My Final Radiation Treatment

I had my final radiation treatment on Monday. I was so glad to be done with it. The combo of that plus the new chemo pill that I started the previous Monday really caused a lot of fatigue. But, I was able to combat it by constantly moving. As soon as I sat, my body wanted to stop. So, the solution was to just keep moving. They told me that my symptoms from radiation would probably get worse after stopping treatment and then eventually get better over the next month. So I'm looking forward to that. I brought the kids with me on Friday to my radiation appointment so they could learn about the jobs of radiation technologists and see what was being done to me. I love finding every opportunity I can for the kids to learn about different jobs.

I have a huge praise though: thanks to prayer warriors the nausea, vomiting and diarrhea never happened last week, aside from a couple of days at the beginning of general queasiness. I was told by the pharmacist and oncologist that those side effects would most likely happen-- so that's a huge praise. Thank you to those who are praying. Now, let's pray that I continue to not have these drug side effects and that the cancer gets eliminated for good!! (I will say I had vomiting on Tuesday morning while brushing my teeth and also a lot of vomiting today during my high-dose Vitamin C infusion, but perhaps that had more to do with infusing it too quickly.)

I have no idea whether the radiation accomplished its goal. The radiation oncologist said they just go by how you feel and eventually a future pet scan (which I have approximately every 3-4 months). So how do I feel post-radiation? The pain in my hips is still there but I am hoping it's at least partially due to the inflammation caused by the radiation. Hopefully, it all gets better as time goes on. In addition, the radiation has caused new muscle pain in my hamstrings and quadriceps that will hopefully eventually subside--that is also likely due to the inflammation from radiation.

We are just pushing through, trying to add back in supplements as my stomach adjusts to the new drug, and praying and hoping for healing! My next appointment with my oncologist is on March 14. We will see what she says about future pet scans and her opinion of my tumor markers. 

Thanks again for all your prayers. 

First Radiation Treatments and MD Anderson Appointment

Last week on Wednesday and Thursday I had a couple of appointments to get me all set up with Radiation at Texas Oncology. At my first appointment, the radiation oncologist went through the images of my PET scan with me and showed me the cancer spots. I didn't know the cancer was actually in both femurs. I was surprised to find out there is also some in my lungs (just a little). She also showed me the spots in my ribs, right shoulder, vertebrae, a lot in my liver, lymph nodes and left acetabulum (hip area). As far as radiation is concerned, we are going to focus on my left and right femur and left acetabulum. I was hoping to start on Friday afternoon, but they needed a bit more time to prepare the radiation plan. Thus, Monday was my first appointment for radiation treatment.

This is the radiation machine that treats me.

Radiation treatment:

Immediately following the treatment, we drove three hours to the Houston area because I needed to be at MD Anderson at 8am Tuesday morning. Drew's parents were awesome hosts and the kids stayed there with them while we headed to the appointment on Tuesday morning. I was surprised to already be having negative side effects from my radiation treatment when we arrived to their home. As I walked around Drew's parents' house to try to get some steps in, I had intense cramping down in the pelvis area where I had the treatment. I also awoke the next morning feeling that achy flu-like feeling where the body is just exhausted feeling. Perhaps that is just my body getting used to things. Also, I did have treatment and then immediately sat in the car for three hours.

MD Anderson:

The appointment with Dr. Ibrihim at MD Anderson confirmed we are on the right track for treatment. I will be taking Orserdu (alecestrant), beginning Monday and continue the radiation treatment (10 total treatments, every day until finished). He said it is very likely if the radiation treatment zaps all the cancer in the areas it is treating, it won't come back there. The drug, Orserdu, will hopefully work at getting rid of all the other cancer systemically. If not, we will move on to Enhertu (not looking forward to that). We did pursue a possible clinical trial that Dr. Ibrihim had in mind for me that combines Orserdu with another drug, but unfortunately that trial was full.

New Drug:

This afternoon before my radiation appointment, I picked up the new drug that I will be taking. After speaking to the pharmacist at Texas Oncology about it, I am very nervous, to be honest. I would love prayers that I don't struggle with all the side effects she mentioned. She said the first week I could struggle with vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, flu-like symptoms and more (those four are the symptoms I am least looking forward to so that's why I listed those. :-) ). It should get better as my body gets used to the drug. But, to be honest, my body hates drugs, so, again, I would appreciate prayers on my ability to tolerate the drug and low side effects.

