As I sit in the infusion chair for my Enhertu infusion, I just checked when I wrote my last blog post and realized it was January. After seeing that, I decided it was time to provide an update. Honestly, I have just been so busy and haven't had a chance to type out something. It's quite a bit of information to type up, and there have been so many other priorities and activities in my life lately.
Luke began his first season of track, and Abbey has recently been in two theater productions. Abbey also started back up with volleyball (just a spring rec league).
With those activities come many rehearsals and practices. I continue to homeschool the kids and we are already looking ahead to college planning. After this semester, Luke will have 22 hour of college credit for free through the dual credit program here. So, as his "guidance counselor," we met with his college counselor to make sure we are on the right track with things. Abbey will be taking the TSI (a test used to determine readiness for college classes before the kids have the opportunity to take the SAT), so she can begin taking college courses. I can't believe she will be a freshman in High School next year---we will have two high schoolers!!
I had a slew of tests done at the end of January, including a PET scan, an echocardiogram and a brain MRI. The good news is that my brain MRI showed a lot of great improvement. My heart also looks to be surviving the treatment just fine (although, my resting heart rate still remains elevated in the 100s since August--previously my resting heart rate was in the 60s-70s.) The bad news is that my tumor markers continue to trend in the wrong direction ever so slightly. That, paired with slight progression on my PET scan at the end of January, makes my Oncologist want to do another PET scan asap (even though it has only been two months since my last one) to see if I am having more progression. This will help us know whether my tumor markers line up with my PET scan so that maybe I don't need as frequent of PET scans (if my markers are reliable). It will also tell her if we need to go ahead and switch to another line of treatment.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there are a lot of available treatment options besides a chemo that might work for a few months here (carboplatin), so I plan to reach out to MD Anderson for available clinical trials based on my mutations and what treatments have failed so far. I need to stay ahead of things and see what trials I am eligible for based on my history or treatment and disease progression. I hope though, the PET scan shows the disease is stable and I don't have to leave this treatment I am currently on. I put all of my past treatment and my cancer mutations into chatgpt and it gave me a list of options that I am going to ask my MD Anderson Oncologist about.
Prayer partners: I would love your prayers for my health as follows:
- That my condition become stable and things don't progress
- That we can easily identify some great future options for treatment
- And ultimately, that I am healed from this terrible disease!!
Thank you so much. God is good, all the time!
