infection and side effects

At my last regular appointment, I told Dr. Esplin about the redness in my left upper breast. He checked it out and didn't seem concerned. I also told him about the pain that moved from my upper arm to the middle to then my hand. He had no answers. (This happened once before when I was on Ibrance)
A week or so later, I noticed my hand was swollen and really hurt. My chest was not only red, but hot.  I got scared, called  and he prescribed some antibiotics. Took those and it just got worse.  Called when they were gone and they had me come in right away.
He had me get an emergency ultrasound to check for an abscess in my breast and a blood clot in my arm.  Both came back with no sign of either. So he prescribed stronger antibiotics. 
It seemed to help the pain a bit in my breast and a lot of the swelling in my hand went down, but by the end of the antibiotics, I didn't feel like it was taken care of.  Went back in and Dr.Esplin thought it looked better so we're just waiting.  I don't like when they can't tell me what is actually going on. 
He's a little nervous about my breast. He's worried it's the inflammatory part raging on. We'll keep an eye on it, but I may have to do the hard chemo. 

So we wait.  My appointment is next week and I'm anxious to see if my tumor markers are coming down.

My back has also been giving me problems the past month. I had one day when it hurt to stand and it hurt to sit.  It scares me what is happening in my spine and ribs.

I'm going to list all my side effects as a way to help me remember. Sometimes on my MBC groups, others ladies have questions and it's hard for me to remember details.

I'm not sure which drugs are causing which side effects, so yeah....

Extreme cotton mouth. Always have a a nasty taste in my mouth
Food doesn't taste right.
swelling and pain in left arm that moves down into hand
bathroom issues
fatigue
dry nose and throat
pain in back, sides, neck
BRAIN FOG!  I hate it so much!

I'm on one drug that's supposed to make me gain weight and one that CAN make you lose weight. Of course, with me, losing isn't happening.  For now, I'm at least staying the same.

Panic and stability

My bone scan and CT scans were on Monday Sept. 30.
My anxiety shot so high up.  I was holding back tears, sometimes unsuccessfully, all day. While waiting for a shot of contrast stuff, I just about had a panic attack.  I don't know what was going on, just loads and loads of fear.
After my first scan of the day, we had about an hour break and were able to go get food since I had been fasting. When we got to the car, it all came pouring out. Poor Kevin.
I was so nervous and mad and distraught and sad. I just kept saying that "This is not the way my story is supposed to be!" "My life isn't supposed to go this way" " I hate everything about this...even the building we just came out of." 
Kevin just listened as I bawled and complained and shouted how unfair this all is and how I just wanted to wake up from this nightmare. 
I still feel like I'm living someone else's story.
After a second very long scan, we went home and I crashed. I was so physically and emotionally drained.
Well, the results were actually pretty good!
My Dr. appointment was this Wednesday and Dr. Esplin went over all the scans and says that right now I'm basically stable. Also, both tumor markers have come down!

This is great news!  However, I can't seem to feel very excited. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad it wasn't the opposite, but I think I'm scared to hope and scared to be happy about it. 
One thing I've learned in the past 7 months is how smart Cancer can get and so so fast.  Anytime my drugs can just stop working cause the cancer has mutated and figured out how to survive.
I'm afraid to hope because I don't want to be caught off guard again. I don't want to be naive and think I'm doing so well only to learn that I'm not.

Maybe if I can have more and more scan results like that and get to a place of No Evidence of Disease, then I'll be able to emotionally celebrate a bit. But as all Metastatic patients know, it's never over until we take our last breath.
Dr. Esplin was also really happy about how I'm tolerating this Afinitor. He keeps expecting me to have peeling rashes on my hands and feet and mouth sores.  I haven't had any of those.
My current side effects are; itchy itchy dry skin....sometimes I scratch too much and I leave sores. Cotton mouth, nose sores. Constantly clearing my throat. Cold symptoms like runny nose and slight cough, sties in my eyes, fatigue, sometimes vomiting, also some not so fun stuff at the other end.
And I know there's more, I just can't think of them.......that's another one. MY brain drives me crazy. I can't multi task anymore, can't remember what I was just doing, etc. etc.
As time goes on, I could have more and more side effects, but for now I can tolerate these.

I've been having a lot of pain in my back. I have a lot of tumors up and down my spine and ribs. I can't seem to walk or be on my feet very long without it aching. I also can't carry heavy things or even small things for a period of time, or my back just aches.
I have a new pain in my left breast up high. He felt it, but couldn't feel anything there. Yesterday though, it became warm and red....so he called in some antibiotics for me.

I was reminiscing yesterday about how I was nervous to plant my garden this Spring. Well, I harvested "A LOT" and now we're expecting a hard freeze so it's all done.  I'm gad I planted and I'm glad I harvested and I hope I'll still be good for next year.