Prayer requests:

 Thanks again, prayer warriors! In summary, here are my specific requests:

• That my body can get through this radiation treatment with not too much pain/issues. I am sitting here in pelvic pain as I type this.
• That my body can handle the new drug with minimum to no negative side effects.
• That the radiation, drugs and all the alternative treatments work to eradicate all the cancer. That God would heal me.
• That I can find more time. :-)  Today I was away from home all day from 8am-4:40. Basically sitting in the car, laying down at appointments and waiting in waiting rooms. All the sitting just makes me feel horrible. I need time to spend with my family (my kids are leaving the house at 5p tonight and then I won't see them until 8:30 due to attending youth group and playing in the worship band), homeschool the kids, work on things for the class I teach at our homeschool co-op, edit photos, work on our co-op yearbook, work out, plan healthy meals, go to the grocery store, cook meals, fit in all the treatments, do my landlord duties and find contractors for maintenance issues and schedule those contractors, etc. I know everyone has busy schedules and deals with this every day, it just feels like a lot daily with cancer on top of it. Otherwise, normally I thrive with lots to do.
• Please also pray for my dad. He had another heart attack this past weekend and also is having stroke-like symptoms. In addition, he fell in the middle of the night last night at his independent living facility, where there is no nursing staff on duty. He is in Oklahoma, where there is currently a very bad ice and snow storm, with treacherous roads. So, it is difficult for my siblings to get to him. The ambulance took him to the hospital due to the fall, but then my siblings had to pick him up at 2:30am from the hospital to take him back to his apartment. A lot of decisions need to be made about how to get him the best living situation for his current condition.

I will try to keep everyone updated as things change. I'm guessing I will have another PET scan in 3 months or so. I will begin receiving weekly labwork beginning Monday to hopefully see tumor markers come down as time progresses.

Life Updates

It's been SO long since I last updated this blog. I just saw my last post was in August 2023, when I was on a drug for my cancer called, Kisquali. I believe it was my 2nd line of treatment for Stage IV Metastatic breast cancer. Unfortunately, my most recent allopathic treatment, a chemo pill called Xeloda, seems to be failing and thus I will be moving on to a 5th line of treatment. More on that later.

We now have two teenagers. Abbey turned 13 in January and Luke turned 15 in October. I love these kiddos greatly. They are amazing! Drew is also amazing as always. he works hard at everything he does and is such a huge support and rock in our family.

Luke has been practicing driving since he has his learner's permit. He is also really busy with basketball, taking classes at Austin Community College and our Co-op in addition to homeschooling, and playing piano in the church youth worship band. He is excited to help lead worship at a church in South Austin this upcoming weekend for that church's DNOW (Disciple Now, an awesome event for students).

Abbey has been in many plays and musicals since I last posted. She also has been playing basketball, singing in choir and sometimes in the youth worship band at church. She loves creating--art, music, crafts and more. She continues to enjoy homeschooling--her favorite class is logic (Drew and I often say she would make an excellent attorney some day!) She has been taller than me since this summer; so, I am now the shortest person in our family.

I try to keep things as normal as possible for our family, despite having stage IV cancer. I don't want the kids to look back at our family time together and think mainly about the cancer. I try hard to plan fun adventures and give them lots of interesting experiences to enrich their lives. At times it can be really difficult because I have to be gone a lot to try to squeeze in all the complementary treatments I like to do for the cancer. Honestly, it is at many times overwhelming. For example, ideally, this is what I would do:

Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy: one hour in the chamber at least once per day (it actually is at least an hour an a half process though by the time you get up to pressure and then release the pressure). Ideally I would do this twice per day.

Ozone Insufflation: about 20 minutes per day

Red Light Therapy bed, PEMF, Cryotherapy and Lymphatic Massage at Upgrade labs: Would love to do this at least 3 times weekly. However, it takes about 3 hours each time with driving time. Thus, i can only do it when we I have a solid three hours of time block.

High Dose IV Vitamin C: need about 3 hours of time (including the driving time). Ideally this would happen three times per week.

