Fall update

Dear family and friends,

Sorry it has been a while since I've given an update, things are going really well health-wise.  My latest CT scan looked great, the tumors in my liver are shrinking while my bone and lung lesions are stable.  My latest brain MRI looked fine, there was a tiny increase in one of the lesions, but the doctors are not worried, so we will continue to watch and wait.   The plan is to continue with weekly Navelbine.  My wonderful friend, Wendy, keeps me company every week, which is awesome.

Jake and I have had a wonderful fall/early winter.  We had a wonderful trip to Chicago in October for the baptism of our sweet niece, Ainslie.  She is adorable!  We had a nice Thanksgiving in Seattle with Jake's mom, Tanya, and my brother, Bill.  Jake cooked a turkey on the grill this year, which was delicious!

Thanks for the continued love and support.  

September Update

Hello family and friends,

Hard to believe, but I’ve been on Navelbine for over 3 months now and it continues to go well.  I have a CT scan on Tuesday morning to ensure things are moving in the right direction, so fingers crossed with that.  We will review results with Dr. Rinn on Wed.  One of the crazy things about living with advanced cancer is learning to take life in 3 month gulps (the approximate amount of time between scans).  I’m also having the joy of brain MRI’s every two months, though we’ll hopefully be able to decrease the frequency of those at some point.  I didn’t really mention this on my last post, but they did discover another tiny brain tumor in the back of my head, but it is so small we are taking a wait-and-watch approach rather than zapping it with radiation.  The brain tumor that was treated with Gamma Knife back in April looks good.  I’ve got a slight dent in my head from where they attached the frame, which I swear is getting bigger and deeper (Jake thinks I’m imagining this).

In non-cancer news, Jake and I have had an absolutely fantastic summer.  After our Asia trip and wonderful visit with Kate and the kids, I was able to join my hiking friends from the Mt. Adams climb as they ended a 3 day backpacking trip in the Cascades.  It was fun to connect with such an amazing group of women – they are so brave!  Then, last weekend, we made a short visit to Columbus to visit Jake’s folks, which was great fun.  Next month we head to Chicago for the baptism of our new niece, Ainslie, which will be really special.

In July, Swedish featured us (including bulldogs) in a publication for their donors.  It was really an honor to be a part of this, here’s the link to the story.

http://issuu.com/theswedishfoundation/docs/swedish-foundation-impact-magazine-summer-2012?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222

Thanks for everyone’s continued love and support, 

Nancy

Swedish Foundation photo, by Nancy's Side...

Hike with Mount Adams team

A trip to Jake's hometown

Stable and enjoying summer

Dear family and friends,

We are having an awesome summer and I figured it was time for an update.

Jake and I went on an amazing vacation to Hong Kong and Thailand to celebrate the wedding of our dear friends, Jason and Wendy.  It really was a trip of a lifetime, traveling with friends is so much fun.   

After our trip to Asia, we had an incredibly fun visit at home with Jake's sister, Kate, and her three wonderful kids, Graham, Sadie, and Duncan.  It was so much fun to hang out with them and play tourist in our home town.  Jake's moniker is "Uncle Awesome" so he's got to back it up when the kids are in town.  We loaded up with Lucky Charms, nothing like a sugar cereal to win the hearts of our nephews and niece.   

In medical news, things are going well.  My latest scans look good and chemo is going smoothly.

Thanks again to everyone for your continued love and support!!!

Nancy with Kate and the kids having Seattle-summer fun!

Breakfast with Uncle Awesome: "Mexican style Lucky Charms" (just the marshmallows.)

"Aunt Awesome" and Sadie.

Cancer on the move

In typical Nancy fashion, when she and Jake received some disappointing scan results, her positive, fighting spirit was NOT hindered. She writes:


Dear family and friends,

We've had an eventful couple weeks.  I had a scan last week and the cancer is on the move again, this time progressing in my liver and bones.  Dr. Rinn wants me back on chemo immediately, so Monday this week I got a new port and had my first infusion on Wed.  The latest chemo is called Navelbine, which is gentle as far as side effects.  I won't lose my hair and will be able to continue working full time, aside from weekly trips for infusions.  Navelbine (or Navy Bean as I like to call it) has a reputation for being well tolerated, some patients are on it for years.

