We should know better by now ...

We should know better than to make assumptions about the meanings of test results before we've talked to the doctors ... they're the ones with the years of medical training after all! The tumor markers we were worried about were not a cause for concern for my doctor at all. He said that usually they wouldn't even check tumor markers until after four treatments, but he wanted to check them after two, just to be sure they weren't skyrocketing. I'm not sure where we got the idea that they should have dropped quite a bit (wishful thinking, perhaps?), but it isn't the first time we've assumed incorrectly and worried ourselves needlessly. Maybe someday we'll learn not to do that to ourselves?!?

My white blood count was low yesterday (as expected), so I got a neupogen shot to bring it back up. I also scheduled a brain MRI for Monday to get a look at the pituitary tumor. I'll get results next Thursday, and depending on what it shows, we'll go back to see the neurosurgeon at U of Chicago. I discussed things with my radiation oncologist last week, and he thought that it sounded like something he could treat with stereotactic radiosurgery (a highly focused beam of radiation given in one dose rather than fractionated over several days or weeks like the radiation I had to the chest wall after my mastectomy) if it started causing symptoms (vision problems, headaches, etc.). I'm not having any symptoms currently - the headaches have disappeared, so I'm hopeful that the MRI will show that the tumor has shrunk again. But if not, I think we have some good treatment options to consider.

I will get one more Taxol/Carboplatin/Herceptin treatment on March 10th and then I'll get another liver MRI to see how that treatment is working. I'm starting to get some neuropathy (numbness & tingling) in my fingertips and the bottom of my feet, so I'll only be able to tolerate a few more treatments before I have to discontinue Taxol. Hopefully, the TCH will do its job and knock down the liver tumors before that happens. My radiation oncologist also said that if most of the tumors on my liver stay small and stable, and just the one is growing, I could be a candidate for radiofrequency ablation on that one tumor. So we're hoping for the best with this treatment, but I'm encouraged that there are still several options available to me going forward. One step at a time, though ... I try not to worry about the future too much because as Alan said ... it rarely turns out the way we think it will anyway!