19 July - Sarah's Hair Is Gone

Here's a before and after shot of Sarah. Her hair started coming out in big clumps yesterday after our blueberry picking excursion and was getting pretty patchy by the end of today, so she had me cut it short with clippers. This is the fourth time that we've done this...
Sarah's taking it in stride, but you can't escape the fact that losing your hair is a very visible and constant reminder that you are in cancer treatment. Having said that, this is week 3 in the cycle and she's been feeling pretty good this week. Also, we learned last Thursday that her liver function is solidly back in the normal range. Doc said, "so now we can hit you with the full dose of Taxotere." Sarah's first thought was, "what? that wasn't a full dose last time!?" She was feeling crappy for almost two weeks straight after the last treatment. Well, the next treatment is on the coming Thursday... so we'll just have to wait and see how it affects her. We won't really know if the chemo is cleaning up the lymph and liver tumors until the PET scan next month.

18 July - Blueberry Picking

Went to a blueberry farm this weekend - we all enjoyed it and ended up picking 12 pounds of blueberries! The bushes were much bigger than I remembered from when I was a kid, and there were big juicy berries as far as the eye could see. Have to admit, I ate quite a few while we were picking. :)

15 July Update - Sarah Feeling Better

Sarah's immune system is back up and operating and she's feeling much better. Just learned today that her liver numbers are back in the normal range! Her hair is starting to come out a little, but there's no way to tell whether it's just thinning or whether it will all come out. We'll just have to wait and see. It's week three and she gets to enjoy a few days of feeling good and strong before the next round on coming Thursday. We are planning a full weekend - blueberry picking, a bar-b-que and maybe a family bike ride...

10 July Update

Ben finished his summer classes - he took a science challenge class and a mission impossible math class. He loved both and here he is showing us his final science experiment presentation on the last day of classes. He determined that cotton balls can be shot through a tube when a fan is blown on one end and land in a fairly consistent spot. :)
Sarah's had a rough go after this last chemo round. Just as she was recovering from the fatigue and mild nausea, her weekly blood test showed that her white blood cells were wiped out to zero (not the first time we've been through this). So, she's getting shots to boost her whites production but as we wait for her counts to bounce back she's fighting off a moderate fever which makes her feel pretty crappy. We should be ok but we're watching her temp closely to make sure her weakened immune system doesn't become overwhelmed and require action. The doc gave us a few shots for the road which I'm giving her every day for the next few days (goes in the arm). Having zero white blood cells is pretty dicey so she's pretty much staying home and avoiding as much contact with others as she can - getting any kind of serious virus or infection right now could be a problem and we're keeping a close eye on it.

2 July - More Chemo for Sarah

Sarah has recovered very well from the gallbladder removal and she's now able to eat just about anything. She even threw a football with me for a while during Sam's t-ball practice yesterday! But today it's back to chemo again and a few rough days ahead.
Since Sarah's liver function test values are just about normal again, her doc has kept the Carboplatin dose at the same level but added Taxotere on top of that. She spent all afternoon today at the clinic getting treatment - takes a long time to administer all those drugs (chemo, herceptin, anti-nausea and sometimes the bone strengthener Zometa) since they can't go too fast. Each one has a target rate.
Sarah feels ok but tired right now. The steroid Decadron kept her up last night so the chemo plus low sleep from last night made her crash on the couch at 8:30 tonight. We're not sure if she'll lose her hair with the Taxotere. It doesn't always happen with that drug, but these are some fairly high doses so we figure there's a good chance it'll go this time. Sarah doesn't care as long as it fights the cancer, but it does annoy her not to know whether it's going to happen or not.
Well, for now we are just getting her treatments in and waiting for the next PET scan in Aug to see if this chemo is shrinking the new tumors around her liver and at the supraclavicular. She'll have two more treatments before we find out.
Ben had his last baseball game today. He really seems to like the game - we'll definitely get him back on a team next year. Sam is doing fine and enjoying his summer camp. Kindergarten will be a big first step for him at the end of the summer!

20 June - Stent Went Fine

Still in the hospital with Sarah but the docs say she can go home so we're going through the release process. The stent went in fine yesterday although Sarah says the procedure was very uncomfortable (she woke up in the middle of it twice). It's a temporary stent which should last around 3-6 months, so it will be either replaced or potentially removed before long (if chemo shrinks the lymph node pressing on the duct then then stent may not be needed anymore).
After two back-to-back anesthesias, Sarah has bounced back remarkably well and is eager to get back home. She's was also happy to hear that her liver numbers have already significantly improved and are almost back in normal range! So, the gall bladder removal and stent placement were well worth it and definitely needed.