On a much happier note, we had a photo shoot on Wed evening with a photographer from Swedish.  They are doing a story about us for one of their upcoming publications, which I will share when it is finished.  The photographer had the idea to take the photos with our friends and dogs down at the beach park.  Here's a link to some of the photos (note - won't work on iPad because it uses flash). PHOTOS -Nancy

The WINNING Game

Nancy waits in the dugout, in typical Nancy fashion, stylishly sporting her honorary jersey...

She takes to the field and the crowd is going wild (particularly Jake and Nancy's friends)....

She winds up and throws the first pitch in perfect form... a "change up", which was a one bounce strike, no doubt....

And the Mariners won! Mojo- thanks for sharing YOUR Mojo- you are a winner!!! 

MLB HONORARY BATGIRL: NANCY!!!

It's official. Monday, May 21st, Nancy will be honored and celebrated for "going to bat" against cancer at the Seattle Mariner's game. A colleague and friend of Jake nominated Nancy with the following story, and she was selected! Go Nancy! You are such an inspiration! We love you, and you are my hero!

Nancy Haunty, the wife of one of my co-workers, has been going to bat against breast cancer for the past 9 ½ years. In 2002, Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had surgery, radiation therapy, and 6 months of chemo. Once Nancy's hair returned, went back to her 'normal life'. All was going well until 2007, when Nancy had a local recurrence of her cancer. This time, Nancy had a mastectomy followed by another 6 months of chemo. Following her treatment, Nancy and her oncologist chose to have a mastectomy on her unaffected breast followed by reconstructive surgery. She recovered well and 'took the field' in her cancer-free life. In September 2009, Nancy was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer: metastases in her liver, lungs and spine. Her 6-month treatment went well, and she 'took the field' again. Last week, Nancy learned the cancer had spread to her brain. She finds herself stepping into the batter's box yet again with a positive outlook and an Ichiro-like focus. Nancy has been going to bat against cancer for women in the Seattle area. She became actively engaged in local organizations that help women with breast cancer in real ways: financial assistance, caring baskets, and group physical activities. She even traveled to Washington, DC last year to testify to the FDA for a drug that hit a home run against her Stage 4 cancer. Nancy's passion is to support other women who are going through experiences that are like her experience with cancer over the past 9 ½ years.  

The MLB Announcement

Gamma Knife

Dear friends and family,

This might be an entertaining blog post, I've got a couple Vicodin in me right now and am a little fuzzy (hopefully I won't regret using photos in this post!).  The Gamma Knife procedure went very smoothly today.  Aside from a headache and mild nausea, I feel amazingly normal and hope to be back at work tomorrow.

It was pretty fascinating how they do the procedure.  Once you are settled into a nice, comfortable room, the first step is attaching the frame.  The neurosurgeon numbed up four spots on my head using a generous dose of lidocaine.  Jake was with me the entire time and he said the lidocaine puffed up like giant horns on my forehead.  This part hurt, but was over fairly quickly.  Then they slip the frame over my head and start screwing in the pins.  The pins were enormous, see photo of it in my hand to give you an idea.  After the frame was attached, I was sent for an MRI.  If you look closely, you can see the tumor on the scan circled on the image with a cross through it and a rectangular tag, right behind the eye.  As the Radiation Oncologist described to me, the lesion is in prime real estate being close to the optic nerve (he referred to it as waterfront property), so the main concern was ensuring they only hit the tumor, not the optic nerve, which was near by.

Anyway, after the MRI, the team of doctors, neurosurgeon, physicist, and radiation oncologist work together to determine the precise treatment plan.  Once complete, they brought me into the room with the actual gamma knife, snapped my head frame to the table, turned on some soft relaxing music, and started the actual procedure.  I didn't feel anything and, in fact, slept through most of it.

