White New Years and Time for New Treatment

The snow is really coming down - we didn't have a White Christmas but we'll have a White New Years Eve! We're also glad to have Elizabeth here visiting and celebrating with us.

Sarah and I went to get the results of her MRI earlier today and it was about what we expected after seeing those tumor marker results: her cancer has advanced and we need to start a new treatment. On the positive side the smaller liver lesions have not gotten bigger, but on the not-good side the largest one has tripled in size in the last three months and is now 4.4cm wide. So, Gemzar is out and Sarah will start something new. We're going to firm up the treatment plan with the doc on Thursday but it looks like a heavy dose of Taxol + Carboplatin every three weeks will be the next step. Back to hair loss, nausea and possibly neuropathy in extremities. Also, Sarah will begin taking Zolodex again to ensure that her estrogen levels are low (estrogen makes her cancer grow faster) and she'll continue taking Herceptin and Zometa.

Since we were expecting something like this, it seems to have softened the blow of this bad news a bit. But, we also know that the relatively "quiet" and stable period over the past 6 months will come to an end when Sarah begins this more intense chemo treatment next Monday. Sarah is determined to do whatever it takes to fight her cancer and we will continue to be focused on living today while staying hopeful for the future.

Christmas and New News

Here's Ben giving Santa a big hug when he came to visit before Christmas as he was passing through the neighborhood. Next we see the boys making cookies for Santa. Then there's Sam in his chef's costume as he tests out his new toy kitchen. Overall, the Christmas chaos ended well and we all had fun! The kids made out like bandits on the present front and the grown-ups didn't do too badly either.

On a more sober note, Sarah finally got tumor marker results at the doc's office on Christmas Eve and her numbers had gone up. CEA went from 3 up to 42 and CA27-29 went from 15 up to 70. This likely indicates that Gemzar is losing its effectiveness for her. Sarah's going to get a new MRI asap to see what's going on in her liver - scan Friday, results Monday. If the mets are growing again then she'll likely start on a new chemo right away. Sarah has been on Gemzar for approx. 6 months and her oncologist says that second-line chemo often only maintains efficacy for around 4.5 months on average. That doesn't sound good at all, but he says we still have a list of other chemo drugs to try and it's likely time to move on to the next one. In the back of our minds is the knowledge that several chemo drugs have not worked at all for Sarah so far... so it looks like we're back on the cancer roller coaster and anxious about the Monday doc appt.

Xmas Tree

We went to a local christmas tree farm (called "Ben's Xmas Tree Farm!") - here are a few pics that show what that experience was like. We all loved riding the horse-drawn carriage and then picking out the tree and cutting it down. There was also hot chocolate in the cashier's hut which was a big hit with the kids! With all the snow, this was really a just-about perfect xmas tree experience.
We're all doing fine and preparing for the holidays. What a busy time! Sarah just got chemo again today (12/18) and is doing ok. We expect to get a set of tumor markers next week from her blood work-up today.
Here are two links to a funny Lopez family snowball-fight and elf dance. :)
http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/Qlai5caLCcEdaVahFLponROx

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1464871654

Snow!

We finally got a bit of snow this year! School was canceled and the kids got to play out in the back yard, which they loved.
The Christmas season is really going very quickly - seems like a head-long rush towards 25 December and we're barely keeping up.

New Orleans Trip

Here we are eating Beignets at Cafe Du Monde in downtown New Orleans. We went down to be at Thomas and Kerry's wedding reception, which was a great event! Also got a great pic of Thomas and Sarah in Jackson Square. Chemo week for Sarah but she felt pretty good because we were there at the end of the week.

Leaves!

We got a chance again this year to make a big leaf pile and jump in to it. Ben and Sam also like it when I throw them on top of the pile. Fun!

We had Ben's birthday party at a place that has many huge inflatable play structures - everyone loved it... even the grown-ups got in on the action!