Germany - Out and About

Pics of Oma and Uncle Guenther.

Germany - Hamburg

Went to Hamburg from Kiel for a day by train with Frank, Anke and Jasmin. We walked around, toured the world's largest model train set and did a harbor cruise.

Germany - The Bus

Ben really loved riding the buses in Germany!

Germany - 3 Nov Oma's 96th Birthday

We went to lunch at a restaurant in a historical 300 year old Northern German farmhouse to celebrate Oma's 96th birthday.

Leaves and Halloween

Our leaf pile this year was huuuuge! I was throwing Ben and Sam in to it and they would completely disappear before crawling back out of it. Halloween last night was also a big hit. Sam was a fireman and Ben was superman. They had a great time trick-or-treating with Kira and Braden from next door and the candy haul was pretty big.
Sarah is doing well as we prepare for the trip to Germany. I'll have some pics of our adventures for the next post!

26 October - More Good News

Earlier this week, we got test results that showed that Sarah does not have the BRCA1/2 genetic mutations linked to breast cancer. If the test had been positive, then this would have meant surgical removal of her ovaries and possibly another mastectomy later on. So, this is quite a relief for us! Sarah continues to recover from radiation - still some fatigue lingering, which is not unusual.
We're now getting excited about going to Germany next week. It'll be quite an adventure traveling overseas with the kids. Although we did it when we returned from China last year, Sam is now much more active (and moody when tired)! But, I expect that we'll muddle through the plane travel part and have a great time on vacation together. Otherwise, things are going well. We'll have the Huttenbachs staying with us this weekend for a visit & we have some weekend fun planned with them.

14 Oct - Dad and Son Camp-out

Ben and I joined the local Indian Guides program (now called Native Sons of Algonquin...) and went to a camp-out that was lots of fun. We did many new activites together at a great YMCA camp here in the Chicago area. Also gave Mom a little bit of a break - Sarah continues to recover well from radiation. We expect that she'll get her next CAT scan just before Christmas. Next week we'll be meeting with her oncologist to talk through treatment options from this point - ovaries shutdown is the biggest question (when/how). Sarah's situation is probably as "stable" as it has ever been since her diagnosis in May - and I think that is giving us a chance to recharge our emotional batteries a bit.

12 Oct - First Snow!

Wow - this came fast! It was actually coming down pretty good for most of the day, but melted pretty quickly.

Huge Smile

Sarah caught a big cheesy smile of Sam's on film and I just had to post it...

8 Oct - Done with Radiation

Sarah's last day of radiation treatment was this past Friday. Yeah! She was very happy to finish this up - both because of the effects and also because of the time it took to go daily treatments. We celebrated by going to a nice dinner on Friday and even the kids liked it! This is a picture of Sarah (notice the big smile) with the boys before we headed out. Was a great weekend & Ben and I "camped" in the basement on Sat night, which he got a big kick out of.

1 Oct - Nice Weekend

It was a really busy week for us with me traveling to New York Tues & Wed and my parents leaving on Friday. We went to a Disney on Ice performance of Monsters Inc. on Saturday with the Kurbats and the kids loved it, although at first Sam was a bit freaked out - here's a pic of some of the monsters. Pretty well-done show with great costumes.
Elizabeth also came for a visit today on her way to Wisconsin. The kids were thrilled to see her (as were we) - they've been pretty spoiled with attention over the past two weeks!
Sarah is doing well. Skin is pretty burned, but she says not very painful. Six more radiation treatments to go! Looks like she can do them in the next five days by doubling one up at the end. I think she's really ready to be done with that & we hope it is effective in preventing a local re-occurence at her mastectomy site. After this, the plan is to do Herceptin, Tamoxifen and Zometa unless test future tests show a need for additional treatments. These three drugs should have fairly minor side effects compared with what has gone before. There's really no way to know how effective the radiation was or how well the Herc/Tamox/Zom will work except to hope future CAT scans keep showing no new activity. We're in a relatively good place with this for now, but we continue to be thankful for every day we can spend with each other. Life is too unpredictable to be taken for granted!

