Jennifer's Cancer Journey

 I have sat with this horrible news for over a week. My feelings of fear, grief, dread, and anxiety have not waned. They just come and go some. Before I get into the details that really contain no details, let me say THANK YOU! Thank you for the overwhelming love and support you have given. Thank you for the hugs. Thank you for the text messages. Thank you for the comments here. I do not know who is posting most of them, but I have come back to read them over and over. The prayers offer comfort.  It was a rough week mentally. I tried to put everything out of my head, but every ache, pain, and twinge reminded me that my body is trying to kill me. Wednesday I picked up my phone after a meeting and my heart sunk when the notification across my screen said James Van Der Beek had died. While I never watched Dawson's Creek (I am too old- 90210 was my show), I felt emotionally invested in his journey. He announced publicly that be had been battling stage 3 cancer around the same time...

 It has been a long and rough 24 hours. Around 9am every morning, many staffers go to Corner Books to get coffee. Like any other Thursday, we were talking about things. There were pockets of conversations going on. My phone rang. I knew. I knew the number. I knew the results. I knew how the conversation was going to go.  How could I have gone from feeling on top of the world and running a half marathon less than a month ago to this? GUT PUNCH! My CEA which was 5.5 at diagnosis and averaged 1.6 this past year was now at 6.8 My CA-125 which had never been done was 80. Normal is 0-35 I am still waiting on the results of the signatera test.  All of my other blood work was normal. Now for the hard part. I have 2 pelvic masses. One is 6.5cm x 3.8cm x 4.5 cm. The other is a 1.5 cm nodule. I also have a liver nodule that is 1.5cm x 1.3 cm.  Surgery is off the table. My oncologist wants to biopsy the 1.5 pelvic nodule and start chemo to "control it." No options after that wer...

 So, I have had a whirlwind of a few days. If you remember way back in December, I had a clear CT. Also, at that time I was having some pain. After the clear scans the doctor said it was likely muscular. This was not a crazy idea since I was working my core pretty hard in November and had just started running again to prepare for the half marathon. The pain wasn't constant, it was just annoying. Well the annoying got worse. I would carry my heating pad from room to room. It never really made a difference though. It was pretty steady in relation to pain and coming and going. I had taken time off from core and strength training while working up to the half marathon. I added some pretty intense core work back the last few weeks when we were frozen. Well, that amped up my pain. It hurts pretty bad and all of the time. I just had a feeling...and that feeling is that it wasn't muscular.  Last week I scheduled an appointment with my PCP. She did labs, but was leaning more toward dive...

 So, if you remember way back at the end of November when I got my blood test results, I kind of spiraled though all of the aches and pains that I had bee feeling? Well, I still have the nagging lower abdominal pain. I brought it up to my oncologist in December, but given all of the test results, plus my activity, she concluded it was muscular. Well, here we are in the final days of January and the pain is still present and more so than it was last month. At this point, I have no idea which doctor to call first. I scheduled an appointment with my primary. She is the one who insisted, despite my lack of symptoms other than anemia, lack of family history, and lack of risk factors was insistent I get a colonoscopy because she was concerned I had colon cancer way back in APRIL 2024. I obviously didn't take her seriously initially. We talked through my symptoms and activity. Her first thought was possibly diverticulitis. Given my history (Yes, I am so over those words), she wanted to do...

I feel like I have been waiting for this event all year! Well, truthfully, I am not sure If I was waiting for it or dreading it. This is one of those things that was a "promise" to Samantha      after I woke up from surgery. I had a million reasons to not run this half and no one would have thought of me as weak or a quitter. However, I refuse to let cancer rob me of one of the things that I used to love to do. Yes, I am a crazy person that used to love running. This past year, it has been more of a love/hate relationship. I love to be able to run, but hated the toll it took on my body. I loved the runners high, but hated the aches and pains that should not have been. I loved getting out there and just feeling free, but I hated when my body failed me.  I guess I really started training in late August after the wedding. It was slow, but went well. I turned into a 5am runner. That was difficult. For the most part it went ok. My body was not adjusting well. Some days we...

 Today someone mentioned that I haven't given an update and requested that I do one. I had to look to see when I posted last. It was the scan result. I met with my doctor a few days after. She was pleased with my results and mentioned that sometimes the signatera number can fluctuate. Based on my research, it doesn't really. It can fluctuate based on how many cells that contain tumor DNA are floating in the body. However, my researching did tell me that with a number as low as mine, my body could fight off and kill whatever was attempting to grow. In my mind that could explain fluctuating. I have decided to not repeat the test this month. I will wait until late January or February. I am going to live my life like I have clear scans. I am going to celebrate Christmas with my family, Hannah's birthday, Samantha's birthday, and run a half marathon before I even think about doing the test again.  This past Friday, I had my port flush and blood work. Everything was normal. T...