Saturday phone calls

Today is a beautiful, hot, central Ohio Saturday and it started out awesome. My husband and I transported six sweet furbabies to safe havens, completed a home visit for a prospective dachshund adopter and drank a beer around 3 p.m. During our outing enjoying said beer, a restrictive number called, I of course hit ignore, and saw a voicemail flash on my phone.

As I listened, I heard the voice of my oncologist, calling me from home. I listened twice and learned that she wanted to talk about an estrogen blocker. My cancer is estrogen receptive and since I'm young(ish), my body produces quite a lot. She told me I have two options, the first is a monthly injection and daily pill that throws me straight into full on menopause. The side effects are awful including hot flashes and severe PMS symptoms like headaches and irritability. The other option is Tamoxifen, which can cause blood clots and uterine cancer.

Remember my post about Lynch syndrome? This genetic mutation causes colon, uterine and ovarian cancers (among others). So, yeah, I'm already prone to uterine cancer. This is a crappy decision. Luckily, I plan to have a full hysterectomy to reduce my chances of a few of these cancers early next year. So, I'm going to take Tamoxifen. I'll only be on it a few months, then after my full hysterectomy, I'll be on the other meds.

I also have to switch my anxiety/depression med from Cymbalta to Effexor. Cymbalta interacts with Tamoxifen which sucks. Hopefully Effexor will work as well, if needed my oncologist will adjust the dose as necessary. This stupid cancer will follow me around forever. I asked if I will have to see my oncologist forever, and she said yes. Sigh..... I knew the answer, and still asked.

I was thinking today that maybe I shouldn't have gotten my breast cancer tattoo on my wrist since I see it everyday. But to be honest, cancer is a firm, constant in my life. I can't help that, and am still hoping to help others going through this journey. This could be through conversation, my blog, my book (if I finish and it gets published), hugs or any other way. Either way, Saturday phone calls from cancer doctors suck....