24 Sept - Weekend Get-Away

We just got back from a really nice weekend get-away to Door County, WI! My parents are here helping us out & were able to watch the kids over the weekend. It was so nice for Sarah and I to spend this time together and Door County really welcomed us with nice weather and plenty of great things to see & do.
Sarah is doing pretty well - half way through radiation treatments and the fatigue still doesn't seem too bad. Radiation is no picnic, though - skin is very red and starting to get a bit raw. Sarah applies ointment and corn starch every few hours to help minimize skin symptoms (who would have thought corn starch would be used for that?). But as she says - well worth the benefit. As you can see, Sarah's hair also continues to fill in but it's not quite time to consider a haircut yet. :)

13 Sept

Ben had his first soccer game this past weekend and Sam had his first official school day, which is one day per week pre-school. No tears - he was happy to stay & play rather than getting anxious when mommy left! Sarah's spirits are high, but she is definitely feeling the effects of radiation therapy: sun burn on skin (just switched from Aloe to "burn cream" due to the itching) and some fatigue as well. Three more weeks of radiation and we're worried her skin will get worse, but time will tell and there are ways of treating the skin symptoms.

Labor Day at Home

Well, we had a relaxing Labor Day weekend! Stayed at home mostly (I worked around the house). For some reason we ended up catching up with quite a few people: Sarah's friend Nicole visited & stayed with us Friday, and we got to see college friends PJ and Sharon + boyfriend David on Sunday. Sarah's college friend Susana from Dallas also called, whom she hadn't talked to in some time. As for me, I traded emails with some old classmates from Germany - my 20 year highschool reunion took place last Saturday in Nuernberg, Germany. I was there in spirit even though it just wasn't practical to fly over in person with all that's been going on.
Sarah's feeling fairly well. Radiation treatments continue and today (Tuesday) she got her weekly Herceptin dose again.

Thomas The Tank Engine Day

This Sunday we went to the "Day Out With Thomas [the Tank Engine]" at the Illinois Railway Museum with the McMahons. Everyone had fun and the kids loved riding on the train which was being pulled by a life-sized Thomas (and the help of the diesel locomotive at the rear of the train). Sarah's hair is growing back enough that she is comfortable not wearing hats unless she needs protection from the sun. She got her weekly Herceptin and the monthly Zometa on Tuesday and is going in every day for her radiation treatments. That seems to be going fairly well. Radiation sun burn is starting to be more apparent, but the Aloe cream helps. Fatigue also has not set in too bad and we're able to do things like this Thomas Day, which is great.

Ben Starts School

It's official! Ben started Kindergarten and loves it so far. Here he is on his first day with his friend Kira from next door. We also got to see his school and meet his teachers at a PTA night.

25 Aug - Good News!

Sarah's had two radiation treatments and everything is going well so far. You can already see a tan in the treated area, but no nausea and also no fatigue yet.
And... we got an unexpected call from Sarah's oncologist about the liver MRI results. He had good news and wanted to share it right away: no evidence of cancer mets in Sarah's liver! So, she's officially clear of mets except for the spine and those have not progressed since the CT scan she had in May at the time of her diagnosis. This really put a spring in our step and gives us some hope where there's been mostly uncertainty so far.