Daily juicing: 45 minutes-an hour

Exercise: Daily, 30-60 minutes

Daily walks: 30-60 minutes

Infrared Sauna: an hour and 20 minutes, including driving time.

Supplements: Too many to name all throughout the day.

You get the picture. It can be overwhelming trying to do all this, as well as plan and prepare meals, homeschool the kids, take them to ALL the activities and things. All this on top of the most recent drug I was on, Xeloda, making me just feel terrible. Initially, I had so much nausea that I began dropping my supplements, because it was just too hard. I began Xeloda back in June 2024. It also caused the very painful hand and foot syndrome. My church home group began praying for my nausea and it worked! I could now think of food and eat. (Still the thought of taking supplements made me feel super nauseous, so I remained off of all of them.)  My feet then started feeling terrible---blisters, red hot, and peeling. It made it difficult and painful to walk, but I still pushed through and was able to continue walking every day. I visited MD Anderson for a second opinion on things in August 2024. The doctor there specializes in patients with breast cancer that have become treatment resistant. I felt like that was me, since I was already on my 4th line of treatment in just two years since being diagnosed stage IV. He recommended a different drug as my next line of therapy after Xeloda, vs what my local oncologist recommended. I would prefer to move to that drug, vs the Enhertu, which is an IV drug, administered every few weeks (my hair would all fall out and other patients have reported other nasty side effects). So, I would prefer another pill vs moving on to all the IV drugs.  

My October 2024 PET scan showed Xeloda was working overall, which made me very happy. My doctor moved me to a 7 days on the drug, 7 days off the drug schedule (vs two weeks on, one week off). My home group also prayed for my feet. Miraculously, my feet improved drastically. However, now my awful pain was in my hands/fingers.

Fast forward to my most recent PET Scan: January 30, 2025. It wasn't good. I had progression everywhere. My cancer is still in many places in my bones, liver and lymph nodes. However, the new large area in my right upper femur is cause for concern, due to the stabilization it provides to my body. I also have a fairly large area of cancer in my left hip area (which was almost gone on my October PET scan.) And my liver has tons of cancer in it. I have learned things can change very drastically, very quickly. Just on January 8th, my tumor markers showed great improvement and I was feeling pretty well in my bones. Then, on January 22, the markers shot WAY up, higher than they have ever been and the PET scan looked awful. I really pray things can improve that rapidly as well.

So, what's the plan now? My local oncologist wants to do radiation on my right femur and left hip, since they provide much needed stabilization to the body, It is super important those areas improve quickly. In addition, I am awaiting insurance approval to switch to a new drug, Elacestrant. My doctor said it will most definitely cause nausea, so I am not super excited about that. In the meantime, I have an appointment at MD Anderson on Tuesday next week to make sure that doctor still agrees with that plan in light of the recent tumor markers and scans. In addition, I am going to try to add my supplements and off-label drugs back in to help my body in other ways and try to squeeze in as many of those therapies I mentioned above each week. 

How can you pray for me and my family?

• Please pray for the Lord to use the radiation to eliminate the cancer from those two large areas. In addition, please pray for no negative side effects from that.
• Please pray for approval of this drug if the Lord wills. And, if approved, I pray for swift removal of my cancer through it and the other natural treatments I am doing, as well as no terrible side effects. I really need good nutrients in my body and being nauseous makes that difficult.
• Please pray that I can find time to fit all of the helpful healing treatments into my day.
• And ultimately, please pray for healing and removal of all cancer from my body.

I am so thankful for the prayers of all of you who read and pray (and for the family who donates financially as well to the alternative treatments, unasked and regularly, just to encourage those to continue and to relieve some of that burden--even though they have health burdens of their own--continuing to pray for you.) 

When I was regularly blogging and posting my prayer requests back in 2012-2013 when I was diagnosed with Stage 3C breast cancer, I could LITERALLY feel the prayers. I was in such a state of peace and had so much joy. And I saw SOOOOOO many answers to those prayer requests I posted. I have been so out of time, that it has been overwhelming thinking of keeping everyone updated, and feeling like I didn't want to burden others with my requests. But, I have been encouraged by others that I need to post. I apologize for the length of this post (and for possible grammar/typo errors---literally just going to type this without editing and post since I have limited time). Future posts will not be this long---it's just there was a lot of catching up to do.  Thank you, friends!

