The Road To Recovery

Hi Everyone,

It has been a long time since I have updated our blog, and I apologize for keeping many of you hanging. Since my last entry Marce has recovered from her chemotherapy, and has returned to her normal glowing self. Her hair has returned and as of a few weeks ago she is stopping to wear a hat or wig. It is returning a bit curly or wavy, but with more grey than she would prefer. But I and the girls all think it looks great and, like new flowers in the spring, is a sign of what we hope is a long and healthy life.

So what have we been doing? About six weeks after completing her treatment, we chartered a 50 foot Benetau sailboat with our good friends the Spears and spent a week sailing the San Juans. We had a wonderful time, hitting locations of Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, Stuart Island, Sucia Island, and Rosario Resort.

When we returned to Seattle, Marce finally had the courage and strength to start Tamoxifen, which is a hormone blocking medication designed to snuff out any potentially remaining cancer cells. Since her cancer feeds off estrogen, the idea is to cut off the food supply for any rogue cells which may have escaped into her body undetected. There is something like a 20-30% chance this has occurred and, if so, the best time to kill it is when it is only a few cells strong. It is much easier to kill a tumor comprised of only a few cells than one comprised of millions. Unfortunately after a week of being on this treatment, Marce experienced major complications, with symptoms being what I would call "extreme menopause" combined with strong headaches. So she stopped the treatment, and this two weeks ago we met with Dr. Kaplan, her oncologist, to discuss alternatives. He has put her on a sister drug called Fareston, which has similar benefits to Tamoxifen. But her reaction could have been to the Tamoxifen itself, rather than hormonal changes. So she is on one tablet 2X per week and is ramping up to daily, with a slow progression to make sure she doesn't have the same side effects. More to come on the results...

Marc

Last Treatment

On Tuesday Marce received her fourth and last infusion of chemotherapy. We are so excited that this is her last one! She seems to be experiencing typical symptoms - not really better or worse than the 2nd and 3rd treatments. Of course we are all mentally much happier this time given that we know this is her last chemo.

In about a month she will start Tamoxifen, a hormone blocking drug which will significant reduce her recurrence risk. Here is a good article in the latest Scientific American on recent advances in the treatment of breast cancer.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=gaining-ground-on-breast-cancer

Marc

Round 3 Status

Well, I have been remiss in keeping our blog updated on Marce's progress. Most of that is good news, in that her 3rd treatment went as scheduled on Monday May 21 and the subsequent few weeks have been pretty much what we have expected. Today is Sunday May 25, and the only "out-of-norm" occurrence has been Marce getting a case of pink-eye on Michelle's birthday May 23. This is a common occurence with her Taxotere chemotherapy, which can create a drying of tear ducts with the follow-on pink-eye susceptibility.

The good news is that Marce has been feeling up to the events of the last few days, with Marina's birthday on May 21 and Michelle's 18th birthday on Friday followed by her graduation on Saturday. Her graduation was a great event held at Anthony's Shilshole restaurant with four other homeschooling families. Families and friends gathered for what proved to be a special day. The weather was beautiful, and from our vantage point over Puget Sound we all were entertained by a poor sailor who ran aground during the start of the 4 hour event. During the course of the function we saw his boat tip over on its side with the lowering tide, only to be righted and free by the end of the day as the tide turned.

Marce's next and LAST treatment is Friday June 6. We will be thankful when that is over, and I will do a better job of keeping this website updated.

Marc

Round Two - Day 7 Status

Today is day 7 and I am happy to report that Marce continues to pull out of her "chemo-flu" much better than last time. She still is struggling with tiredness, but not the extreme fatigue that she had a few days ago and for nearly two weeks with the first round. We are so thankful that things are better this time around, and appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers!

Her next treatment is scheduled for Monday 12 May.

Marc

Round Two Update

A quick update on Marce's status. She is now on day 5 of her second round of chemo. The good news is that she only has minor aches, pains, and headache. This is better than her first time around, so we are thankful for that. Her primary symptom is extreme fatigue, and she spent most of yesterday (Monday) in bed in an off and on sleep mode. We are hoping and praying that this time will be better and that the worst of it will not last 2 weeks, rather 3-5 days like most people.

Marc

Round Two Begins

On Friday morning 18 April Marce began her second chemotherapy infusion. Since the last report she has felt much better, and basically pulled out of the "chemo-flu" on day 15. This allowed some time to drive to Spokane last weekend as a family and visit Marce's parents. Her father is undergoing immunotherapy for lymphoma. This has a similar but milder effect than chemo, and we were able to visit him in his assisted-living facility in the Spokane Valley. All of last week Marce felt pretty good, but her hair really started falling out last weekend. So this week we all went in with her to the local salon where she had it buzzed off. This was pretty tough, but she handled it very well. She was able to find some great hats at Swedish Hospital, and has a couple of wigs that look really nice on her. So, in her typical style Marce is making the best of the situation. They changed her medications around a bit, so she felt good enough on Friday and Saturday to attend a local homeschooling conference. But as of Saturday evening, the chemo-flu symptoms are starting to set in. So we are not sure how bad they will be this time. Stay tuned for more and hope you enjoy the pics!

Marc

Marce with her new look!

Birthday celebration with Grandma Alene

Breakfast with Grandma @ Huckleberries in Spokane

Birthday celebration with Granny Pancake and Barbara

Bottoming Out

While we had hoped that things were getting better on the day of Marce's haircut (Wednesday), things took a turn for the worse on Thursday with heavy aching, headaches, and fatigue. On Friday we met with Dr. Kaplan for her 10 day checkup from her first infusion. It turns out that day 10 is when blood levels tend to "bottom out". They primarily look for 3 things - red blood count, platelets, and white blood count. She was good in the first two areas, but her white blood count had dropped to 1.1 from 3.4, which is below average and a bit of a concern. Unfortunately white blood count has nothing to do with her aches, fatigue, etc., rather with her immune system's ability to fight off infection. Hence, Dr Kaplan has recommended she avoid going out in public for the next 4 days to avoid exposure. So we are all taking vitamins and washing our hands like crazy to prevent Marce from getting sick. As of today (Saturday) she is feeling slightly better, but still basically bedridden. Dr. Kaplan says she is unfortunately reacting harder to her chemo than the "average" person, but thinks she should improve this coming week.

Today is also Marce's birthday. We had a gluten-free cake that Michelle baked and watched the movie "Enchanted" while Marce popped Advil for her pain. While not her best birthday ever, we hope that her suffering will provide her with decades more birthdays to celebrate with family and friends.

On a different note, Michelle is taking driving classes from Swerve, a local driving school. She meets twice weekly for "ground school", then takes flight one to two days per week in cute, boxy Scions. While Michelle cringes at the Scions, we think they're great. Here's a few pictures of Michelle getting ready for flight #2 with her flight instructor. Go Michelle!

Marc

Michelle prepares for "takeoff" with her instructor!

Michelle in the "cockpit" of her cute driving car!