22 Aug - Good news so far

Several updates - Sarah and I went in yesterday to start the radiation setup process. She'll go back in tomorrow and then start the actual radiation therapy to the right breast area on Thursday (every weekday for approx. 6 weeks). Sarah's less worried about feeling bad on radiation - most people feel it's not as bad as chemotherapy. She also got another Herceptin treatment today, which will continue weekly, and got more fluid aspirated from her mastectomy site. A lot less than last week, so maybe that's the last time.
We also got the results of Sarah's CT scan from last week. Mostly good news with one question mark: brain and all organs except the liver showed clear of any tumors and the lesions in Sarah's spine were stable. The liver showed some "hypodensities" which are often a result of chemotherapy, but they can't rule out early mets based on the CT scan alone. So , Sarah is going in for an MRI of her liver this Thursday which should help clarify whether we need to be worried.
Overall Sarah feels pretty good and we're watching her hair quickly grow back (see pic above). Despite the many doctor's visits, we're staying positive and active. I'm working hard on re-doing our stairs to the upper bedrooms which will make them much nicer looking & less squeeky, and Ben is excited about his first day of Kindergarten tomorrow! Meanwhile, Sam has learned how to open and-or climb over most of our baby gates and also how to get past the baby-proof door knob covers. So now he's got free run of the house and we've got to constantly keep an eye on where he is. Sam's turning in to quite a little firecracker. He watches his older brother very closely & learns some things from Ben that we would rather have left for later. :)

16 Aug - Whirlwind Week

Sarah just got this blanket, made by her online friend Carissa, and really likes it!

With Sarah's brother Thomas in town, and me scheduling 2 business trips this past weekend, it's been pretty hectic.
Sarah got her 1st treatment of Herceptin yesterday - with no apparent signs of side-effects. We're staying positive.
Sarah also had a CT scan done today (Wed) which will be used to verify that no add'l tumors have formed in her brain or other organs. We should get the results by the end of the week, or surely by next Tuesday. It's going to be tough to wait for these results...

12 Aug - Mommy's Hat

Sarah's brother, Thomas, and his girlfriend, Kerry, are visiting us for the weekend. Here are some pics of the boys having fun trying on Mommy's hat during an evening cookout in the backyard. :)
Sarah's feeling better & we got confirmation that she can start Herceptin - so her first treatment is scheduled for next Tuesday! Also important next week will be a baseline CT scan of Sarah's brain and organs which we are praying will show all clear of tumors. If there are no new tumors and radiation cleans up the breast area, we've read that spinal mets like Sarah's can be controlled for long periods - and that's exactly what we are hoping for. We're emotionally torn between being eager to hear CT results that are encouraging and dreading the possibility of bad news. They say cancer is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, and that's definitely true. Seems like we've had quite a share of lows though, and I'm ready for a high this time...

8 Aug - Staples Out

Another milestone in the mastectomy recovery for Sarah today - she got staples out and everything seemed to be healing ok. We're hoping this means she can start Herceptin next week. This is a nice picture of Sarah & the boys in a rare moment of calm (lasted less than a minute!) :)

4 Aug - End of a Long Week...

It was a hot week and the only fun thing to do outside for the kids was to swim! Here's Sam in our little backyard pool.

It was also a long week full of doctor visits. Tuesday Sarah got her drains tubes taken out; Wednesday night one of the drain holes started leaking quite a bit so we were up late putting thick dressings on it & got up every two hours at night to check it; Thursday morning oncologist visit for red blood cell booster shot; Thursday afternoon first meeting with radiation oncologist & then after that over to the surgeon to fix up the leaking drain hole - which ended up being two stitches. So... we're ready for the weekend! Overall, Sarah is recovering well from surgery and eager to get the staples out (next Tues) and start Herceptin.

My parents are returning to San Antonio this Saturday, so we'll have to adjust to life with less help again... They've really helped us a lot over the past two weeks so that Sarah and I could focus on getting her through the mastectomy, and the kids have enjoyed having them here!

27 July - Wishing God Didn't Trust Us So Much

Today I'm reminded of a quote that my cousin Andres included in one of his emails to me:

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle... I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

This morning we were told that pathology tests on Sarah's removed breast tissue showed cancer cells at the margins and in all 16 lymph nodes taken out. This means that the tumor had penetrated in to surrounding tissues adjacent to the breast.
So, Sarah will now be doing radiation treatment next in order to try & clean up the chest area as soon as her incision has healed up enough (in approx. 4 weeks). In the mean time she has started Tamoxifen right away today and will start Herceptin asap as well (2-3 weeks). She'll drop Tamox during radiation since it interferes.