Where has Summer Gone?

Does anyone else feel like this was the shortest summer ever? It seemed to fly by more quickly than any other. I don't know if this is just a part of getting older, or if it was due to being so busy. But, here we are. I thought it would be a great time to provide some updates here:

Travel: We were honored to be invited to the Leslie's Week retreat with other stage IV breast cancer survivors during the last week of July/first week of August. Our family enjoyed our time in the Smoky Mountains! I was thankful for my healthy body and its ability to hike so many miles with such big elevation gains with no problems at all. To be honest, the part of the retreat where we participated with other stage iv survivor families was tough. Several women seemed to be near the end of their journeys. I was hoping meeting with other survivors would be more hope-filled. But, in fact, it was the opposite for me. I was grateful to be able to escape to the mountains after the first day of the retreat to enjoy God's amazing artistry and creation. The air was fresh, the weather was wonderful, and moving my body felt so great!

Health: The day before our trip and boarding a plane I found out that the new drug my oncologist switched me to (Kisqali) had wiped out my immune system. I am only taking 200mg (normal dose is 600mg daily). So, they asked me to not resume until i got back into town and could get more bloodwork. When i returned, all my blood counts moved to the normal range, except my liver enzymes were highly elevated for the first time ever.  We decided to wait an additional week to let my body recover.  At last week's blood draw, my liver enzymes came down a little bit, but are still elevated. So, we are still keeping an eye on them.

An exciting thing is that I had my blood plasma level tested after my high dose vitamin C infusion last week. I love the clinic I use for these treatments, as they are so open and willing to work with me and my special requests. I had sent a study from the Riordan clinic to the doctor here. The Riordan clinuc is located in Kansas, and they are THE experts in high dose vitamin C in the US. At that clinic, they have discovered ultimate plasma levels for cancer patients to kill the tumors. I asked my local clinic if they had the ability to test my blood plasma level post-IV C. Can you believe they ordered a special testing kit from the Riordan clinic, drew my blood, and froze it and shipped it to the Riordan clinic overnight? Now I know that the level of vitamin C I am getting is the right amount--I don't need to increase the amount beyond the 50g I am getting. However, it would be ideal for me to try to get the infusions 2-3 times weekly. I am supplementing with high dose liposomal vitamin C on my off days from IV C to keep my plasma levels as high as possible. Anyway, I was so excited to get these results, as we were always guessing on what amount of IV C was the right amount for me. I tried to bump it up to 75g from 50g but my body just couldn't tolerate it. Now I know why. 

Some other great news is that my cancer markers are going down. At my previous testing in June, my markers were higher than they have ever been: both CA15-3 and CA 27-29 were in the 100s. At my last Draw of the markers on August 8, they had shot down to 65.5 and 82, respectively. So, all exciting news! I actually still feel great, still am juicing daily and getting in good workouts every morning and 2 mile walks in the evenings. In addition, I am taking a ton of supplements and naltrexone.

We thank everyone for your continued prayers and support through this journey. 

Summer Fun

I can't believe how quickly this summer has flown by. We are nearly into August, which means all of our regular activities will be starting back up soon.  Abbey attended a fun camp last week at a local church, which culminated in a musical, in which she was one of the many actors. She had a blast of course! 

She is at pre-teen camp this week through our church, and from the photos it looks like she is having an amazing time there as well.  She and a friend were so cute--they planned matching outfits and hairstyles for each day of camp.  

One of the sponsors at camp sent me this photo.

A couple of weeks ago Luke attended an architecture camp at the University of Texas and he really enjoyed it.

Health updates:

For the past month I have been on two new drugs and a lot of new supplements. The two drugs are through my oncologist.  She swapped out Verzenio for Kisqali (ribociclib) and exemestane (aromatase inhibitor) for fulvestrant. The fulvestrant is just annoying. I have been going in every two weeks for injections in my buttocks for the fulvestrant. It is EXTREMELY painful and it takes two nurses. The needles are so long and thick and the liquid is also very thick. One nurse gets on each buttock and injects the medication slowly over about a minute. When they finish, my legs don't want to walk and my butt hurts and has knots on it for about a week.  But, I guess the bright side is that I don't have to take another pill every day. I am tolerating the Kisqali pretty well, although I am only taking one out of the three pills per day. Even at that amount though, my white blood count and neutrophil count is just tanked. So, I have to be careful and not be around anyone who is ill.

