My latest cancer & health news

The last time I was put through a PET scan machine this past November, the result was rather anxiety-inspiring… the tumor in my liver showed some new activity, just enough to raise suspicions and some fears. I thought we had killed that darn thing.

The word from my oncologist was that if it shows any more growth during my next PET scan, I’m back in chemo. Or I’m in radiation. Or both. We just don’t know at this point.

So I started reading up on my particular cancer and what seems to put one at lower risk of recurrence. My breast cancer is the most killer kind, so-called “triple negative” which happens in 15 percent of breast cancer cases. This kind of cancer simply does not give up easily.

At the same time, I noted something interesting. In more than one study, it has been noticed that triple negative breast cancer patients seems to have the lowest rates of Vitamin D. I used to live in the land of rain and clouds and very little sunshine, i.e. the Pacific Northwest. Could there be a causation to go with this correlation?

I decided heck, it won’t hurt to start myself on large doses of vitamin D3 for awhile. So I started taking 5000 IU every night. Strange things started happening during the first several days. I started having odd, vague pains at my original tumor site as well as in the lymph node areas in the armpit area nearby. Weird.

I also started having odd, less painful sensations in random areas in the rest of my body. Either something real was happening and changing, or my mind was playing tricks on me.

After a week or so, I started to feel a little better just generally. My ability to move around seemed to improve a little. I was walking like a painful old lady, now I found myself able to take a normal long stride for short distances.

Well I can’t argue with THAT small success…

So when I saw my oncologist this past Valentines day. I asked her: “Is this all just a placebo or is there actually a reduced cancer risk with an elevated intake of vitamin D?” She let me know that science has proven a valid reduced risk of breast cancer among those who take D. She also let me know that I need to reduce the dose to 2500 IU because otherwise there is a risk of kidney stones. Ooops… OK.

Someone gave me tumeric capsules awhile back as a way to reduce pain. Now I get to find that it also might have anti-cancer properties. Hmmmm… I had started taking the tumeric at the same time as I started taking the D… who knows?

The way I see it, if these nutritional supplements actually CAN help, then I might as well try to boost my own odds for my next PET scan however I can.

Small hopes are nice things. I’ll take my small hopes where-ever I can find them. Wish me luck on that next PET scan. :)

February 20th, 2012 | Category: Cancer news | Comments are closed

Stuff is still happening at the old Jumpgate Pins website

I had thought that I would close my old Jumpgate Pins site and start all my new blogging here on Dreamcircle. It hasn’t turned out that way. There is still old business to clean up back at the old site, so it looks like I’ll be adding stuff on BOTH blogs until every last Jumpgate Pin is gone.

If you were reading the old blog and are just reading Dreamcircle now, go back to the old blog and read about my Shadow Box Project. I’ve dreamed up a great new plan for how I am going to close the old site. Every last <*> Pin of it’s kind is going to be specially framed in a so-called “shadow box” frame.

I have a pic of the kind of shadow box that I’ll be working with posted on the old blog. Classy stuff. I have no idea how long it’s going to take to set it all up, but I am shooting for no less than “awesome” and “classy-looking.” That’s the goal.

Meanwhile, here at Dreamcircle. I’ve got a whole lotta improvements to make. I have good, creative plans for both the “Beyond the Jumpgate” page and the “astronomy brooches/pendants” page. Those are the pages to be finished first for this site. I also should add stuff like an RSS link and a link for subscribing to this blog.

Wow… I wish I could just take every creative idea in my head and make it happen instantly… the results would be amazing. Ah well, I’m still stuck with the physical creative speed of a turtle due to this health situation. But I’m still here and I am still determined… that’s the important point. :)

February 17th, 2012 | Category: Miscellany | Comments are closed

“Fatigue, Chemo and Determination” (updated version)

(Originally written July 25, 2010 for the Jumpgate blog. The few things that have changed since then is that now it’s wintertime and the fatigue has improved somewhat… though it seems I’ll never get back to the point where I wish I was.)

It’s mid-summer here in Vegas and the peak temperatures are reaching 113°. That kind of heat is pretty bad for anyone, but for a cancer patient, it’s REALLY tough.

Cancer treatment – especially for triple-negative metastatic stage 4 breast cancer like mine – causes severe, unpredictable fatigue. From January to around March, I was suffering some pretty severe fatigue. I could function something like a normal person a few hours a day – the problem was trying to plan for what hours or what day. It was completely unpredictable.

More recently, my oncologist was concerned over the nerve damage in my extremities (neropathy) caused by the nastier chemotherapy Continue reading “Fatigue, Chemo and Determination” (updated version)

January 11th, 2012 | Category: BLOG | Comments are closed

Uncertain PET/CAT scan results :(

Long story short: My last cancer-detection scans in late November showed that there is some new activity in the tumor that had spread to my liver. I thought we had killed that sucker. :(

My oncologist says she will wait to see the results of the upcoming scans in early February to confirm the growth. (I am thankful that she seems to be approaching this situation with slow caution.) If it’s confirmed as still growing by then, I’m most likely to end up back in chemo.

