A Whole New Adventure

December 31, 2022 Nicky safely arrived at Natalie ‘a last night from Florida. Both will be leaving early this morning and driving here today.  What a great New Years Eve for Steve and I. Glad they will be arriving around noon since I know I won’t be up to greet the New Year when midnight hits but will wake up happy on New Years Day.  The girls arrived at 1:00 pm and Already went shopping and started preparing meals so that we will have pre made meals in the future.  9:30- I went to bed while the girls laid beside me. We were going to watch TV however ended up talking for an hour. It was so nice.  10:30pm-  For some reason, I had a cough spell with wheezing. Never had that before and not sure why.  The girls stayed with me until I fell asleep.  Didn’t make it to midnight but we cheered before I went to bed.  Happy New Year. 

December 30, 2022 My headaches have worsened. My daughter, Nicole was supposed to come visit from Florida today, however, her flight was cancelled.  She managed to book another flight to Trenton, NJ. She will stay tonight at my other daughter Natalie and then they will both drive here from Yardley, Pa.  It is usually a 7 hrs. drive.  Looking forward to their hugs. 11;00am - Went to the radiation dept in St Catherines Hospital since the headaches and nausea where a concern.   After registering at the Walker Cancer Centre, Julia Blain and Lucas Schinkel, clinical Specialist Radiation therapist met with Steve and I to ask us specific questions along explained exactly what will happen.   Can't believe information overload.  Dr Ishkanian Dr Ishkanian, Deputy Head of Radiation Medicine came to talk to us.  It took a while before he came since he talked to a radiologist who did my head MRI for results.   After he introduced himself, he said he read my results.  Looks lie there are 4 small

December 28, 2022 Received my bone scan results this morning. Findings were: Extensive multi focal skeletal metastatic disease is seen involving the skull,spine,bilateral rib, pelvis and the bilateral proximal femora.  These metastatic demonstrate moderate to intense uptake. Extensive multi focal skeletal metastatic disease involving the axial and proximal appendicular skeleton.  At 9am- Steve called the cancer center to see if we can see the oncologist sooner than later. The holdup is they are still waiting for another further report from my biopsy. It takes sometimes 2 weeks to get.  Hopefully, this will happen soon.  In the meantime, my strength is weakening, and I am still losing weight. Steve’s theory is I am constantly sick because I am always swallowing this heavy mucus which is constantly being produce. Last night we decided that I should spit it in a Kleenex and not swallow. It is always a challenge to do so but I did all afternoon and all night. Guess what?  It worked. I was

December 27, 2022 Woke up with a headache but no nauseous feeling yet.  I received the report from my CT abdominal scan from the on line system “Pocket Health”.  Pocket Health is a system where I can access my images and reports the minute they are available. Then when I see the doctors, I am involved in my own care and prepare questions and concerns.   The report showed: * As I already knew, in the lower thorax, there is numerous lung nodules  *GI tract is showing no distention or wall thickening.   *There are fibroids in my uterus but no metastasis.  *There is no evidence of metastasis in the adrenal gland *Degenerate change in the spine which I have been able to manage the pain for years.  Sounds like good news to me. Glad my other organs have not been affected.  Tomorrow night, I go for a head MRI.  At 2:30pm, Steve came home from shopping and said it warmed up out and the sun was nice.  I needed to get out, get fresh air  and go for a brief walk. I just walked around the block and

Dec 23, 2022 Today was a good day.  No headache or nausea.  I truly am grateful for the good days. In fact, I actually had an appetite for the first time in a long time. I made homemade pizza and actually enjoyed a couple pieces.  I need to gain weight before I get treatment hopefully in a couple of weeks. Steve reminds me to drink Boost Nutritional drink.   Glad we didn’t have an appointment today due to the blizzard.  December 24, 2022 Unfortunately, today was a bad day waking to being sick and headachy. Another day on the couch.  December 25, 2022 Like the commercial said during the Holidays…”cancer does not take a break during the Holidays “. So true. Not only it was Christmas but it was Steve and I 20th anniversary. I was hoping to feel good today so we could celebrate. I woke up worse than ever with not only a headache and being sick but now there is the awful pain in my upper right side of my back shooting up to my head. I tried to ice it, heat it and tried to work out the knock

Dec 22, 2022 Woke up this morning nauseous.  Today was a day we were anxiously waiting for. We finally find out the results, or at least most of them, of all the test I’ve had.    8:30am- Met with Dr Jany, an internist at St Catharines Hospital. Surprisingly, we were told I had stage 4 lung cancer which spread to my bones.  This was so unexpected and that is why we called this stage “ Holy Crap ’.  Steve went to see our family doctor, Dr Aliu, to pick up nausea pills for me and Metamucil for constipation.  Steve explained that the doctor was so upset and couldn’t believe the results since I always ate (at least most of the time) healthy, exercised, never smoked and tried to follow a stress free life. Who knows however Steve and I are moving forward with a positive outlook.  The hardest part is letting my daughters know. They are strong women and we love them dearly. I hope to feel well enough to see them along with grand children and son-in-laws.  The doctor told me with treatment I s

