I’m not a huge College Basketball fan. But I do love March Madness. I always root for a Cinderella team. Every year, my daughters will vouch for me, when filling out my bracket, I will choose a #12 team, maybe more than one depending on how I’m feeling or who they are going up against.

I like an underdog. I like the never give up fight teams have when they either win or go home. Full disclosure, with everything going on I did not complete a bracket this year. However, I feel certain it would have been busted with the way the games have gone so far. But my favorite team, TCU is still dancing. #GoFrogs

My March Madness started with a hospital stay, broken vertebrae, and a new drug to treat my metastatic breast cancer which we discovered had progressed in February.

If you haven’t read my previous update you might want to read that before finishing this one.

My wedding anniversary was not spent the way I usually like to spend it. For the past six years, I tried to have something to look forward to, some kind of adventure or just a fun way to acknowledge the love that didn’t die when my husband passed away.

After a long day receiving my new infusion, I headed home. Still in pain from the broken vertebrae, and praying the side effects from Enhertu would not be bad.

How (or what) are the side effects of your new drug?

Everyone

I have no idea with all of the other drugs I’m on for pain and dealing with the broken vertebrae. I hope to have a better answer to that question after infusion #2.

me

My light at the end of the tunnel was knowing I had a follow-up appointment with my orthopedic oncologist, Dr. Williams, on March 10th. The follow-up was supposed to be about my femur. But I knew once he saw me with a back brace, using a walker, and a pain level of 9, the appointment would be more than a question of my femur.

He didn’t disappoint.

As the PA pulled up the MRI images, he asked me to tell him what was going on. It was the first time I had seen the MRI results from the hospital visit. As he explained what he was seeing, it was obvious why I was in so much pain. The pain stemmed from the 2 broken vertebrae. But also from the fact that there were only 4 total vertebrae (2 of which were broken), that did not have cancer in them.

To get the pain under control, Dr. Williams recommended radiation of the entire thoracic region and Kyphoplasty. After explaining I had radiation in December on the T9, and that was my 5th time to have radiation in 12 years, the next step was to set up the Kyphoplasty.

This is where the Madness begins to pick up speed.

Friday 3/10

• Saw Orthopedic Onclogosist (OO).
• He recommended Kyphoplasty and called my regular oncologist (RO)to ensure the team was all on the same page.
• As I left the office OO called in a prescription for extended-release pain medication.
• Walgreens called at 5 PM to inform me they were unable to fill the prescription at my preferred location. Told me I needed to contact my doctor to have it moved to a different location.
• Could not get through to on-call doctor with OO.
• Called the on-call dr at the RO office. Explained the situation with the medication. Since I could not remember what it was, he could only send in a prescription for a previous pain medication I was on (not an extended-release, but would hopefully get me through the weekend)
• Received a message from Walgreens the medication called in by the RO office was on hold for an insurance review

Saturday/Sunday 3/11 and 3/12

• No news from Walgreens on either prescription

Monday 3/13

• Called the OO office for assistance with the extended-relief prescription
• Called Austin Radiological Association (ARA) to schedule Kyphoplasty. Spoke to seven different people to get the opportunity to leave a message with who I could only hope was the correct person to schedule.
• Received an email from the ARA scheduler, advising they had received the referral, however, the doctor was not in the office that week. The email indicated I would need to schedule a telemed visit on 3/22.
• Walgreens called at 5 PM to tell me a prescription was ready for pickup. It turned out to be the extended-release they were unable to fill on Friday.

Tuesday 3/14

• Received a call from Seton Ascension scheduler around 8:45 am to schedule the Kyphoplasty procedure. (Note at this point I was not sure why there were two different organizations involved in scheduling the Kyphoplasty, but I was just wanting to get it done and relieve my pain – I was willing to go wherever I could get in the soonest).
• An appointment for Kyphoplasty was set up for 8:30 am Friday (3/17)
• Received a second phone call around 1 PM from Seton Ascension canceling the Kyphoplasty and indicating ARA would be contacting me.
• Reached out to both OO and RO offices to try to get additional information and clarification about which organization I should be talking to.
• Walgreens called at 5 PM to tell me a medication was ready to be picked up. This time it was the prescription called in by the RO on-call doctor on Friday evening.

Wednesday 3/15

• Received a message from the RO office indicating the Kyphoplasty would be through ARA and, although they tried to get an earlier appointment; Wednesday 3/22 was the earliest telemed visit they could schedule.
• Received a message from ARA the appointment on 3/22 was confirmed and informed the Dr would review my previous images, meet with me via telemed, decide if Kyphoplasty or another procedure would be necessary, and consult with my RO (and possibly OO). After it was determined what procedure is necessary, ARA would get the approval from insurance and then schedule the procedure the week of 3/27.

Thursday 3/16

• Finally getting adjusted to the pain meds and am feeling somewhat functional.
• Mostly trying to recover from the mental exhaustion, as well as the physical exhaustion from the broken vertebrae.
• Did have to stay up past 11 PM to watch the TCU Horned Frogs win 72-70 over Arizona State. It was a good thing I had already had a good report on my echocardiogram.

Friday 3/17

• In all of the other chaos, I had scheduled a follow-up with the neurologist who saw me in the hospital. The office called to cancel the appointment saying it looked like I was getting the care I needed.
• Received a phone call from a new doctor’s office to set up a telemed visit for the placement of a port-o-cath to make infusions of Enhertu a little easier. Although this isn’t required, as Enhertu is not considered chemo and therefore not hard on the veins, after everything I had been through it seemed like a good idea.
• Received a second phone call to schedule the port insertion for 3/21.
• Rescheduled the 2nd infusion of Enhertu for 3/27.

Upcoming week 3/20- 3/24

• Two telemed visits
• One trip to the hospital for day surgery
• Keep fingers and toes crossed that the telemed visit with the Kyphoplasty dr will yield an appointment for the procedure to be done the week of 3/27 – And yes, if they want to schedule it on 3/27 I will reschedule the infusion of Enhertu after the Kyphoplasty procedure

I’m exhausted just reliving all of that and looking toward the next week.

I will leave you with one piece of good news from my orthopedic oncologist. In his words, there is nothing pushing on the spinal cord to cause paralysis.