The Surprise Wedding

We had a great trip to New Orleans this past week. Sarah's brother Thomas and fiance Kerry surprised quite a few people by turning their engagement party in to a wedding! (He tipped us off early in order to make sure we would come) In the last pic you can see Elizabeth's surprise as Kerry's father reveals the news to everyone.
We're back in the routine here in Chicago - Sarah got another Taxotere treatment today and also went back to the ENT to make sure her nose bleeds stay in control. Her headaches receded as soon as she started taking the steroids again (Decadron)... Sarah's onc. allowed her to reduce the dosage so hopefully it'll dial back her reactions/side-effects from that.
The boys had a great weekend with my parents, who are headed home tomorrow after being here for the past week.

18 April Update

Here's a long overdue post! Work and travel have been heavier recently. We had a great Easter here at home. The kids loved the things the Easter bunny brought - Ben is big in-to stuffed animals these days (he is holding Oinky and Spot...) As you can see in this pic, it took Sam a bit to warm up to the Easter egg hunt but he caught on after a few eggs. (hey, there's candy in these!).
We got the results on Sarah's hormone levels: her prolactin levels are elevated, but not so high that immediate response is needed. This is actually relatively good news, because it supports the current assumption that her pituitary macro-adenoma (ie growth) is made up of pituitary cells rather than breast cancer cells. BC cells would not be secreting prolactin. So, we're going to monitor this adenoma with periodic MRIs to make sure it's not growing for now.
Sarah is continuing with the Taxotere treatment & we'll be getting another MRI done in 3 weeks to get a look at her liver mets. She's taking a week off of Taxotere this week in order to let her body recover a bit. The break is well-timed since we are also traveling to New Orleans this weekend to attend an engagement party for Thomas and Kerry. My parents will be here in Chicago with the kids while we are away.

6 April Update

Sarah just did another Taxotere treatment yesterday and is doing ok. We got the results on her pituitary MRI and it confirmed that there's an 11mm macro-adenoma at her pituitary gland which doesn't seem to be invading or pressing on anything in the surrounding area. These types of adenomas are common and almost always benign so we are comfortable being optimistic about this. It could be over-producing a pituitary hormone like prolactin, which these adenomas sometimes do - Sarah just got some blood tests done to see if that's the case and we'll get result on Monday. If her chemistry is normal then we expect to adopt a wait-n-see approach. She would get another MRI after a few months to make sure the adenoma isn't growing. If it needs to be removed, there is either a drug option or a radio-surgery option (gamma knife).
Overall I'd say we're in a big, fuzzy grey area right now. It's a huge relief that the Taxotere has halted progression of Sarah's liver mets, but we're just not sure whether we can expect that her liver will clear up. We'll have to be patient and see how the treatment goes over the course of this summer - we intend to stay positive and do whatever it takes to fight this! Keep praying with us for more good news.