25 May - Just In Time For The Warm Weather

Sarah did end up asking me to shave the rest of her hair off last Saturday - just in time for the sudden heat wave here in Chicago! So here's a pic of Sarah sporting the latest summer fashion in our backyard and sitting at the sidelines of Sam's soccer game this weekend. Sarah is still getting sporadic fevers which make her want to lay down and rest, but she felt better today and got out to do an errand.

21 May - Another Chemo Week

Not much new to report this week. Sarah got Abraxane again on Thursday along with Herceptin. She's feeling fairly good except for some fatigue probably due to a low red blood cell count, so she got a booster shot for that. She still has a fever most days ranging between 99 and 102. Her doc says that could be due to the liver tumor cells dying off - we like the sound of that! It could also just be due to the presence of liver tumors in the first place, though.
The Abraxane is finally taking its toll on her hair which has been falling out much faster this week - I think she'll want me to shave her head this weekend. Sarah doesn't like the feeling of it coming out when she runs her hands through her hair - better to just get it over with in one shot. Next week they'll run her tumor markers to see how she's responding to the Abraxane. We'll get the results in the following week and talk to the doc about getting scans and whether to continue on Abraxane or switch to another chemo drug (hopefully continue!). Her liver seems to be tolerating the Abraxane well - her liver function numbers are only slightly above normal range.
Ben and Sam are doing great. Coming up on the end of the year. Ben has a cello recital next Tues which will end his cello career for a while (pending desire to resume at some point in the future), and Ben and Sam are both looking forward to our Spring campout coming up soon right after school ends. I think we'll start them both in a local karate club this summer and Sam is still insisting he wants to take guitar lessons next year, so we might be doing that.

16 May

Sarah got Abraxane treatment again last Thursday and also got the re-evaluated results of her last CT scan (now compared to the previous scan taken right before it). Overall it seems that most tumors are getting smaller, but not in her liver. There's now a 1.8cm small tumor in addition to the much larger one which grew to 6.7cm. The scan was from the point she switched over from Taxol to Abraxane, so now we need to see how this round of Abraxane works. We'll run another set of tumor markers in 2 weeks in order to see if the Abraxane is bringing the overall tumor load on Sarah's system down, but we might still have to worry about her liver tumor even if they come down.
Sarah got a fever this weekend (we think this is due to the treatment) and unfortunately pretty much spent the weekend on the couch. Peaked at 102 and is now down to 99. We're wondering if this is going to happen again after treatment this week...

8 May - Mother's Day Flowers

Two nice pics of Sarah with Ben and with Sam on Friday as they brought home Mother's Day things from School.

6 May - Busy Week

We had a busy weekend of sports and an Indian Guides museum sleep-over. As the pics show, the boys had a great time trying out every exhibit in the place! Floor was kinda hard to sleep on, but no-one complained too much. Ben had his "Fiddle Fest" this week where he performed with his cello class and Sam will have a class performance for the parents tomorrow at school - Sarah and I both plan on going.
Sarah got Abraxane treatment again today. She felt more energetic this week and we were even able to go out to dinner last night for our 15 year Anniversary! She was running a fever last weekend but the doc says it could be due to tumor cells dying as she started a new chemo last week - that's a hopeful thought after being worried about the high temps. Overall it's hard to say what the numbers are telling us. Her liver numbers got a little worse but they are still pretty close to normal range except Alk Phosphatase. The plan is now to wait until she's had 4 Abraxane treatments and then do a PET scan if her tumor markers have not improved. So two more weeks to go before that point.
For Sarah, it's just such a relief to have a little more energy -- she drove a few times this week on her own (but she still can't walk much). We have a handicap parking pass now and she makes use of it so the walk into a building isn't so far.