Health Update

I was going to title this blog What a Day, but I just received word of something that happened to a new friend that makes my day Tuesday look like a cake walk, so I changed my title!

We got into the car Tuesday morning to go to my appointment at Hillman Cancer Center to see my oncologist, have lab work, and my Targeted Treatment. I took a picture of Donn and me and posted it on Facebook requesting prayer for my appointment. A little while later, I tried to open Facebook to check on something, but they wanted me to log in first. I dug my password out of my wallet but I couldn’t get into my account no matter how I tried. 

Facebook said they would send a verification code to my phone but I didn’t get one. I’ve heard stories lately of Facebook restricting accounts, whatever that means, and was concerned that something like that was going on. Eventually, I gave up as Donn continued to drive me to the Cancer Center.

In my Facebook post, I had asked for prayer for good communication with my oncologist because I knew I needed to talk to her about the side effects I was having from the AI drug I’m taking. It’s never an easy conversation because she’s very reluctant to admit that anything I’m experiencing is actually a side effect—probably because she doesn’t want me to stop the drug.

We arrived at the Center, and it was soon my turn. The medical assistant who came to get us had originally been my least favorite of the two who assist Dr. L. because of what I deemed her sour disposition. However, shortly before Christmas in a conversation we had, I learned that her husband had passed away. She was no longer able to do the things they had done together to prepare for the holiday.  

Suddenly I had great compassion toward her and it seemed her attitude also changed. She seemed to be kinder and to have a more positive attitude. The saying Don’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is certainly relevant to my attitude toward her. I still have my husband to help with all the pre-Christmas preparations and haven’t experienced what she’s going through.

When Dr. L came in to the treatment room all was well until she mentioned the medicine I’m on, and I said we needed to talk about that. She pulled out her stool and sat down. When I mentioned my elevated blood pressure, she said, “That isn’t a common side affect.” We’d been here before… I said, “Even if no one has ever had this side effect, it wouldn’t be unusual for me to have it.” She wasn’t impressed and went on attempting to make her case.

I moved on to the severe pain I’d been having in my hip joints. When she began to down play that also, I said, “I read that of all the women who stopped taking this drug, the most common reason was hip pain.” She couldn’t deny that, but said she wanted to do x-rays of my hips. I won’t bore you with the discussion that continued for some time of the various side effects that she tried to convince me weren’t side effects.

Eventually, she asked me what I wanted to do, and I ultimately agreed to switch to another AI drug which she said was the most unlike the one I’m taking. Later, when I picked it up at Walmart, the druggist said, “We haven’t had many complaints from people taking this one—maybe a little upset stomach.” So please pray with us that I would tolerate this one better than the last. I took the first one at breakfast this morning and no upset stomach so far.

The AI drugs don’t get rid of cancer–they said I was cancer-free after my surgery. Rather the purpose is to get rid of the estrogen in my body because some of my cancer was estrogen-driven. It seems ironic that during menopause, many in the medical profession push estrogen therapy (I didn’t take it), and then when breast cancer develops, they want to remove the estrogen from your body.

Thankfully, all my lab work looked very good, and when we entered Annie’s POD, one of the women there for treatment said warmly, “Welcome to our group!” Later we all introduced ourselves, and it was another day that was good for the soul.

The woman who welcomed us had been diagnosed with cancer about three years ago and was told that she had three to five months to live. “I told my doctors, ’You’ve never met a Hunter (her maiden name)!’” She has been in treatment ever since, and I didn’t notice even a hint of self-pity. I would never have guessed her prognosis by looking at her.

After my appointment, we waited in line at Spectrum for a long time because our bill has gone up and we wanted to see if we could change something to reduce our rate, then headed for home after a stop at Walmart to pick up my prescription.

All day, off and on, I had tried without success to get into my Facebook account. When we got home, I went to my computer and learned that someone in Pittsburgh had tried to get into my Facebook account five or six times. Facebook blocked them because they didn’t recognize the device and locked my account until I could change my password.

It still took awhile to get into my account on both my phone and my IPad. Facebook kept sending me “Is this you?” notifications until they finally believed it was me. Even though I was frustrated at being locked out of my account, I’m grateful that Facebook has technology in place to detect that someone other than me was trying to get into my account.

If I had been at home when this happened, I would have been able to fix the problem much more quickly. Because I wasn’t, I had to keep reminding myself that this was “A rich people problem.” People in third world countries don’t get locked out of their Facebook accounts because they don’t have modern technology.

On the other hand, although some people have no use for Facebook, it’s an important part of my ministry. I believe it’s like many things—it can be a tool either for evil or for good. It depends on what you make of it! For me it’s a tool to connect with many people I wouldn’t be able to reach any other way.

Father, thank you for the many tools we have in modern technology that can be used for advancing your Kingdom. I decree that the gates of hell will not prevail against us (Matthew 16:18) because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (I John 4:4). Amen.

*I have no idea what happened to the post I did on Facebook on Tuesday morning asking for prayer. It never appeared again!