Parker (AKA Camille, cough, hack) in Stage 4

  A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer - Episode 14 Hello, hello and Happy New Year! I hope all you listening have had a splendid holiday season - I have! Not only have I enjoyed family and friends for both Christmas Eve, and the first night of Chanukah, but I also received from the gods of health an unexpected holiday gift. Last year at this time, I was busy jumping through hoops at the Cancer Institute getting a myriad of scans, blood tests, and doctor’s visits to determine whether it was time to surgically remove the original tumor in my right breast. Well, as I reported then, after all that sturm und drang, it was determined I should hang tight, and revisit the issue in a year. So! Here it is a year later and ANOTHER round of tests and visits was required. Just two weeks ago I had a breast MRI; ultrasound; 2 manual exams; two blood tests; a CT scan; and a full body scan. After all the results came in, I had a consult with both my oncologist, and surge...

                                                              A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer - Episode 13 Well! It feels as though I have been away for an epoch or two, but glad to be back. Since last time, I have been busy, busy, busy with life stuff. I am delighted to report I have moved to a pretty new place, and am settling in nicely. And, yes, the process was just awful, as moving always is. Still, I survived, and on to better things. I have also been happily involved with a local Seattle organization near and dear to my heart, and want to tell you about them, and how I came to know them. Two years ago, I was, due to a change in my health insurance, forced to leave the original oncologist treating me. Not surprising, this move was wrenching, at first, and left me pretty raw. However,...

                                                                                       Episode 12 - A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer Well, it has been a minute, but I am back. I must confess, I have been ducking this one for weeks, and have only just figured out why this, particular installment should be so difficult for me to write, and share. Shame. Just pure and simple shame. Why? Because the topic is the financial impact I, and many other women, are facing due to this lovely disease. But, why the shame? Ah, why, indeed. At this stage of life, I really “should” be in better shape, economically. I should have a lovely nest egg, savings, stock, a house — you know — all the trappings of a responsible woman facing her...

                                     Episode 11 - A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer Hello again! Early March, already! My, time does motor on when you finally get past the free floating anxiety you’ve been needlessly embracing since early December. Huh. Who knew? Yeah, well.   So! When last I posted, I’d found out I did NOT, in fact, have to endure a lumpectomy/mastectomy. And, me being me, was conflicted about it, and felt illogically blue about the whole thing. Well, I’m over that. No surgery! No disfigurement! No painful recovery! Yay! On to the next. What else should I worry about? Ah, what else, indeed. Well, I will tell you. As I have reported to you many times, one of the chief hallmarks of this stupid disease is uncertainty. You just never know when that Damocles sword you’ve got hanging over your pretty scrolled iron bed is gonna fall — in one way or ...

                                               Episode 10 - A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer Ah, here we are now in the first days of February. I promised I’d be back to let you know what was going on with respect to the surgery/no surgery situation I was waiting on last time I was here.   Well! The only thing I can report, after sitting on the razor’s edge of anxiety, and apprehension since early December is…not a lot. And so it goes. As a recap, in early December, scans suggested some changes, but that I might be a good candidate to have the original breast lesion removed. My oncologist let me know she had already spoken with her surgeon partner, and they wanted to pursue a lumpectomy, as a way to forestall any future spread, and negate need for additional (read painful) chemo treatment. All I needed to do was have a breast MRI...

                                                                   Episode 9 - A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer Well, here we are in mid to late January! Hope wherever you are you are warm and safe. I am…still here. Waiting to find out what happens next. Ugh. I was not planning on making another appearance here until I had some real news, but feel compelled to let you all know what things look like today. I did promise to present an honest description of this Day in the Life stuff. I was recently asked by a stranger commenting on the vlog why I was “coming clean,” as he put it, about my struggles with this thing. I responded to him as I have when I started this - that I hoped shining a light on the day to day experiences would be useful to other women struggling with metastat...

                                                                   Episode 8 - A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer Ah, it is almost the New Year. Here’s hoping 2024 is a banner year for all of you! As for me, I am impatient for this year to end, and hope against hope January will provide me greater clarity, and a real time frame for what comes next in my treatment. I doubt very much I am unusual here when I note it is the waiting, and uncertainty that is most difficult. I can handle damned near anything, once I know what’s coming. So! As I don’t yet, I’m focusing on what I do know, what I have learned, and hoping my experiences, and thoughts find a home here with you. I relate now one of the most potent, and for me, powerful realizations regarding my diagnosis. Ok, I must admit,...