25 Feb - Update on Sarah

Sarah has had a pretty rough time recently and is still struggling with fatigue, intermittent nausea and low appetite. She's hanging in there but is really tired of not "feeling right." This past weekend we think she caught a stomach bug and because she couldn't keep food or more importantly her tablets down, we had to take her in to the hospital for IV fluids + medicine. She felt better the next day and ended up spending just two nights in the hospital. Her liver function numbers are currently high out of spec and her tumor markers are the highest they have ever been, although we have good reason to believe they are coming back down due to the Tykerb treatments (we expect to get new numbers next week). And, Sarah is about half way through her pituitary radiation treatment, which is probably contributing to her fatigue.

The toughest thing for Sarah right now is the feeling that she might not ever "feel right" again since we really don't know exactly what's causing the general unwell feeling. We just learned today that her endocrine levels are ok - we had assumed the problem was there and that relief was in sight by adjusting the endocrine drug levels. Now we need to reconsider what to push for next. Maybe a liver and pancreas MRI. Sigh...

21 Feb - The Winter Campout

Sam was thrilled to go on this first Winter camp-out! You can see him in the green jacket with his legs in the air, goofing off after sledding down a hill. Ben also had a great time and he and I got a special "Haylushka" qualification after doing many tasks and a nature project. The weather was great - we spent almost all of our time outside of the cabins playing in the snow and running around the camp grounds. There was a great toboggan run and you can see Ben (orange hat) on a sled together with his friends zooming down the chute.

Who Dat Fever - Go Saints!

The Lopez family just before watching the Superbowl. Serious Who Dat fever gripped our living room when the Saints won! Sarah was so stoked - what a game and what an experience to see it really happen.

5 Feb

Sarah is more or less recovered from the surgery now but still often feels worn out and exhausted. She starts radiation next Monday which will go all weekdays for 3 weeks. For her systemic treatment, recent studies have shown Tykerb + Herceptin to be effective in halting and even reversing tumor growth, so her onc wants to try that for 4 weeks and then see whether it is working for Sarah. If not, then she'll start chemo at that point. The Tykerb seems to be tolerable at this point, so it's a relief that the side effects aren't too bad. That can still change if she has to take a higher dose, though.

So, for now we just have to press on and wait until next month to see if this treatment is effective or not. That'll also be the time to re-evaluate Sarah's pituitary function - March will be a busy month...