18 June - Gall Bladder Removal Went OK

Posting from the hospital room - Sarah's gall bladder removal went fine and she's recovering well. Already off all pain and nausea meds. The doc recommended also having a stent placed in her bile duct so a GastroEnterologist will be doing that on Friday while she's still in the hospital. That doesn't involve any incisions -- they go on through the mouth/throat with a very thin endoscope.
Sarah's in good spirits but tired from the anesthesia recovery. She's hopeful that she can put the constant worrying about gall bladder attacks behind her and that's a real relief! She's lost over 10 lbs since this all started because she was avoiding so many foods for fear of an attack.

14 June - Day 4 of 2nd Chemo Round

Sarah got her 2nd round of Carboplatin chemo last Thursday and it seems to be going like last time. She is doing relatively ok overall, but definitely has some fatigue and queasiness. No sign of hair loss, so the jury's still out on that. She should start feeling better over the next day or two. But, this is going to be a different "week 2" than the last round of chemo: her surgeon and oncologist agree that her gall bladder should be removed, so that is scheduled for this coming Thursday (laproscopic procedure). There's a good chance that her liver function tests are staying high-out-of-range due to the gall bladder issue and she continues to have problems with it. She is being very conservative with her eating in order to hopefully prevent another gall bladder attack - but she feels like she's walking on egg shells and it could happen again regardless of being cautious. It will be a relief for her to have the gall bladder procedure - we hope the attacks will stop and her liver numbers we come down so we can open up more chemo treatment options (although the carboplatin may be working well - we won't know until we have some test results on that front).

Ben At Baseball Game

Ben seems to really enjoy baseball. We were at one of his games today and took a few action pics. :) One as catcher (every kid seems to love wearing the special gear) and one taking practice swings while On Deck.

6 June - The Problem With Gall Bladders

The problem with gall bladders is similar to all those other things we take for granted like electricity or water -- you never think of them when all is running fine, but when something goes wrong... you really notice it and it becomes a big problem. Sarah has been getting gall bladder attacks periodically which are very painful. We even ended up taking her to the emergency room late at night last week because the pain was so severe (she said childbirth was preferable - and she did childbirth with no drugs!). Turns out the attack ended about 1 hr after we go there and she was fine afterwards (thank you to our neighbor Pat for staying at the house with the kids!), but we don't want to let things go on like this... so she'll be meeting up with a surgeon next week to discuss removing her gall bladder. We're not sure if this is related to her breast cancer or not. All we know is that an ultrasound shows "sludge" but no stones in her gall bladder. Typically, the best medical solution to a problem like this is removal and a modified diet afterwards.
Other than that, Sarah is doing fairly well. Her hair did not fall out this week - turns out that Carboplatin doesn't make everyone's hair fall out and when it does, the time can vary quite a bit. So, next week will be eventful and mostly not-fun: talk to surgeon, go out for a birthday dinner with hubby (for salad?) on day b4 birthday, get chemo on birthday (or get surgery instead and delay chemo 10dys). Well, you do what you have to, right? We're keeping our fingers crossed for no more gall bladder attacks.

27 May - Round One Tapering Off

Sarah feels much better today and has been up and about with a lot more energy and no nausea. Rainy here in Chicago so we're keeping indoors except for the kid's soccers and baseball. Had a baseball game out in the rain yesterday evening which was super muddy! The coaches agreed to end it after the 3rd inning.

25 May - Memorial Day

I tried to get a good Memorial Day Parade picture of the boys and me with the bribe, "let's do one real picture and then a silly one." Well, the kids still could only muster some very forced and constipated looking smiles for the "real" one... so here's the "silly" picture instead! Sam really went all-out with the 'ole classic Stretch Your Mouth And Stick Your Tongue Out - that's gotta hurt, right?
Sarah joined us after the parade to hang out at some Memorial Day cookouts and I think she had a great time (as did we all). Overall, I think she felt pretty good but chemo-fatigue caught up with her at around 7pm and she crashed hard on the couch.

24 May - Update

Ok, Sarah's definitely feeling the side effects now. Took a few days to kick in, but she's started to feel more fatigued and some loss of appetite and nausea. She has been sleeping-in and spending quite a bit of time on the couch cat-napping throughout the day. I took the kids to church today and I'll probably take the kids to the Memorial Day parade while Sarah gets some add'l rest in the morning. Only problem is that chemo fatigue doesn't really get better after sleep... she'll just have to wait it out. Sarah might get a red blood cell booster shot this coming week when she goes back to the doc for a check-up - that should help with the fatigue.

22 May - Chemo Update

Quick update: Sarah got her first dose of Carboplatin yesterday. So far, the side effects have been limited - knock on wood! She felt ok this morning and is up and about - just a bit more tired than usual. She's taking a good anti-nausea drug called Emend and it seems to be working.
Thank you to everyone for the many well-wishes!

