Best Of

Hi all - Guess the last 6 months have more than made up for the mostly easy first 4 years of my MBC diagnosis. Not only did my cells develop a resistance to Letrozole and I had progression, the 3 months on Faslodex resulted in more progression. My progression has almost 100% been to bone.

So now I am 9 days since my first Enhertu infusion. Am glad to report that I still don't have any real se to speak about. Next infusion 7/15.

Started the radiation to my mandible on Monday 6/30. 3 treatments done and 7 to go. With the holiday and weekends will complete those on 7/14. Interestingly, my MO cancelled my Xgeva shot that had been scheduled for 7/1 after I raised the question about whether it was advisable to have along with the radiation treatment.

Regarding the extensive mets (and now a lytic tumor) in my T12 vertebrae, the progression first showed up on the MRI done in March (when I had to have the lumbar tap for the lesion on the spinal cord at T10 to rule out meningeal disease) and showed more progression on my PET in May. My RO mentioned to me that she wanted me to see a Vascular Interventional Radiologist to determine if radiation should be done first or if it might be better to have kyphoplasty done first. This morning, I received a video call from the Vascular Interventional Radiologist who my RO sent a referral to yesterday. He explained in detail the procedure (needles are inserted into the vertebrae to ablate (remove/destroy) the tumor and then cement is inserted to stabilize the area) and said I could either do this procedure first and then have radiation, or do the radiation first and then the kyphoplasty. He said to talk with my RO as to how she wanted to proceed. I told him that I thought she was waiting to hear his recommendation of the order to do both in. After discussing it with him and hearing the pros and cons (doing his procedure would cause me less issues since radiating first made it harder to insert the needles}, I decided to do the kyphoplasty first (in 2 weeks) and then have radiation to destroy anything the ablation might not have.

On the way home from my radiation treatment, we stopped by the facility where my port was put in last week. With the long weekend, I wanted to make sure it was healing ok. I happened to mention to the Vascular Surgeon there that I was going to have kyphoplasty in 2 weeks. He said he also performs kyphoplasty (figured he did since they are both Vascular surgeons). We had a conversation about why I needed it and he asked who would be doing it. When I told him who, he not only said he knows the doctor, he also said that he was a great doctor and agreed that he would do the procedure first for the same reasons the doctor at my cancer center had enumerated. So, I now have my second opinion! 🙂

On the way home, I realized that I had another question for the Vascular Interventional Radiologist and put a call into his MA. Not even 15 minutes, I received a video call back from the doctor himself. This, to me, confirmed that I am going to be in good hands.

Sorry for the long post but wanted to give you all the facts.

Has anyone on this thread had kyphoplasty done to a vertebrae? Did you do it before or after radiation? What did you experience during your recovery and how long before you felt "back to normal"?

Thanks for "listening". Happy 4th of July! 🌟💥

@moderators @tougholdcrow @chicagoan

Thank you all so much. You are so sweet.

Pumpkin is now a country dog! She is in Napa, living with my daughter and family (and their dog and two cats😂). I miss her terribly but they are taking good care of her and she knows them and their pets. Here she is with my granddaughter who just turned 13. I am lucky that I had a loving familiar place to send her to so I don’t have to worry about her care.

@exbrnxgrl Thank you. I am sorry you’re having some pain. Glad it can be controlled, but sleeping a lot because of the meds, not so much.

I do nap daily and went pretty deep today.

I’m having more problems eating and being able to breathe because of the basketball in my stomach. It’s not fun not to be able to breathe.

I’m so glad you have your friends and can FaceTime.

I will be 12 years in August when they missed my diagnosis, so we are close with how much time we’ve had. I am grateful for sure.

Hugs to you!

@eleanora Thank you so much.