A Scary Day

After years of working in public relations at hospitals and other healthcare institutions, Tami Boehmer was suddenly thrust into life as a patient.

On February 4, 2008, she learned she had a recurrence of breast cancer–just months after her five-year, cancer-free anniversary. This time she was told it spread to distant lymph nodes and her liver. One doctor told her, “You could live two years or 20 years, but you’ll die from breast cancer.”

At first, Tami says she was devastated, but soon got angry. How did her doctor know how long she has to live?

Tami needed to talk with other cancer survivors who didn’t accept doctors’ predictions–people who beat the odds. She was determined to find out how they did it so she could do it herself.  She started searching for “miracle survivors” nationwide for her book, From Incurable to Incredible: Cancer Survivors Who Beat the Odds.

Tami started a blog to find more stories and share them and things that have contributed to her health and changing outlook. She also writes about how her cancer impacts her family, including her husband, Mike, and her 12-year-old daughter Chrissy (pictured below).

We will regularly be featuring Tami's blogs here on Women Playing For T.I.M.E. The following post appears with her permission.

Click here to visit Tami's blog and to read more stories from her book, From Incurable to Incredible: Cancer Survivors Who Beat the Odds.

Not to scare all of you with the title, but for me, this was indeed a scary day.

I was heading out the door, all dressed up and ready to go to a networking function, when I received a call from my doctor at the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment. He told me, with alarm in his voice, that my tumor markers were off the charts. Usually counts should be no more than 38; mine was almost 1,800!  They took a lot of blood when I went Friday and unbeknown-st to me, they did a tumor marker test. They didn’t do it the previous time I visited their Chicago center, and my oncologists here never do tumor markers.

Needless to say, I was a wreck! I did some Internet searches on tumor markers and that helped. But then I just sat down and had a good cry and had a begging fit with God. I released the problem to God and admitted my powerlessness. Then I picked up a spiritual book that helped me in the past. As if an angel came to my rescue, I received an email from my fabulous cancer/life coach Flo Singer about a payment matter. I responded with the news. I immediately received a call from her.

Flo gets it. She’s a 10 year survivor of stage IV rectal cancer, and has shown no evidence of disease since she completed treatment back then. You might remember the post I did about Flo. On our call, Flo talked me down so I was calm and helped me strategize how I was going to handle the situation and take better care of myself than I have been. She even made me laugh with her bawdy humor. I decided one way to take care of myself: get the facts. I called the PET scan place, which is located only about a mile from my house, and asked if I could get my scan results a day earlier than they promised. (I’ve been picking up my scans myself rather than wait for the doctor) They complied.

I had visions of my body being eaten up by tumors. Thank God that wasn’t the case. There might be a slight progression on one of my spots, but nothing new to worry about. Of course I need Dr. Sledge to explain it to me when we go to Indy on Friday. I mean, how can the average person understand all the medical mumbo jumbo they put in these reports?

So this just may mean I need to change treatments. We already discussed what we’d do if the Xeloda stopped working. I’m going to see if they can do a biopsy to see if the cancer has changed (which sometimes happens once breast cancer metastasizes). That way, we’ll have more info to go on. If it hasn’t changed and I’m still ER/PR positive, I might see if I can get on a clinical trial that is testing a drug that reverses hormone medication resistance.

Knowing that death is not imminent, I was able to take my beloved daughter to Michael’s to buy beads (her new hobby), take a walk with my husband, and finally eat a decent meal. This stress totally and remarkably killed my appetite! I thank all of you for your prayers and positive vibes. You know who you are. And I’ll let you know more after my visit with the doctor on Friday.

I’d be curious if any of you have had experience with tumor markers blowing off the roof like mine did. I still don’t understand the discrepancy. Please comment and share your experience!

To learn more about Tammy's journey, check out:

-- How to Talk to Your Kids About Cancer

-- The Triple-Decker Sandwich Generation