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.



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Looking up

Hi everyone,

Things are going really well these days. My latest PET/CT scan shows the cancer continuing to diminish, so we can safely assume that Femara is working and we are continuing to gain ground toward remission. As I've said in previous posts, the goal is that I can stay on Femara for a long time (possibly years) before the cancer outsmarts it and we have to switch to something else (i.e. back to chemo). I continue to get monthly Zometa treatments, which are really easy and I have no side effects. It is amazing how the body adjusts - my first couple Zometa infusions back in Oct/Nov were pretty rough, but now I have a treatment on Friday and am out hiking on Saturday.
Speaking of hiking, THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to the Team Survivor Mt. Adams climb. Everyone has been extremely generous, but there is still time to give if you haven't already. Go to http://www.teamsurvivornw.org/http://www.teamsurvivornw.org/, click on Mt. Adams Climb, and the link to the donation page is about half way down the page. We have a little team blog that documents our training hikes and eventually I'll use it to post pictures from the summit. The website is http://tsnwmtadamsclimb2010.blogspot.com/. The big event is Aug 9th - 12th. Please send prayers/vibes/wishes/thoughts/etc. for warm, dry weather. I am still trying to imagine how I'll be warm enough sleeping on a glacier, but as I keep telling myself, others have done it and lived to tell about it. Our base camp is at 9,000 feet, so it is likely to be below freezing at night, even in the middle of August.
Final comment - the woman standing behind me in the photo is the amazing Dr. Rinn. She is doing the Mt. Adams climb with the July group and will be a sherpa with my group in August, which will be really special. You can also read a little more about her and some of my fellow climbers by clicking on the Team Profiles link on the Mt. Adams blog.

Friday, June 18, 2010

A mountain to climb

I am continuing to train for the Mt. Adams climb in August and it is going really well. Last weekend we hiked 8 miles with 3,300 feet elevation gain. I hiked with a 22 pound pack, which was challenging but not impossible, so this week I'll increase my pack weight to 30 pounds. Eventually I have to carry 50 - 55 pounds, which is still mind boggling to me. Yesterday, I loaded a 40 pound bag of dog food in the car and thought about how heavy it was...can I carry that plus another 15 pounds on my back up a huge mountain for 4 days?!? I'm hinting to Jake that I may need a little sherpa help for the climb up to base camp.


Anyway, the photos are from last week's hike at the top of Mt. Si. From the top, we had a great view of Mount Rainier (middle photo).

I'll tell you more specifics about the Mt. Adams hike in future posts, but here's a link to our guide service, NW Mountain School. They have a great web site if you want to check it out.

-Nancy