MDA, Here We Come...This is NOT my idea of a proper Texas homecoming, but I'll take it nonetheless.

In my previous post I mentioned having a few setbacks.  These are not physical setbacks.  The setbacks I refer to are more mental and emotional.  These involve knowledge and information concerning my cancer.  Knowledge that things are not as simple as originally thought. 

I had a bad feeling about this when I realized my original chemotherapy regimen (TAC) was not working.  My cancer was growing, despite the fact that I had been told that it was not uncommon for my type of tumor to completely disappear (yes, disappear) when treated with that particular chemo regimen. 

Talk about riding the cancer roller coaster.  Have I mentioned?  I hate this ride.

So, as discussed in previous posts, the results from my tumor profiling done by Rational Therapeutics (showing my tumor to be highly resistant to all normal chemo regimens), my high Oncotype score (showing my recurrence rate to be extremely high), and the most recent blow, to find out that the biopsy following the surgery showed my tumor to have changed...morphed...mutated...whatever   (from ER+/PR+/HER- to the dreaded Triple Negative...ER-/PR-/HER-), have all worked together to pull that comfortable rug called the future right out from under me. 

But just because that rug was pulled out from under me and I landed on my backside, does not mean I just sit there on the cold ground.  I'm back up and fighting.  I'm looking for nails to hammer that rug back down so it does not get pulled out from under me again.  At least not so easily.

The roller coaster and the rug; mixed metaphors at their best.

To help with this fight, David and I are heading out for Houston tomorrow to pay a visit to the specialists at MD Anderson Cancer Center.   My pre-Thanksgiving gift was a call from Julissa at MDA saying she had been able to find an earlier appointment for me, two weeks earlier than previously scheduled.  So yay to that.

Today I get to run around NWA picking up medical record, films, and CDs full of images and other information. I have reams of paperwork to fill out and bags to pack.

We've been told to expect to be in the Houston area at least a week.  JC and Sean will be holding down the fort while we're gone, with the help of Cleo and Harry.  And Megan.  And that better be all.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to hearing what they recommend for me.  I'm hoping Dr. Beck is right.  He said that, even though he has never seen a case like mine, I would not be quite so uncommon at MDA.  Let's hope not.  They rank as the #1 cancer center in the United States (so doesn't that mean the world), which is comforting.

Houston, here we come.

And thank the good Lord it's not August.