It’s been quite the few weeks! The first infusion of Enhertu happened on March 1st and we braced ourselves for the outcome. I’d armed myself with a ton of information from a variety of sources and marshaled a rather impressive set of meds to be used as needed. It wasn’t until the pre-meds wore off … Continue reading An update from the first infusion of Enhertu
Category: Medical Updates
Reporting from the trenches …
As much as I hate the war metaphors as applied to cancer, I also very much feel as though I’m jumping from battle to battle as I prep for the next line of treatment. Perhaps that is unkind to healthcare workers who are probably doing their best (a mantra I repeat to myself over and … Continue reading Reporting from the trenches …
And it Continues …
Whelp, I was planning to take a break, to regroup, and to re-evaluate a lot of things, but I'm back with a medical update. You might remember my post from January (Updates from the MBC Rollercoaster) about how my tumor markers were rising and the scans showed uptake, but my team was convinced those results … Continue reading And it Continues …
Updates from the MBC Rollercoaster
Let me first say that the metaphor of a rollercoaster has some of the same issues as "journey" or other typically positive things, but it has been a good way of explaining the extreme ups and downs of this experience. As I pass 6.5 years of living with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) and am … Continue reading Updates from the MBC Rollercoaster
Language, Part II
If you haven't already read the first part of this topic, Language, Part I, you should go read that first. It gives the context for this post and some necessary background. In that first post, I talked about the first of two scenarios where the language utilized in responses to a vulnerable post was (or … Continue reading Language, Part II
As if I needed the reminder …
As if I needed the reminder that I'm not as healthy now as before cancer, a unknown bug landed me in the hospital with sepsis a few weeks ago, the week Hurricane Ian hit Florida to be exact and I've been really sick since then. We are pretty sure that one of the two germ … Continue reading As if I needed the reminder …
Quick Medical Update
When we discovered that the cancer in my body had spread to my liver back in January of this year, we had to make a lot of decisions rather quickly, which always seems to be the case in this experience with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC). No matter how much we prepare or research … Continue reading Quick Medical Update
Tumor Heterogeneity
"Tumor Heterogeneity" (TH) is a phrase that often comes up in discussions with my medical team and with researchers as we all attempt to understand and anticipate the behavior of the cancer cells. From some of my discussions with other patients on social media, there does seem to be a lot of confusion about this … Continue reading Tumor Heterogeneity
Mutations become Targets
A little while ago, I wrote a post for SurvivingBreastCancer.org about genetic and genomic mutations, exploring some of the information we learned about my original breast tumor in 2017 and highlighting the differences between genetic and genomic testing. You can access that article here. As an aside SBC is a great resource for those newly … Continue reading Mutations become Targets
Heading into Chemo
Tomorrow I will start the IV chemo, Taxotere, along with the oral medication, Xeloda. This combination is designed to work together and gives my medical oncologist some flexibility. While I get the need to get ahead of the cancer cells that were not materially affected by my last line of treatment, the knowledge that I … Continue reading Heading into Chemo
No Half Measures 