Mother Gwynne, the Asst. Rector at our church, brought by a little angel today which I found inspirational & wanted to share. On its wing it says "Miracles Happen." To me, the outstretched arms of the angel seem to invite us into a comforting embrace, while at the same time encouraging us to let our spirits soar and fly free no matter what challenges we face in our physical lives. I do expect miracles - not sure what form they will take, but I trust they'll be just what we need. I'm praying for both physical healing as well as emotional/spiritual healing that lets love and hope displace fear and hurt in us as we face the future.

I just wish He didn't trust us so much...

26 July - Sarah's Back Home

Sarah finally got to come home from the hospital today! She's feeling pretty good, although we still have to make sure her red blood cell count comes back up into the normal range. The loose shirt is hiding two very uncomfortable drain tubes that keep fluid from building up at the surgery site. We're going back to see both Sarah's oncologist and surgeon tomorrow - could be that the drain tubes can already be removed, otherwise it'll be after the weekend.

Also, here's Ben - the proud T-baller after his last game this season. He really seemed to have fun playing! And... what kid can resist the fun of kicking up that ballfield dirt? :)

25 July - Post Surgery

Well, it's done... Sarah's mastectomy went according to plan and she's recovering fine. Wow, what a trooper this woman is! Despite her smile in this pic, Sarah's pretty exhausted and it looks like she's likely to spend a second night in the hospital. Her blood pressure got back to normal by morning, but her red blood cell count is still pretty low (guess you lose a fair amount of blood in this type of surgery). Overall, I think Sarah is relieved to have this step behind her and in fairly good spirits. No post-anesthesia nausea, which was also a big relief! :) I spent last night with Sarah in the hospital (yes, managed to sleep in the visitor's chair) and will try to spend the night there again today if she doesn't get a room mate.

21 July - Time for Surgery

We've had a change in plans and Sarah's oncologist has recommended she get a mastectomy asap - it's scheduled for next Monday, 24 July. This was prompted by suspicion that the primary tumor was not responding to the chemotherapy (Adriamycin and Cytoxan) and in fact getting bigger. Sarah had another breast ultrasound this past Wednesday and although not completely conclusive, it did show a larger mass that is likely active tumor.

So, the plan is to stop the current chemo, remove the primary tumor, and then get her on Herceptin (which her tumor should respond to due to the HER2/NEU+++ attribute) possibly along with Taxol (a chemo drug) a few weeks after the surgery. My parents will be here for 2 weeks to help with Sam & Ben while Sarah recovers.

10 July - Second Opinion

Switching to a new format so less scrolling is needed to view entries. Here's a picture of Sarah and Sam taking in the Soccer World Cup final on Sunday. Was a long game, so neither saw the penalty kick finale... Sam went down for his nap & Sarah ended up napping, as well! Sarah's nausea is finally tapered after 7 days - this 3rd chemo was a doozy for side-effects.

Well, the trip downtown to Rush University Hospital Cancer Center to get a second opinion went fine. Although the doctor had a few new thoughts for us, her opinion (along with the ones from doctors at Duke and Johns Hopkins) have lead us to the overall conclusion that we seem to be getting excellent medical care for Sarah under her current oncologist. And, the treatment plan she's on seems like the best we can do based on the latest studies and standards of care. So, she'll do a mastectomy probably after one more round of chemo and then begin a long term treatment with Herceptin (slows/inhibits tumor growth), Zometa (bone strengthener) and maybe low-dose Taxol (chemo agent) to keep the bone metastasis at bay. Still no way to know what the future holds, but we remain positive & hopeful and look forward to many more years as a family together. We're very thankful for all the prayers & please keep 'em coming!

