Fall 2009: Jake and Nancy learned that Nancy's breast cancer was stage four. Winter 2013: They are still fighting. This is a gathering place to follow their story, offer support, love and prayers... to be by their side.



Monday, March 29, 2010

Hi everyone,

After 6 long months of weekly treatment, I am officially done with Abraxane and Avastin. Hooray! My mom joined me for the 5-hour marathon chemo trifecta on Thursday, which went fine. She snapped a photo from my iPhone to mark the big day. I have felt a little sick this weekend, but once I get back on my feet we will celebrate.

I have to say a quick thank you to Jake. I think it is harder to be the spouse than it is to be the patient and he has been amazing. He handled a lot of the really hard things these past 6 months, not the least of which was dealing with our adoption agency, who disqualified us based on my health. Losing our Nina has been the hardest part of this journey, but as he continually reminds me, "Our family is complete."

We have such a great family and such a great life. Thanks everyone for following along and for your continued love and support.

-Nancy

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Important day

Today Nancy had her last "triple crown" chemo treatment. I haven't heard from her yet, but these are very long days, and she tends to feel pretty cruddy following an entire day in the hospital. She'll begin a much milder (less side effects) treatment regiment. More details to follow....

Congratulations Nancy! This has been a long hard fall and winter, but spring is here!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

CT RESULTS GOOD! Next step...

We had a good conversation with Dr. Rinn today regarding my latest CT scan. The scan shows all the tumors are either stable or improving. Based on that, she is comfortable with me switching from chemo to Femara in April. I will still come in for monthly infusions of Zometa for my spine, plus have scans, lab tests, and so forth, but at least I will be done with the weekly chemo routine. She was optimistic that Femara will continue to reduce the tumors and I'll be able to stay on it for a long time to come (possibly years). While I'm excited to have an end-date for chemo, it is a little daunting to think about "what next" since once I start feeling better I need to figure out if I can go back to work, etc. It is always hard to transition to a new normal and nothing about our current situation was part of our plan, so it'll be an adjustment for sure.



Thanks again to everyone for your continued support and encouragement. I imagine I won't be posting as much to this blog starting in April/May since there won't be quite as much going on (which is good!), so don't worry if you don't see updates from me. Another big thanks to Kate and Molly for keeping the blog going as it has been such a great way for us to communicate.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Steady in the fight...


Last week was another chemo triple crown of Abraxane/Avastin/Zometa. It went well, but does make for a long day. My blood counts were quite low, so Jake gave me a couple extra shots of Neupogen this week and as a result I've been quite achy, though I'm pretty well recovered now. I had a fun/relaxing breakfast with my mom yesterday (photo attached).

I'm scheduled for a CT scan tomorrow, which will hopefully show another drastic reduction in the tumors. We'll review results with my oncologist next Thursday and make a plan for transitioning to the next therapy, which will likely be Femara.

In other news, I have signed up to exercise with a group of other cancer survivors, which has been really fun. The group is going to climb Mt. Adams this summer and they have allowed me to tag along during the training. Dr. Rinn didn't clear me to do the actual climb, so I won't be able to participate in the big event, but I'm having a great time meeting other women and having a little structure to my exercise routine.
Thanks again to everyone for your continued support, it really keeps us strong having such an amazing network of family and friends. -Nancy