And so it begins...

...the loss of my third head of hair. I guess this means it's real, not just my imagination. Today it's coming out in handfuls. I wonder what the next hair will look like? After my first round of chemo it came in very, very gray. After radiation it came in darker with just a little gray but more coarse in texture. This time I'm hoping for blond. I've never been a blond. Might be fun to try.

I had a lot of x-rays done yesterday. Including one where they sort of took the picture inside my mouth and down my throat. The technician let me look at it and I have to admit; it was kind of cool. He told me it was the prettiest one of those x-rays he's ever seen. It made me laugh.

The results were good. Strange but good. I was told that there is "evidence" of cancer in my bones, but no bone damage. Good. I wonder exactly what "evidence" means? Live cancer? dead cancer? a "last one to leave turn out the lights" sign? I will have to ask the Doc next time I see him. I am very happy that I don't have to undergo any kind of surgery to stabilize damaged bones. whew.

I'm so looking forward to fall and winter. I love Halloween,Thanksgiving and Christmas. I even like snow. It's wonderful to build snowmen, have snowball fights and make trails for the cats so they can get through the snow to the door easily. Just watching my son catch snowflakes on his tongue is a joy. He's growing so fast. I think we are going to have to take a lot of "snow days" this year. I don't want to miss any of it.

I had just gotten my hair to look sort of normal...

If I combed it just right, wore a headband and made sure I wasn't standing around people taller than me, which is fairly easy since I'm 5'10. I thought I looked pretty good. Enough to get flirted with here and there and not get scared looks from people.

Then the dreaded day came. I eased on into my routine check up with my Oncologist, expecting the usual "I think your doing quite well, let's keep on this, it's working" Instead the Doc said that my tumor marker was up from 17-32. Egads, this cannot be good. He set up a PET scan for me which I took the very next day.

The results were disheartening. New growth in knee, hip, thigh and a spot inside the pleural space in my lung where they did the fix before. Dear Dr. Johnson looked angry and confused as he read the results to first himself and then to me. Baffling.

The conclusion; time for more chemo. I suppose I have done fairly well. It's been about 2 1/2 years since my first chemo experience. I had 5 infusions and then just herceptin all this time, until now. I did have the brain radiation about a year after that initial chemo treatment...so this will make my third head of hair!

I started treatment yesterday. Not used to the 4 hour session...it seemed to go on forever. But I must say that it was not nearly as miserable as my very first treatment. I can only think that my better condition now has made a big difference. My first treatment I had a collapsed lung and could only walk a very short distance; like from the house to the car without having to stop and catch my breath. Now I am much, much stronger.

None of the effects; except tiredness have kicked in yet. I'm hoping for an easier ride this time.

A photo of my son snuggling with me during my treatment. He is the thing I love most in the world.