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.



Sunday, October 4, 2015

Update

Dear friends and family,
It has been a while since I've posted an update.  My latest scan showed progression in my liver, so I'll be starting a chemo called Doxil as soon as we get insurance approval.  I've got mixed feelings, on one hand I am worn out from many months of taxotere/cytoxin, so I was ready to stop it from a quality of life perspective.  On the other hand, I'm getting low on treatment options and it is discouraging that my cancer is now resistant to yet another drug.  Dr. Rinn says I've got two mainline chemos left, Doxil and Ixempra.  Aside from those drugs, there might be possible experimental therapies via clinical trial.  She wants me to have a 2nd opinion at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to see if they might have some in-house trials and also to get a fresh set of medical eyes on my case.

Doxil is similar to a drug I had years ago called adriamycin, but the side effects should be a little easier.  While my liver is worse, thankfully my brain looks stable, the latest scan showed improvement on all 11 lesions treated with gamma knife back in May.

In non-cancer news, we went on an absolutely amazing trip in August with our dear friends, Jason and Wendy, to Italy, Greece and Turkey.  I felt really great on the trip, I had an extra week off from chemo, which helped a lot as we walked a ton.  Here we are on a beach on some Greek Island.  :-)