Removing the frame was a snap and we were sent on our way.  We grabbed a little lunch, then I got home and slept most of the afternoon.  I woke up with a pretty bad headache and nausea, but it is under control.  All in all, not too bad.  I will have a follow up MRI in a month and hopefully that pesky little sucker will be gone.

The Rad Onc also suggested radiating one of the bone lesions in my spine.  He has been communicating with Dr. Rinn about this, so that will be something to possibly do in the next month or two.  

 Thanks again to everyone for all your well wishes and prayers.  And big thanks to Jenny for bringing us delicious dinner. - Love, Nancy

Here we go...

Dear friends and family,
We've hit another bump in the road and I wanted to give an update with the latest scoop.  I've been having some mild balance issues, so Dr. Rinn ordered an MRI of my head and it turns out I have a small brain tumor.  We met with the neurosurgeon on Friday who is recommending gamma knife, a radiation procedure, tentatively scheduled for April 24th.  My tumor markers are on the rise as well, so once we get the brain issue out of the way, we need to see if things have heated up anywhere else and need to switch treatments.

Jake and I are doing well and, as always, are so thankful to have a great medical team, and even more thankful for our wonderful support network.  I'll send more updates as we get more information.  Love and hugs all around.
- Nancy

March

Dear family and friends,

It has been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd give an update.  Things are going well and we assume faslodex is doing the trick.  The knuckleheads at my insurance company are still refusing to cover everolimus even though Dr. Rinn thinks I'm perfectly suited for it.  The latest excuse is that the clinical trial data had Aromasin as the hormone therapy partner, not faslodex.  The implication is if I switched to Aromasin they would cover it, so perhaps we will go that route, we'll see.  I have an appointment this week to get my monthly zometa and faslodex and I'll see Dr. Rinn to discuss options.  I'm also due for a scan pretty soon.

I feel pretty well, though I'm having a bit more pain in my right upper quadrant and top of my right shoulder (referred pain from my liver).  It is hard to tell if it's getting worse, pain is so subjective.  It is never severe pain, but pretty unrelenting, which always makes me a tad nervous the cancer is getting worse.  On the other hand, my symptoms have never correlated with progression, so I'm choosing to believe everything is stable.

In non-cancer news, we had a wonderful trip last weekend to visit Kate, Grant and the kids in Nashville.  It was so much fun to hang out with them and spend time with our nephews and niece. We went to a concert at the legendary Ryman theater, which was  such a treat.  The kids are so cute and fun, we really had fun hanging out and playing with them.  My niece, Sadie, is such a sweetheart!  She surprised me with individual Get Well cards written by each of the kids in her class.  We stopped by her class on Friday last week and I got to meet all the kids - they made me feel like a celebrity!  
It was really special spending time with Kate (my awesome sis-in-law who maintains the blog).  She and I have always had an incredible friendship and I think of her as my sister.  She is beautiful and an amazing mom/wife/athlete...she is simply incredible and I'm thankful beyond words for all she does. 

Latest scan results

Dear family and friends,

Jake and I had a wonderful Christmas Eve at the Seahawks game and fun New Year's Eve with friends downtown for dinner and fireworks.  

We met with Dr. Rinn today to review my latest PET scan.  In a nutshell, Xeloda has failed me, my cancer is worse so we need to pick another treatment.  I have progression in my liver, pleura and  bones.

I asked Dr. Rinn if it would be okay to try a hormone therapy since I'm working full time and am enjoying my work so much that chemo would really slow me down.  She agreed and said it would be okay to try faslodex, but wants to "Keep it on a short leash", meaning she wants to watch me very closely with scans and lab tests.  If the hormone therapy isn't working, she wants me to go back to chemo.

So…bye bye Xeloda, hello Everolimus/Fasloxex!

Faslodex is a commonly prescribed hormone treatment, but adding Everolimus is a new twist and, according to very recent research data, greatly improves progression free survival.  A quote from the recent research, "Everolimus is the most important advance in breast cancer treatment since Herceptin."  Everolimus for breast cancer is still considered off-label (non-standard), so Dr. Rinn will be fighting with my insurance company this week to get it covered. 

Thanks again to everyone for your support!! - Nancy

Seahawks game Christmas Eve Day