19 May - Battle Lines Are Drawn Again: Sarah Back On Chemo

First a quick update on family stuff: Sarah and I got to attend her 20 year high school reunion in New Orleans while my parents come up to Chicago to stay with the boys. We had a great time at the very well attended reunion and enjoyed staying with Thomas and Kerry. Ben also started baseball and just had his first game this week - he really likes it and asks me to practice all the time. Sam's doing great at soccer as well - he's really going for the goal.

Unfortunately, we also have an update on Sarah's fight with cancer (just days after we celebrated her 3rd year of survival since diagnosis). They say wars are fought one battle at a time and we're starting a new battle: a PET scan now shows new tumors in and around her liver (two are around 2cm) and a smaller met in her lymph node near her neck (supraclavicular area). The tumors around her liver are probably the cause of her gall bladder attacks since it is likely that they are pressing on the outside of her bile duct, pinching it off periodically. That's also driving her liver enzyme measurements up and limits the choices of chemotherapy treatments for now. The fix for that is either using available chemo to shrink the tumors near the duct or putting a stint in the bile duct to force it open.
For now, Sarah will immediately begin a strong dose of the chemo drug Carboplatin together with the usual Herceptin (repeated every three weeks) and she'll get also get another ultrasound tomorrow to look more closely at the bile duct - that will determine whether a stint is needed.

It's been eight months since Sarah was on chemo - a welcome break that we were hoping would run much longer... But, it's time to fight again and Sarah knows what needs to be done. I think after the initial shock of the results she's ready to get on with it and "do something" about the new tumors. So, back to no-hair, back to nausea, back to roller-coaster blood counts. Anxiety about the future is front and center again, but the hope that balances it out is that another break will follow this new "battle" and we can shock the cancer back in to stability. For now, we'll take it one step at a time.

18 April - Neurosurgeon Meeting Went Ok

Sarah had a brain MRI to check on her pituitary and we went to discuss the results with our Neurosurgeon this past week. Although we were worried that he would push for surgery to remove the growth there, it was a relief to hear that he wanted to wait and get another MRI in six months. The size did not increase as much as we initially thought because the radiologist included the pituitary itself in the measurement this time, and the doctor said the growth was not significantly "enhanced" in the scan. Based on this and that we've gone a year with relatively little change, he feels it is very unlikely to be a breast cancer met. So, even though we aren't sure what it is, it's not pushing on anything and Sarah has no symptoms -- we're comfortable (and relieved) to go with a wait-n-see approach for now.
Easter at our house was nice and fairly low-key. Everyone had fun and the Easter bunny was generous to all. I sang in the church choir for the first time and I'll continue doing that from now on as time permits.

6 April - Catching Up

I haven't posted to our blog for a while so it's time to catch up! Since the last post, we've been skiing to Devil's Head ski resort where everyone had a great time, we celebrated Sam's fifth birthday, and Sarah and I flew to New York for a little 4 day get-away while the boys stayed with my parents in Chicago. So, quite an exciting two months for all!
Sarah is doing well, although some new questions have recently emerged: a brain scan showed some growth of her pituitary tumor (only along one axis) and we are trying to figure out what we should do about that; and Sarah has been having gall bladder attacks which cause some pain after heavier meals. Based on a recent ultrasound there are no stones (or tumors) causing the issue and we're not sure it is cancer-related. Also trying to figure out what the next steps are for that. Overall, in our frame of reference that includes the life-threatening tumors in Sarah's liver last year, these two issues are concerning but not causing high anxiety at this point. For now, we will be confering with Sarah's doctors to see what the options are.

21 Feb - Sledding Again

... and after our warm weekend in New Orleans, we're back to sledding! Had a little snow dump in Chicago this weekend.

13 Feb - New Orleans Trip

We just got back from a family trip to New Orleans where we visited Sarah's brother Thomas and his wife Kerry. They took us to see six Mardi Gras parades (the more "tame" ones) and everyone had a great time! Ben and Sam caught quite a few beads, stuffed animals and other toys. In these pics you can see a staging warehouse for the floats, called a "den" - see the huge pile of bead bags? Also some pics of Ben and Sarah along the parade route.

8 Feb - Winter Campout

Ben and I went to the Indian Guides Winter camp-out this weekend. You can see a sunrise over the cabin, Ben on horseback and a group of us playing broom-ball on an ice-covered lake. We had a great time! Sam can't wait until the Fall when he'll be old enough to join the program, too.
Sarah is doing well - her blood tests continue to be very low and she's enjoying the less frequent doctor visits and more frequent gym visits. :)