Appointment in Philadelphia

On Monday I went to the CTCA branch in Philadelphia for the first time. I was concerned that I wouldn't like it as much as I did the one in Chicago. I was pleasantly surprised. My doctor at the Chicago branch was phenomenal and I didn't want to leave him. Thankfully, the doc in Philly is good too. He said that before he put me on radiation, he wanted to finish my cycle of chemotherapy, so I had chemo on Monday. They made one change to my treatment plan that I am happy about. Out in Chicago, they divided the dose up into 3 three parts and gave me one-third each day over three days. It proved to be too much for me and I would have a lot of side effects from it and last time even ended up in the hospital. This time they are dividing the dose up into thirds also, but spreading it out over 3 weeks instead of three days. I got one-third on Monday and will get the other doses a week apart. That will give me more time to recover before being hit again. I seem to be tolerating it MUCH better and I am so thankful! We are leaving for vacation (Williamsburg) next Friday, so I won't get the second dose until June 1st. After the third dose, I'll have a PET scan and meet with the radiation oncologist to determine the next course of treatment.

I was disappointed to see that my CA15.3 tumor marker was up from 11 to 20. That's the first time it's been on the upward swing since all this started. I hope it doesn't mean that the cancer is increasing in my body. Also, 4 ladies in my IBC support group died in the last 2 weeks; two last week, one the week before, and one just today. That's been a little hard to take. Here is a link to a news video on IBC that was shown on Seattle television last week http://www.komotv.com/stories/43313.htm Be warned that's it's a little graphic.