I AM DONE WITH LUPRON!!!
(Does anyone know where caps lock is on the iPhone? That took me half an hour to type).
It's snowing here today, and not in a nice way. It's slushy and rainy and a painting the ass (I am not going to fix that auto-correct because I love how it makes me sound Portuguese) but most people are being a little extra patient, which is nice. I am in the midst of co-chairing the PS3 Auction again this year which is to say that I am up to my eyeballs in to-do lists and reply-alls. I'm just setting the scene for you here: Auction Madness plus Snow plus Cancer Center. Last night, that equation equalled 3 hits from my pipe plus tincture. (More on the topic of stress in my next post).
Anyway, for my appointment today I knew I was in for a Lupron shot in my ass and a sit-down with my oncologist, Dr. Ruth. But they sent me to Ruth first:
Draw blood, weigh-in, undress from the waist up, vitals, and then Ruth checks out my boobs. All good. "Put your clothes on and meet me around the corner. Let's talk,"
On my list of things to discuss were:
How much longer do I have to get Lupron shots?
How bad is Lupron going to be for my bones?
Here is my bone density work - what do you think?
Out of the gate, Ruth wants to tell me that the study results are in and there is no significant gain to staying on Lupron for longer than one year. Particularly for my type of cancer. She asks if I want to go ahead and finish out the year with Lupron and I ask her if she is smoking crack. Then I ask her if she thinks it's ok for me to stop now and she says: "I think you can stop." And I have not known such joy in an awfully long time but this time I do not cry. I simply rejoice. And hug Ruth.
Going off of Lupron but staying on Tamoxifen. I will start to ovulate again, but in all likelihood I will continue to experience hot flashes. Oh, and one more thing: I absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, allow myself to become pregnant. Tamoxifen is detrimental to a fetus and I would have no choice but to terminate. So what are my plans for contraception? Figure it out soon. Tamoxifen makes it easier to get pregnant.
Add it to the growing list of ironies.
Draw blood, weigh-in, undress from the waist up, vitals, and then Ruth checks out my boobs. All good. "Put your clothes on and meet me around the corner. Let's talk,"
On my list of things to discuss were:
How much longer do I have to get Lupron shots?
How bad is Lupron going to be for my bones?
Here is my bone density work - what do you think?
Out of the gate, Ruth wants to tell me that the study results are in and there is no significant gain to staying on Lupron for longer than one year. Particularly for my type of cancer. She asks if I want to go ahead and finish out the year with Lupron and I ask her if she is smoking crack. Then I ask her if she thinks it's ok for me to stop now and she says: "I think you can stop." And I have not known such joy in an awfully long time but this time I do not cry. I simply rejoice. And hug Ruth.
Going off of Lupron but staying on Tamoxifen. I will start to ovulate again, but in all likelihood I will continue to experience hot flashes. Oh, and one more thing: I absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, allow myself to become pregnant. Tamoxifen is detrimental to a fetus and I would have no choice but to terminate. So what are my plans for contraception? Figure it out soon. Tamoxifen makes it easier to get pregnant.
Add it to the growing list of ironies.
