The Next Phase

The next phase of my cancer treatment begins.  Tamoxifen.  This is the daily pill I will be taking for the next five years.  My cancer was a hormone positive type and this drug will block estrogen production in my body.  Common side effects are hot flashes, nausea, fatigue, mood swings, hair thinning - basically the same as my chemotherapy just not as intense.  Oh, yeah!  But, I may or may not have them so we shall see.  And, I still have a couple of lingering side effects from the chemotherapy - the hives/rash are still with me, although they are starting to taper down a bit.  The doctor did finally prescribe a "water pill" to help with the bloating - YAY!!!  The doctor also informed me that I qualify for the drug trial.  So that will begin next week.

And, my hair is starting to come back.  It is soooo soft, just like Shadow's fur.

Today is a busy day as well.  Aside from my routine oncologist visit, I have scheduled an echocardiogram and CT scans of chest, abdomen, and pelvis.  These are part of the yearly physical exams I will have for at least the next five years.

CT scans = yummy smoothy and IV in arm.  Let the fun begin.

Radioactive Smoothy

IV for CT scans, the nurse that put this one in was not very good :(

After a painful IV placement off to the waiting room.  It takes the smoothy a couple of hours to travel through my body, so trying to get comfortable and watch netflix on my computer.

Started my day at the Cedars campus at 8:30 this morning, finished at 6:15pm.  Needless to say, very tired.  Now to go home and regroup for more tests and doctor visits tomorrow.