Well, Sarah's still trudging through the side effects of chemo & the blood cell stimulant shot (flu-like side effects), but we got the blood tumor marker results and they seemed to be encouraging. We still need to see what the doctors say about it, but one marker did go down & the other one stayed approx the same but is already in the "normal" range for someone without cancer. Seems like these days every week brings new ups or downs. Now we're looking ahead to getting a second opinion on Monday from a doctor specializing in breast cancer at Rush University Medical Center in downtown Chicago. Ben will be jealous that he doesn't get to go -- he'll miss a chance to ride the train in to town. :)

4 July - Another Week 1

Well, our Oncologist recommended doing the chemo & seeing what blood tumor marker levels told us later this week. So, we're starting another "week 1" in Sarah's 3 week chemo cycle. Here's a picture of Sarah surfing on day before chemo & then getting treatment #3 on 3 July. Our Independence Day celebrations will be pretty laid back. The new anti-nausea drug has not done much yet to prevent Sarah's chemo nausea which hit her full force last night - hopefully it will not linger any longer than last time (~ 4 days).

2 July Update

Day before a big day for us. Sarah gets her third round of chemo tomorrow, we think. But, the tumor in her right breast doesn't seem to be getting much smaller despite the two previous chemos, so we'll be deciding tomorrow with our oncologist on whether to continue chemo or do the mastectomy right away & get Sarah on the hormone and antibody drugs that should hopefully dramatically slow the growth of Sarah's cancer cells. If Sarah does get chemo, she might have less nausea this time due to moving to the latest anti-nausea drug called Emend. So, tomorrow we'll see how the rest of this week will unfold - chemo yuck-week or surgery.

25 June - Ben Rides His Bike

Ben learned how to ride his bike without training wheels this weekend! Now all he wants to do is ride his bike... :) (I don't know why this picture keeps loading up sideways). We also had a nice dinner visit from our friends Mary and Eric this weekend - Sarah and Mary are enjoying the weather and comfortable chairs in the backyard. Sarah's been tired but otherwise feeling good & her white blood cell count stayed high this time thanks to a shot right after her last chemo. Just gearing up for the next chemotherapy in one week.

19 June 2006

Went to talk to Sarah's surgeon - mastectomy is scheduled for 11 August 2006, three weeks after her fourth chemo. We're both very worried about what the future will hold, but have resolved to take Sarah's treatment one step at a time and be positive. Our oncologist consulted with a doctor at John's Hopkins and both were in agreement that Sarah was receiving treatment consistent with the latest body of cancer knowledge based on her situation.

17 June 2006

Ok, made it through the week and Sarah is enjoying her first comfortable day off anti-nausea drugs. Here she is with Sam at Ben's friend Maddie's birthday party. Two chemo treatments down, two more to go for now.

12 June 2006 - Another Difficult Day

Today Sarah went to get her second chemotherapy and we also got the results of her spine MRI. We were expecting it to confirm no cancer there, but unfortunately it showed small cancer lesions in several spots. This changes the treatment plan as it focuses on controlling the cancer vs. removing it all and we are still working out what the plan will be. In the mean time we are just trying to digest this news and stay positive. Sarah's cancer should respond to two drugs that will slow or hopefully halt the advance and she will start those right after her mastectomy.

11 June 2006 - Sarah's Birthday

Here's a partial family photo for Sarah's birthday. Perfect timing (last day before next chemo) so that Sarah could enjoy the day.

10 June 2006

Our two speed demons having fun in the back yard. My parents, "Oma and Grandpa," are here to help watch the kids during "week 1" of the next Chemo cycle while Sarah works her way through the nausea and fatigue.

Ok, Sarah's feeling better now, but her hair started to fall out on Saturday, 3 June. By Monday it was looking pretty patchy, so Sarah had me shave it off. Here are the before & after shots. You can see in the 3rd pic how her hair started falling out on the sides first - scarves and hats from here on out for a while...

Sarah sitting with Sam at the Memorial Day parade through Arlington Heights.

Memorial Day weekend was a hot one, so Ben and Sam got to play in the backyard pool. Sarah is starting to feel better with less nausea but the fatigue is sticking around.