Busy summer

 It has been a busy couple of weeks. One week full of doctor's appointments and the next week full of church girls camp.  Had my echo on Tuesday, which came back normal, met with the plastic surgeon on Thursday to get an expansion and met with my oncologist on Friday and got an infusion.  

I hadn’t seen my oncologist since surgery and had all the pathology results back (remember I saw his PA that knew nothing about me and couldn't get his computer to work to look anything up?). He gave me a hug and said he was so happy with the results. He was so happy that I got a “complete immune response” from the chemo which essentially means the cancer is gone. Maintenance plan now is to continue with the Herceptin infusions until January and nothing really from there on out. He said that there's no benefit to getting routine scans. There was a study done (there's ALWAYS a study being done) to see the benefit of getting routine scans. These aren't the specific numbers but this is just an example. Group A had scans every three months. Group B had scans yearly. With those people that had cancer come back, it didn't make a difference what group they were in. The cancer wasn't found any earlier by doing more scans more often. So the conclusion of the study was: Let's not overexpose patients to radiation, tests, false positives and so forth. 

I don't know what scans I'll have done after January. I do have to have a follow up MRI on my liver, but I can't do that until I get my expanders out because those aren't compatible with the MRI machine. 

Questions I had for my doctor:

Restless Legs: I've been having restless legs at night when I try to go to bed. I feel like my legs are jumping out of my skin. They feel like they want to run away. I lay there, trying to go to sleep and my legs are driving me crazy. I try not to think about it because it makes me more anxious. I talked to him about that. I had heard magnesium could help with that. He told me I could take a magnesium supplement or even an iron supplement.  I think he said that he has patients that have a normal iron level but if it's on the lower end of normal, but still normal, they have restless legs. He said that I could take an iron supplement once or twice a week. He said I could also try magnesium. 

Insomnia: I have also had trouble sleeping. I've been taking Ambien but I feel like my body is getting dependent on it and I don't want that. I asked about other options. I had heard that magnesium could help with sleep but he didn't know of any data on that. He told me to try something as simple as a Unisom or Benadryl instead of the Ambien. I feel like those kind of make me groggy the next day so he said to take it an hour earlier so that it gets out of your system sooner? 🤷I'll have to try that. I haven't yet. 

Women things: He said I’m essentially in menopause/chemo pause. My ovaries were shut down and they haven’t woken up yet. I was like, "Oh!!!! That would explain the hot flashes." Yep that's accurate. I was wondering why all of a sudden I was having hot flashes here and there. He said things should wake up soon. I feel like my hormones are getting back to their crazy up and down. I'm so irritable again and my emotions are everywhere. Ryan agreed that I was more of my old self, in a good way. 😉 My doctor said, "So she's getting her sass back. We love it when our patients get their sass back." I joked around and said, "I'm sure you guys love it but I'm not sure how the husbands feel about it." So it's frustrating to get back to my ups and downs (cuz I'm so grumpy), but I guess it's a good sign. 

After we visited for a while, I went to the chairs and got hooked up for another Herceptin infusion. It went well and I didn't have any noticeable side effects. 

That was Friday. Saturday I got together with some friends I grew up with and went to high school with. It had been 20 years!!!! I hadn't seen some of them for 20 years actually. Crazy to think about. 

Monday afternoon I headed to girls camp. Our stake went up to Heber Valley Girls Camp. That place is a well oiled machine. The senior missionaries there run that place really well. We had a good time. I forgot how much walking you do at girls camp. Back and forth from your cabin, to the amphitheater, to the pavilion, on a hike, to the challenge course, etc. It was just a lot. It took a lot out of me. I had to nap in the afternoons and I took Ambien at night to sleep. I was exhausted at the end of the day. I went home Wednesday night and drove back up Thursday afternoon for bishopric night. We got home really late that night. I've gone to bed after midnight the past four nights. I'm planning to go to bed early tonight. All day yesterday I could've taken a nap. I probably could've stayed in bed and slept all day. I was so tired. 

Some special things that happened at girls camp: 

A little 12 year old girl walked up to me as I was eating dinner. She told me she liked my “hat.” I said oh thank you. She asked me where I got it from. I said, “oh someone gave it to me. I don’t have any hair right now so I’m hiding my head.” She said, “oh do you have cancer?” I said, “yes.” She gave me a hug and said “oh I’m so sorry. You are so strong. My mom’s friend had cancer.” I thanked her and she went on her way. I’ve never met this girl but how adorable is she? She just walked right up to me, started talking, gave me a hug and told me she was sorry I was going through this. I was so impressed with her. 

On Thursday when I went back up with my bishopric and their wives, everyone was wearing their "Lindsey Kicks It" shirts. And if they didn't have one they were wearing pink. It was a really cool thing to see. The people in my neighborhood are so kind and supportive.