Sunday, March 24, 2019

Update

Just before Christmas, I began working as an assistant for three 2nd grade teachers in a low performing public school. Not only do I pull small groups of students to work on reading and math deficits, I work as a substitute teacher throughout the school when no substitute can be found to cover a teacher's classroom in their absence. Needless to say, I am busy all day long. I love helping these kids, and since I learned several months ago that my certification to teach could be reinstated, I think about someday having my own classroom. This would be exciting, but at the same time probably would not be a great idea with my condition being so unpredictable. As it stands currently, weekends are what help me recover from working full-time hours. Teaching would require far more hours than my current 40 and weekends would not be for sleeping.

Yesterday, I had treatment #82 of Kadcyla! I find this amazing and unbelievable. Plus my platelets registered at 119,000--normal is between 150,000 and 440,000. Three weeks ago they were 117,000 which was the largest number seen since March of 2015. Usually they have been anywhere from 70,000 to 90,000 because of Kadcyla. My other blood work numbers have some highs and lows but nothing too far away from the normal range. Great news all around.

April 15 is scan day. I haven't been scanned in a while. Oncologists become more willing to allow for a longer time to lapse between scans when cancer is stable. It has been a year on April 22 since my abdomen has been scanned and 7 months since my lungs have been scanned. If this scan is clear, I am sure you can imagine how happy I will be. My oncologist promised a discussion about extending my treatments to every 4 weeks! That might help lessen this horrible tiredness I have been experiencing.

April 1st is 6 years of living with this disease. I would love another 6.