strange new symptoms

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

C. Falise - 21 Oct 2004 01:40 GMT

hi folks-
i hope this finds you all well.
for those of you who gave me advice on the pain management issue, thanks. i
got it worked out with my onc yesterday. i'm going to keep on doin what i'm
doin...
thanks again.
i have a concern about a new set of symptoms that seem to defy explanation.
we're taking a wait and see approach, but i find it's really bugging me.
here's the deal-
over the past 2 months or so, my white cell count has continued to rise. it
is now 90 (whatever the unit it - not sure). as i understand it, normal is
between 10 and 40. in addition, i have begun to experience mild but regular
fever, diarrhea, occasional nausea and i've gained quite a bit of weight (5
pounds in 3 weeks) although i've been eating less. i'm more tired than i
had been also.
i have a very large fibroid that has developed in my uterus (found it on
july's scans). i'm not sure if these are related, but other than that, i
don't know what to assign this strange set of symptoms to.
anybody have any experience with this?
background - i'm stage 4 bc w multiple bone mets, some lung mets, small
liver and kidney mets that have been stabilized (as of july's scans) while
on treatment with femara and zometa and zoladex.
any info would help. my onc doesn't know what's up - he just said to let
him know if any of it gets worse.
i'm trying not to worry, but it's hard.
please - any ideas????
hugs-
-christina

Signature

see www.tortoisephotography.com

Reply to this Message

Kathleen Langwell - 21 Oct 2004 03:51 GMT

I don't know what might be going on with the WBC and your new symptoms,
but I hope your onc. is going to do very frequent blood tests with
complete metabolic panels and test for different things that might
indicate if there is something new going on. When I felt lousy last
summer and had symptoms I had all the scans and blood tests. The onc. I
had then kept doing blood tests, four times in 2 days, and it was found
that I had a blood disorder in addition to lung mets. This was unusual,
but he did blood tests for many different things. I had very high RBC,
WBC, platelets and the hematocrit was extremely high. I kept losing
weight and appetite but that was because my spleen was very enlarged and
I couldn't eat much. I've lost more weight over the past year, but I'm
eating OK (more or less) but I'm really on the thin side--5'6", 106 lbs.
I changed oncs. this summer for various reasons, and I continue on
medication for the polycythemia, and I have a CBC every two weeks and
pretty much monitor my own condition (for the blood problem).. My onc.
just seems to skim the results (if that), but I watch the cell count and
hematocrit and tell her when I need to to for additional treatment,
which is phlebotomy. She should pay me because I don't think I could
count on her to notice when counts get too elevated. Oh, well, it gives
me more control. I ask her to write me an order for... whatever... and
she does. Egads!!! Luckily, I learned how to monitor things...learned
everything from the internet. The lab. tech gets such a big kick out of
me because she remembers in the beginning when I had never even heard of
this disease. Now I play doctor and I feel much better.

Hope this is something temporary for you and that you will start to feel
better soon.

Kathie

Reply to this Message

A. P. Thorsen - 21 Oct 2004 16:46 GMT

> i have a concern about a new set of symptoms that seem to defy explanation.
> we're taking a wait and see approach, but i find it's really bugging me.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> pounds in 3 weeks) although i've been eating less. i'm more tired than i
> had been also.

Have you seen your GP? When you're dealing with BC, it would be nice if
other stuff would just stay stable and play nice, but sadly it ain't
necessarily so. I hate to say it, but if your onc can't explain your
symptoms, perhaps there's something non-BC, non-side-effects related
going on, additional bummer though that would be. If that were the
case, perhaps a GP might have ideas that your onc wouldn't think of.

Just a thought,

Ann T.
Remove 'dontsendspam' to reply by email

Reply to this Message

C. Falise - 27 Oct 2004 21:17 GMT

thanks ann-
i have no gp (no health ins), but am going for my annual with the obgyn in a
couple of weeks. onc thinks i have a big fibroid in my uterus (large
uniform mass showed up on july's scans in the uterus area) - maybe that's
causing problems?
tumor markers came up slightly last check - we'll see where they are in 2
more weeks when i go in for tx. i'm also due for more scans in mid-nov. so
i'll have a pretty good fix on my situation by thanksgiving.
i'm getting all that stuff done and my treatment then i'm going on a 2 week
road trip (i'm a photographer) to finish up a project. i'm going good news
or bad... the open road calls!

so, i'm just hangin in for now.
i'm feeling a little better the past 2 days or so. not so much fever.
oddly, i lost the 5 pounds in just 6 days and am back to my normal weight.
go figure. i could have sworn the scale was wrong but two different scales
agreed on the number. my energy is still off, but improving.
who knows...?
it's more important for me not to worry about it for now. i'm prone to
anxiety attacks and they've been really bad lately -
so i'm just buckling down and doing my best to get a handle on whatever i
can and to let the rest go.
hope this finds you well and happy-
-christina

> > i have a concern about a new set of symptoms that seem to defy explanation.
> > we're taking a wait and see approach, but i find it's really bugging me.
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> Ann T.
> Remove 'dontsendspam' to reply by email

Reply to this Message

Guess Who - 21 Oct 2004 23:31 GMT

Your numbers make no sense to me....WBC count runs 4k to 10K...I am posting
a link.

http://www.labtestsonline.org/

Signature

ALEXANDRA KOFFMAN

> hi folks-
> i hope this finds you all well.
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> hugs-
> -christina

Reply to this Message