26 Feb - Update

Just a quick update today. My parents were here to visit last week. Their return flight on Saturday was canceled due to the winter storm and they just got out late tonight. It was a nice week and Ben and Sam already miss having their grandparents around to play with!
Sarah is doing well. We should get word back on the latest tumor markers (taken with blood sample last Thursday) when she goes in for her 5th Taxotere treatment this Thursday. The next liver MRI is still planned for mid March.

Winter CampOut

Well, it was a great weekend at YMCA Camp McLean for Ben and me. We had a fun time - plenty of sledding, marshmellows over a campfire and bunkbeds. Ben even got interested in playing chess - well, as close as you can get the playing chess at 6 yrs old.
Sarah is feeling pretty worn out - more so than before, but my parents are staying with us this week to visit and help out. Sarah's having more hot flashes, which is probably due to the Zolodex. She's headed in to treatment #4 this week, and possibly an early MRI scan after that.

14 Feb - Valentine's Day

Well, it's about time I posted some pics so here they are. Ben as an elephant in his school's "circus day" performance. Our snowy week - the snow stays so light & fluffy when it's f-f-freezing cold! Valentine's Day dinner at our house with some yummy take out and also a shot of Sarah and me on V-day.
Sarah's headed in to Taxotere #3 tomorrow - so far so good on side effects, although some could creep in later (hair, finger nails, etc). Still anxiously awaiting the next MRI in mid March.
Sarah did get her first haircut today - something she's been looking forward to for a while! It's been growing since last summer.

9 Feb - More Taxotere

Sarah got her second Taxotere treatment yesterday and has been doing ok. Mostly she is just more tired than normal, but she continues to stay active and does everything in her normal routine. However, we are definitely grateful for the dinners that people are bringing to us. Although Sarah does cook sometimes, she's more tired in the evenings and we've been keeping meals simple.
That's all the latest. I've got to take some pictures - has been a while since I posted some!
Ben and I will be going to the indian guides Winter CampOut next weekend and Ben is very excited about it. He's also become a real reading machine. Ben checked out 8 children's chapter books from the library last night (the Magic Treehouse series) and I think he'll have torn through them by the end of the weekend!

6 Feb Update

Day four of Taxotere and Sarah can definitely feel a difference between this and the previous Navelbine treatment. She has more general body aches and much more fatigue, which will likely increase after further weekly treatments - falling asleep on the couch most evenings. But, we hope this means it's more aggressively attacking the spots in her liver! Other than that, she's feeling ok - no significant nausea this week & hope that will continue.
It is still very cold in Chicago. When I got up yesterday it said -8F on the thermometer. Last night we said, "well the snow tomorrow will warm it up a bit." Then we laughed, because we meant it would "warm up" to a high of 11F today. :) If there was any doubt before, we now definitely know that we've become acclimatized to Chicago's winters!

1 Feb - Slowed It Down But Didn't Stop It

We didn't get the news we were hoping for today... :(
The MRI showed Sarah's liver lesions have grown 10-20% despite the six Navelbine treatments. The doctor says that ~70% of her liver is still ok and that her blood analysis shows it is working fine, but we have to stop the tumor advance as quickly as possible.
So, Sarah will start a new weekly treatment using Taxotere in place of Navelbine. It is a much harsher chemo drug in terms of side effects, but also the highest in effectiveness - and we think it shrunk her original breast tumor when she got it back in May 06. Back then, the oncologist stopped giving it to Sarah once we learned that she had bone mets so that it could be used later in a situation just like this when it was more needed.
We can expect Sarah to have more fatigue, some nausea and also hair loss again. She's so brave! Didn't miss a beat and said, "bring it on!" All that matters is trying to stop the advance in her liver.

So, instead of relief we've now got double the worry as we do another six weeks of treatment and wait until mid-March for another MRI. This is another setback in a long string of setbacks... but we know there is hope and that is what we are staying focused on. There are blessings to be counted - we are facing this as a family full of love, together with many friends and relatives who have reached out with care and support (thank you for that!). We can't know what the future holds, but we are doing our best to courageously move forward and face it together.