Does the BRCA 5-site rearrangement panel include BART testing?

My medical geekiness showed its colors today.  Last night, at the Young Survivors Sunday Starbucks group an amazing guest speaker mentioned the BART test for those who had tested BRCA negative.  So, I dug out my trusty notebook of lab results, flipped to the genetics section and found my Mar 2007 “Comprehensive BRACAnalysis.”  It lists [...]

relieved

Digital mammograms are amazing things. No waiting, just the results – right away. Plus EPIC West rocks – they have chocolate to eat while you sit and wait for the radiologist to read the mammogram pics. (Deep stress calls for chocolate.) They called me back for one additional pic just to [...]

good &….

Good news: echo-cardiogram is normal! No chemo damage for me. Doesn’t explain the heart palpitations, but at least it’s nothing structural.

Good news

Tumor marker test (CA 15-3) came back normal.  But then again, it was normal when I knew I had a tumor in me.  But apparently that happens with early cancer.  So, not quite sure what good it is.  I’m told it’s trends that count.
Still not quite sure I understand it, but if the doc says [...]

Three months post-chemo & all’s right in the world

Just got back from my 3-month medical oncology checkup. My onc. was surprisingly accepting of the fact that I decided to take a short tamoxifen break while I’m finishing up rads. I was afraid he’d be mad, but he wasn’t at all. Whew. Not only that, he offered to do the [...]

Needle-core biopsy

I’m constructing a timeline in the “about” section, and found this piece about my needle-core biopsy.
March 10, 2007
It was yesterday, and let’s just say that if the local anesthesia had actually worked it would have been fine, but it didn’t, and I ended up in so much pain 15 minutes afterwards on my way home [...]

Metabolizing tamoxifen

What an interesting time we live in. Turns out that there are specific genes that affect enzymes that metabolize drugs. And some drugs inhibit the enzymes. This is important for women taking tamoxifen, because if it’s not metabolized well then it has less protective value. For me, tamoxifen is supposed to increase [...]

Rads doubts and a small-pond problem

Am having doubts about not doing radiation…sneaky doubts that are like small children pulling at my skirt to get my attention. So I paid attention, the way one would to a child (to kneel down so that we can look each other in the eyes and say “Well hello you, what have we here?”). [...]

Una mas

As a close friend said, just one more to go! Taxol #3 was completely and blissfully uneventful – no breathing problems at all. Feet starting to turn red again, but hopefully more IV hydrocortisone will do the trick later today.
White and red blood cell counts are holding steady, platelets are back up to [...]

Taxol #1 uneventful!

First of all, amazingly enough I did sleep last night – a whole 4 hours!
Taxol #1 today was entirely uneventful. Boring even. Which is the best we could hope for! So, so far so good. My friend Heidi and got lots of reading done, and it’s so nice to have her [...]