Good News in a Scary Place

Check out Breyer's updated website! It went live yesterday, and while there are differences and obvious changes, it is still Breyer at its core.  

I find the new font they are using a bit easier to read and I had no problems logging in. I was disappointed to see that my history of club memberships had disappeared, though. I've only ever had one membership (the Vintage Club) so I did not have the long lists many folks do, but still, I enjoyed seeing that history of my membership. (No surprise considering that I love history, right?)

I thought I'd share an update about this current health journey I am on. 

Yesterday I walked through these scary doors.

I went as a patient, not as a supportive friend for someone. This was the appointment that I had been dreading out of all the tests and doctors' visits I've had since a simple annual check up showed some concerning issues. (And I have lost count of all of those, there have been so many.)

This was my third cancer scare. Surgery took care of the precancerous mass on my pancreas and the breast cancer scare turned out to be just that - a scare. This time I was seeing a hematologist oncologist for possible blood cancer. 

My name was called and Craig and I headed back. Long story short, I got pretty good news. I really liked my hematologist and I felt she was thorough and caring. She pulled up all my past blood tests and listed them chronologically for me from two years before the pancreatectomy to the five years post. 

And there it was. You could see an immediate change in my blood values after that surgery. The pancreatic mass had also attached itself to the spleen and the surgeon had had to remove my spleen in order to remove the mass. And while you can live without a spleen, it is an important organ involved with your blood and immunity.

While the current values in my blood are indicators of a blood cancer of some sort, they are also not unusual when you have had a splenectomy. Dr. Narayan told me she was going to do some more testing, but that she felt the issues with my blood were caused by a lack of a spleen and not by cancer.

She sent me over to the Infusion Lab where I had more blood drawn and now we wait for the results from that. I go back to the Cancer Center in two weeks to discuss them.

Dodging cancer again is a relief. But I still do not have a diagnosis - what is causing this difficulty in breathing when I bend over or walk upstairs, play with Pepper, and more? And my blood pressure is still way too high despite quadrupling my meds. 

I have another heart test coming up and another visit with the cardiologist. I also need to get some vaccines that the hematologist wants me to have to boost my immune system. I'll make an appointment with my primary care physician for those.

The next time I walk through those scary Cancer Center doors, I won't be as apprehensive. While clearly there are still issues to be treated and dealt with, knowing that they aren't caused by cancer is quite a relief.