Thomas The Tank Engine Day

This Sunday we went to the "Day Out With Thomas [the Tank Engine]" at the Illinois Railway Museum with the McMahons. Everyone had fun and the kids loved riding on the train which was being pulled by a life-sized Thomas (and the help of the diesel locomotive at the rear of the train). Sarah's hair is growing back enough that she is comfortable not wearing hats unless she needs protection from the sun. She got her weekly Herceptin and the monthly Zometa on Tuesday and is going in every day for her radiation treatments. That seems to be going fairly well. Radiation sun burn is starting to be more apparent, but the Aloe cream helps. Fatigue also has not set in too bad and we're able to do things like this Thomas Day, which is great.

Ben Starts School

It's official! Ben started Kindergarten and loves it so far. Here he is on his first day with his friend Kira from next door. We also got to see his school and meet his teachers at a PTA night.

25 Aug - Good News!

Sarah's had two radiation treatments and everything is going well so far. You can already see a tan in the treated area, but no nausea and also no fatigue yet.
And... we got an unexpected call from Sarah's oncologist about the liver MRI results. He had good news and wanted to share it right away: no evidence of cancer mets in Sarah's liver! So, she's officially clear of mets except for the spine and those have not progressed since the CT scan she had in May at the time of her diagnosis. This really put a spring in our step and gives us some hope where there's been mostly uncertainty so far.

22 Aug - Good news so far

Several updates - Sarah and I went in yesterday to start the radiation setup process. She'll go back in tomorrow and then start the actual radiation therapy to the right breast area on Thursday (every weekday for approx. 6 weeks). Sarah's less worried about feeling bad on radiation - most people feel it's not as bad as chemotherapy. She also got another Herceptin treatment today, which will continue weekly, and got more fluid aspirated from her mastectomy site. A lot less than last week, so maybe that's the last time.
We also got the results of Sarah's CT scan from last week. Mostly good news with one question mark: brain and all organs except the liver showed clear of any tumors and the lesions in Sarah's spine were stable. The liver showed some "hypodensities" which are often a result of chemotherapy, but they can't rule out early mets based on the CT scan alone. So , Sarah is going in for an MRI of her liver this Thursday which should help clarify whether we need to be worried.
Overall Sarah feels pretty good and we're watching her hair quickly grow back (see pic above). Despite the many doctor's visits, we're staying positive and active. I'm working hard on re-doing our stairs to the upper bedrooms which will make them much nicer looking & less squeeky, and Ben is excited about his first day of Kindergarten tomorrow! Meanwhile, Sam has learned how to open and-or climb over most of our baby gates and also how to get past the baby-proof door knob covers. So now he's got free run of the house and we've got to constantly keep an eye on where he is. Sam's turning in to quite a little firecracker. He watches his older brother very closely & learns some things from Ben that we would rather have left for later. :)

16 Aug - Whirlwind Week

Sarah just got this blanket, made by her online friend Carissa, and really likes it!

With Sarah's brother Thomas in town, and me scheduling 2 business trips this past weekend, it's been pretty hectic.
Sarah got her 1st treatment of Herceptin yesterday - with no apparent signs of side-effects. We're staying positive.
Sarah also had a CT scan done today (Wed) which will be used to verify that no add'l tumors have formed in her brain or other organs. We should get the results by the end of the week, or surely by next Tuesday. It's going to be tough to wait for these results...

12 Aug - Mommy's Hat

Sarah's brother, Thomas, and his girlfriend, Kerry, are visiting us for the weekend. Here are some pics of the boys having fun trying on Mommy's hat during an evening cookout in the backyard. :)
Sarah's feeling better & we got confirmation that she can start Herceptin - so her first treatment is scheduled for next Tuesday! Also important next week will be a baseline CT scan of Sarah's brain and organs which we are praying will show all clear of tumors. If there are no new tumors and radiation cleans up the breast area, we've read that spinal mets like Sarah's can be controlled for long periods - and that's exactly what we are hoping for. We're emotionally torn between being eager to hear CT results that are encouraging and dreading the possibility of bad news. They say cancer is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, and that's definitely true. Seems like we've had quite a share of lows though, and I'm ready for a high this time...

8 Aug - Staples Out

Another milestone in the mastectomy recovery for Sarah today - she got staples out and everything seemed to be healing ok. We're hoping this means she can start Herceptin next week. This is a nice picture of Sarah & the boys in a rare moment of calm (lasted less than a minute!) :)

4 Aug - End of a Long Week...

It was a hot week and the only fun thing to do outside for the kids was to swim! Here's Sam in our little backyard pool.

It was also a long week full of doctor visits. Tuesday Sarah got her drains tubes taken out; Wednesday night one of the drain holes started leaking quite a bit so we were up late putting thick dressings on it & got up every two hours at night to check it; Thursday morning oncologist visit for red blood cell booster shot; Thursday afternoon first meeting with radiation oncologist & then after that over to the surgeon to fix up the leaking drain hole - which ended up being two stitches. So... we're ready for the weekend! Overall, Sarah is recovering well from surgery and eager to get the staples out (next Tues) and start Herceptin.

My parents are returning to San Antonio this Saturday, so we'll have to adjust to life with less help again... They've really helped us a lot over the past two weeks so that Sarah and I could focus on getting her through the mastectomy, and the kids have enjoyed having them here!