Again.

I’ve already been through it twice.

Wish me luck, my friends. :(

December 25th, 2011 | Category: Cancer news | Comments are closed

What’s Las Vegas REALLY like?

“I live in a city with two personalities. It’s like getting to know two twin brothers, one who is an extreme extrovert, one who is a real introvert. Everyone gets to know the extrovert at the party, while the introvert gets eclipsed and is mostly ignored by the rest of the world.

Most people don’t realize that the Strip is just one crazy street and that there’s a whole other, nuanced, quieter dimension to discover in the city where I live.

I love the hidden, introverted side of Las Vegas. From the sound of laughter from children at the local neighborhood schoolgrounds, to the quiet, winged beauty of egrets and herons taking off into the sky at Clark County Wetlands Park, to the multi-dimensional present and past history of the local valley as showcased at Springs Preserve to the ancient desert secrets to be learned at Red Rock Canyon to the last surviving farm/orchard in the area… and so much more.

I appreciate my city’s quieter, more introspective side that the tourists on the Strip would never understand, satisfied that I still have much to discover and learn from the many hidden, more thoughtful aspects of this multidimensional desert valley.

I also want to let everyone know that this city also features a future real-life spaceport. (I wish I had an “in” with that company so I could hang out for a day with their engineers.)

I’ll be providing links to the above-mentioned places at a later date. Stay tuned.

December 25th, 2011 | Category: Living in Las Vegas | Comments are closed

Introducing my new “circle of dreams” website!

Here is the first draft of text that I wrote for the opening of my website on Christmas Day 2011 – complete with typos and half-thoughts – saved for posterity:

Welcome to the home page of Dreamcircle. I am Elana (no last name needed here). This is going to be my new home of quite a few, different, multiple, creative projects over time. As each page is filled with something interesting and new, look to this home page to find out the latest news.

A short history of dreamcircle.com: I originally bought this domain over 10 years ago, tossed up a hopelessly mid-90′s design as a placeholder – and then didn’t do much with it. Now that I am dealing with advanced breast cancer, I decided I’d rather let the world know about some of the interesting things I have thought about and done over the years. I want to leave behind a creative legacy as well as see what I can create to raise funds to pay medical bills. Expect several blank pages on many of my links until I fill them up, one by one. (The “HOW TO HELP” link already has some useful info.)

To start things off, my first project is called “Beyond The Jumpgate.” Back in the ’90′s I had access to some excellent, specialized metalworking equipment. So I used that access to make awesome so-called “Jumpgate Pins” (actually brooches) for fans of a science fiction show I’ll simply call “B5″ here. I got to work in various metals, from stainless steel to mainly brushed and polished brass. High quality stuff.

Those Pins were a huge hit. I’ve finally sold nearly out all the Jumpgate Pins now. Only a handful are left as the Jumpgate Pins fade slowly into history.

That meant that my first creative challenge of Dreamcircle would be to find a way to make new brooches out of a completely different material. I’ve found my new medium.

See this book? Believe it or not, that artwork you see on the front is made out of CLAY. Not just ANY clay, but an amazing, advanced, very artistic medium called “Polymer Clay.” It comes in dozens of colors and types, from liquid to nearly solid, from earth shades to sparkling metallics, from opaque to translucent and more.

This special, artistic clay is NOT kids’ stuff. With enough talent, you can make beautiful artworks out of this special material which would worthy of a New York upscale art gallery. You sculpt it, you mold it, then you bake it at 275 degrees for around 20 minutes to harden it. From there, the creative possibilities are limited to your own imagination.

I started with the polymer clay late last July. It’s December now as I write this. I guess I should be proud to know that I progressed from being confused and squishing a white ball of clay around to making honestly beautiful, pro-looking brooches in about 5-6 months. That’s gotta be something, considering I deal with a whole lot of chemo-induced fatigue. (Before the cancer, I think I could have done that in about 2 months. Oh well.)

Anyway, the sparkling, colorful science-fiction-in-joke brooches seen on that “Beyond The Jumpgate” page are THE crowning example of my progress so far as of this writing. My goal was to have a transition project to help me travel -creatively speaking – from JumpgatePins.com to Dreamcircle. I’m glad to now say this has been accomplished.

Hand in hand with the “Beyond The Jumpgate” project is my new “Astronomy Brooches and Pendants” project for space fans. No longer confined to just the old “jumpgate” design, I can now create a brooch featuring nearly ANY astronomy image you can throw at me, along with any border color you specify.

The only constraint is my time. I can only do maybe 10 brooches a week at the most, due to ye olde chemo fatigue, but I am up for the challenge. If you ask me to make you a custom brooch, I will keep you updated as to my progress and send you pics for your approval before I ship them to you. Email me via the info on the Contact Page to learn how you can order an astronomy brooch. (Pendants are scheduled to come to this website later.)

Thanks for visiting! Please visit often to see what I have been doing lately and to see my new “circle of dreams” evolve over time. :)

Sincerely…

-Elana

December 24th, 2011 | Category: BLOG | Comments are closed