that the last round of chemo didn't work. My oncologist didn't seem surprised or concerned, he said that he was satisfied as long as the markers weren't rising but it's still a little uncomfortable to know that the chemo isn't doing it's job anymore and frustrating to know I went though the therapy and the side effects last time for nothing. Now I'm being switched to a drug called Taxtotere in the same manner (every three weeks) as the Adrimyacin/Cytosin in hopes that a change in therapy will react with the cancer better. Due to health care red tape, I couldn't start the new drug today, it needs to be approved by my insurance and that takes 7 days so I will go in next Wednesday to start new. This throws my chemo schedule off by a week but there's no getting around it. The nurse tells me that this drug will actually be a lot milder than the A/C and I might notice more mouth sores and numb fingertips but less nausea and a little more energy. They are also giving me a blood booster (in the form of injections that get delivered to my home) that keep me from getting those fevers that landed me in the hospital a few weeks ago. They also help with the energy and bone aches.

So, I'm crossing my fingers that this new therapy works and the side effects aren't that noticeable. Luckily the past few weeks I've been feeling pretty good and going out and about to the movies, baseball games, shopping, working, concerts etc. and feeling NORMAL. Let's hope that NORMAL doesn't go away any time soon.