28 June - Good News from MRI

Well, we certainly were not expecting this - but we got some good news today! Despite the rise in tumor markers (CEA and CA27-29), Sarah's liver mets are around 50% smaller in size... so Abraxane did work afterall. There's still the question of why the markers were up, but we are celebrating that we've finally found something that helps fight the battle in her liver.
Since Sarah has already started the new drug Gemzar, we'll keep doing that for four treatments and check markers again. If it is also effective then she'll stick with that since Gemzar should not have the nerve-damage side effects that Abraxane and Taxotere did.
What a relief after walking around for a week thinking, "ok, how bad did it get?" Cancer is so unpredictable - we should know better by now that what you think will happen rarely does!

21 June - Starting New Chemo

Well, unfortunately now there is something new to report. Sarah went for treatment today and found out that her tumor markers went up, so it is almost certain that she's got at best a partial response to Abraxane. She's going in right away tomorrow for an MRI of her liver and already switched chemo drugs today. Now she is taking the next one on the list which is Gemzar. We're worried because the number of drugs that aren't able to control Sarah's BC is growing - Adriamycin, Cytoxin, Taxotere, Navelbine, Abraxane...
There are a few more to try and there's also Tykerb+Xeloda which is a recently approved advancement in BC treatment - of course we were hoping that it would be years before we'd cycle through all these drugs. However, we are trying to stay focused on hope. Any one drug can have just that right formula for an individual tumor and drive it back in to remission - that can still be out there for Sarah. The big question on our mind now is, "how bad will the MRI be?" This will be another nail-biter week of difficult waiting.

20 June

Not too much new to report. Sarah continues to tolerate the Abraxane treatments well except for the numbness in her feet and finger tips (which seems to have steadied out). She goes in for her treatment again tomorrow, but will likely not get Abraxane since her onc. wants to sprinkle in some off-weeks in order to give her body add'l time to recover. He's checking her blood counts and liver enzymes to ensure that we're not pushing past a tolerance threshold. Sarah's such a trooper - these days Sam constantly is asking, "Can you play with me?" and she manages to answer "yes!" despite chemo fatigue fairly often. :)
Father's Day weekend was fun. We didn't get ambitious with the activities, but got to spend lots of good family quality time together.

10 June Update

Wow, where to start - much has happened since my last update. First was Sam finally deciding he was ready to stop using diapers. You can see him proudly dropping trou' to display his new "big boy underwear!" Then came Ben's first communion at church last Sunday which went well. In the picture above, Ben is checking himself out in the mirror with a new elephant towel. :)
On the next day we got some sad news - Scott Davis, who we know from church, passed away after an all-too-brief struggle with brain cancer over the past five months. As we felt deep sympathy for Scott's family, we also experienced a sharp reminder of the uncertainty in our situation.
This past weekend, Sarah's long-time friends Nicole and Shelby flew in from out-of-town so the three of them could do a girl's weekend. They stayed in downtown Chicago to take in the sights together and really enjoyed themselves. I think I managed ok at home with the kids, too. :)
Sarah continues to feel ok. Just waiting for the next scan to determine how well the Abraxane is working on her liver mets.