  December 19, 2022  At 1:00pm today at St Catharine's Hospital, I had a lung test.  I am always fascinated by the equipment they use.  A very nice attendant named Kaley performed the test.  First, she weighed me at 107 pounds and my height was a little over 5'3".    How to prepare for this test. Before having the test, we are asked to wear loose clothes and not to eat large meals within two hours before the test. There were 3 tests conducted.  1.They use a machine called Plethysmograph.  Plethysmography is a   pulmonary function test   that measures the health and function of the lungs by determining how much air the lungs can hold. It may be used along with other lung tests to help in the diagnosis of lung disease, to determine disease severity, to see whether treatment is working, or to evaluate the lungs before lung surgery. Lung plethysmography is also called pulmonary plethysmography or body plethysmography and it differs from impedance plethysmography, which is a te

December 15, 2022  Woke up this morning at 6am a little nauseous and headachy. The weather was calling for freezing rain. It didn’t matter since I had to go for my nuclear bone scan.  “A nuclear bone scan is a type of nuclear medicine tool that uses trace amounts of radioactive substances, called radiotracers, to evaluate physical and chemical bone changes.  A special camera, called a gamma camera, detects radiation emitted from the radiotracers. A computer creates 3D images from the gamma camera data.” We had to go twice.  We arrived for our 7:15am appointment. The procedure begins with an injection of radioactive tracer called 99m-Technetium in your veins. That only took a few minutes. I felt like singing the song “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragon’s. You re instructed to drink a lot of fluids for the next 24 hours, to wash your hands thoroughly after going to the washroom, use separate washroom if possible then others, stay arm’s length away from pregnant women, infants or children for

December 14, 2022 Today I woke up with no headache or nausea. I managed to go for a 3 km walk and did some very Iight weights. Because I haven’t had high energy, I find I am loosing muscle tone. It is nice to feel somewhat good.  I noticed my left hand which had been injected with a butterfly while getting my biopsy on Monday was swollen and bruising all around. Apparently, that happens.  7pm Today I got a CT Abdominal/Pelvis exam at St Catharines Hospital.  It is almost pass my bedtime but am always grateful that our Health System is able to do the test. I had to fast 2 hours prior. They inserted a butterfly and injected me with solution while I was getting the scan. It was weird because hen they injected it, I felt a warm heat around my chest area.   I received this from a friend today.  Offering Comfort When offering comfort to somebody, their only real need is to have you be in the present moment with them. Sometimes it is difficult to see someone we love struggling, in pain, or hu

 NOW WE FIND OUT December 11, 2022 A good friend of mine from Florida called me and said she organized a prayer group every night at 7pm for 5 minutes.  If anyone is willing to join in, all you have to do is say a prayer every night at 7 pm  I will feel your healing energy .  Thanks. December 12, 2022 . At 9:30am- I registered at St Joseph for the EBUS/EUS procedure with Dr. Hanna for 10:30.  FYI - EBUS is a way of looking inside and around the airways to identify lymph node in the mediastinum and take biopsies when needed.  There are 2 steps to this procedure.EUS is performed during gastrointestinal endoscopy. The doctor looks inside the airways of the lungs first using a tube called a bronchoscope.  Pictures are sent to a television monitor as the scope goes down.  Then doctor then inserts the EBUS scope.  The doctor presses a button on the scope and the ultrasound begins.  Sound waves bounce off the structures in the area and produce pictures on the monitor for the doctor to see.  

  WTF STAGE (excuse my language...I am still in shock)- Stage 2 December 8, 2022 8:30 am- Met with Dr Mitar at St Catherines Hospital and told me it looks like I have lung cancer and need to confirm with a biopsy and find out whether it spread.    It looks like we will be spending a lot of time being tested.  They will be booking me for  Brain MRI, Bone scan and CT Abdomen/ pelvis exam. along with EBUS/EUS   at St Joseph with Dr Hanna. FYI EBUS -  Endobronchial Ultrasound  Is   a minimally invasive but highly effective procedure used to diagnose lung cancer, infections, and other diseases causing enlarged lymph nodes in the chest   EUS -  Endoscopic ultrasound or echo-endoscopy is a medical procedure in which endoscopy is combined with ultrasound to obtain images of the internal organs in the chest, abdomen and colon. It can be used to visualize the walls of these organs, or to look at adjacent structures .     WE ARE CALLING THIS  THE “WTF” stage. So surreal  Here is a photo of my lun

  JUST THE BEGINNING   Why am I blogging this journey?    I have been diagnosed with lung cancer and hope to communicate to those interested my journey in healing.  Steve and I have faith that it will all work out- working with a medical team. I also want to journal in order to document things as I get treatment. I love blogging and it  will keep me occupied as it will also limit calls and text for updates until I get stronger.  Where did it begin? September 4, 2022 Steve and I just returned from a beautiful bike cruise in Vienna.  On the plane, I kept my N95 mask on since I did not want to get Covid.  When we arrived home, I noticed for 3 days afterwards, every time I took a deep breath a sharp pain would occur in my right lung.  It finally went away however I started this annoying cough.  I always wait 6 weeks before seeing the doctor to see if it would go away. September 28, 2022 Got my 5 Covid vaccine shot.  October 4, 2022 Got my flu shot October 20, 2022 I made an appointment wit