nightdog_barks: (Red Horse)
nightdog_barks ([personal profile] nightdog_barks) wrote2019-07-05 08:04 pm

Straight from the horse's mouth

OKAY SO.



Kittens, sometimes when it walks like a duck and talks like a duck ... it still ain't a duck. What I actually have is secondary breast cancer. This means that EIGHT YEARS AGO, some teensy-tiny microscopic fragment of my breast cancer hid out somewhere in my body until one day it said HEY THINK I'LL COME OUT AND SAY HI AGAIN. Why? Because that's just the way things work. The human body is a mysterious bundle of magical shit.

Anyway, my doc explained that the first-line treatment these days for secondary breast cancer is ... targeted therapy. A pill. So the next steps are going to be: a PET scan, to see just how much of this there is; a biopsy (from a spot in my liver); pull everything together for a plan of attack; attack.

I like this guy -- he was actually listening to me, and answered my questions honestly. :-)



So that was my Friday. :-)
illuminating_dragon: (Oliphaunt)

[personal profile] illuminating_dragon 2019-07-06 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
We haven't come far at all with certain cancers, or with screening for/awareness of certain cancers. My brother's cancer should have been identified much sooner than it was. Even in this part of the world it would be a good idea to screen certain people annually even if a user fee (gasp!) were to be involved. His prognosis wasn't good but he's beaten the odds and feels that the rest is gravy.

It's very good that you have an oncologist whom you can work with.