A little scare at SCCA

We've been on a roller coaster today and we're now getting off. The past few days have been filled with places to go, people to see and things to do. I was doing all of it with an aching back and hip (blah, blah...blah)

Today we had appointments in Seattle. Rick's was for chemo. Mine was for my monthly visit without any scheduled scans. When I got to my appointment (I was alone as Rick's chemo had already started upstairs) Dr. Eaton didn't like the fact that my HIP was hurting. We sort of know what's happening with the back, but the hip was something different. I explained how the family had been bugging me to call him about the pain (and I fought back saying he is my lung cancer doctor...what does he care about hip?). Well, apparently, Dr. Eaton says he is my primary doctor. He needs to know anything about everything. I guess lung cancer quite often ends up in the bone in our hips (sorry I didn't listen to you Bonnie). Hence...I guess I shouldn't have been diagnosing myself for the past 2 weeks. He ordered an abdomen CT scan that I can say with confidence didn't have the "sign of cancer" he had anticipated. A shadowy thing was found, it looks like it's in or on my vein. A radiation specialist will follow up with that but I'm sure it's nothing. If they had discovered cancer in my hip it would have been an easy (those are my words) fix. A little radiation. And we're done. But Tarceva would most likely have come to an end.

I can tell by my conversations with my doc that I'm about to be done taking Tarceva. He only re-filled my prescription paperwork for 3 months but encouraged me to only fill it month by month. He also reminded me that we have lots of other things to try and with my track record...maybe I'll take the next round of "whatever" with the same kind of success.

Rick's chemo went along today without any problems. Thank God. I was in radiology all day and only spent about 5 minutes laying next to him (it has become a habit...after all this time). Before I knew it, Rick was down in my room with me. What a ridiculous situation we're in. When does the really fun stuff start?

I'm going to turn off the phone tonight, crawl into bed with some pain medication (which I'll take more often if needed...I didn't want to be a wimp), watch my Tivo'd shows and do that snuggling with Rick tonight instead.

I want to send a big HUG to Melana for letting us crash at her condo at Gasworks parks last night. It made our journey to SCCA much nicer this morning.

Dreaming Big (with a good hip)
Dor