In addition to the allopathic medicine, I am taking a number of supplements. I had an amazing visit with the functional medicine doctor at the clinic that I go to to get my weekly high dose vitamin C infusions. We reviewed the results of some testing that I did through the clinic. The test is called Nutreval through Genova. I discovered so many deficiencies in my body. I'm guessing the cancer in body has required it to need additional nutrients. My detoxification pathways are not working well, and it was cool to see how certain missing nutrients/minerals could break down the entire cycle. The crazy thing is one of the things I was low in was vitamin A--and that is probably the nutrient I intake most out of all of them, with my daily juicing of carrots and eating so many sweet potatoes, etc. But, my body wasn't able to use those nutrients with the deficiencies in other areas. So, we have added a few supplements and taken some away and hopefully this will correct the issues. I am also slowly trying to increase my weekly high dose vitamin C dosage. The clinic ordered a test for me that I will hopefully be able to take at my next appointment--this test will assess whether the dose of vitamin C I am getting at the clinic is raising my plasma vitamin C enough to be effective at killing the cancer. Maybe in my next post, I will share my supplement regimen...it is a lot!

We are excited we were selected to be one of 28 families out of 300-350 nominees to attend the Leslie's Week retreat at the Dollywood DreamMore Resort in Pigeon Forge, TN. It is a special retreat for Stage IV metastatic breast cancer survivors and their family. Our hotel at the resort is completely paid for and they are even gifting us tickets to Dollywood. We are so excited, as we have wanted to bring our family to the smokey mountains for vacation for a while now. We are excited to explore! I will try to post some photos when we get back home.

Thanks everyone for your continued prayers! I am praying that God uses all these treatment modalities to completely heal my body....not just of the cancer, but healing my immune system so that it works well from now on!

June Updates

 I can't believe we are already in the month of June, and already one year into my stage IV cancer diagnosis. It's been a very busy time for us lately. We've wrapped up school-year activities (including an overnight stay at Moody Gardens Aquarium for Science and an overnight stay in San Antonio to see the Alamo and other fun sites for our history co-op), the kids had their spring piano recitals, Abbey had a surgery to remove two rods from her right arm, Abbey was "Dorothy" in the play "Dorothy in Wonderland" and performed in a musical at church, Luke finished up a spring basketball season, we celebrated my Mother-In-Law's birthday in the Houston area, we all finished up VBS at church, Luke went to CG Victory camp and then off to Church youth camp for a week, while Abbey attended a day camp here locally and Drew went to California. Last year at this time, it was during VBS at church, our wedding anniversary and CG Victory that I was going through testing and found out my cancer was Stage IV. So, going through these activities again this year definitely stirred up some painful memories. But, I am also celebrating a year of good health. I know that sounds strange considering my diagnosis, but I really do feel very well. And, I know back when I was first diagnosed with stage 3c breast cancer in 2012, many of my friends who had similar diagnoses as me moved to stage IV and then their health declined very quickly (several of them passing just after a year or so). My heart was broken for these young women and their young families, and I definitely do not take for granted my health for these past 11 years!! Before I jump into my PET scan results, here are just a few snapshots of the past month or so...

Abbey starred as "Dorothy" in "Dorothy in Wonderland"

Piano recital

Abbey helped lead worship at VBS

Luke and his buddies that helped with recreation for kids at VBS

Luke demonstrating the obstacle course for the kids at VBS

Abbey participating at VBS with her group

more VBS

Drew, taking a picture of me, taking pictures at VBS. We were part of the media team.

Luke at CG Victory

Celebrating Mimi's birthday--sock hop style

searching for crabs at our overnight in Galveston for science group

Abbey and I played at the museum of Illusions one night while Drew and Luke were gone last week.

I spent our 15th wedding anniversary getting a PET scan, while Drew was in California. Not the best way to spend the day, but honestly, we aren't big on celebrating specific dates. Any day we get to spend together is a great day and I am so thankful to be married to my best friend. I am praying for many, many years to come!!

This morning, I had a follow up with my oncologist, who revealed the results of my PET scan to Drew and me. My PET scan showed increased uptake in my bones (Left L2 vertebra, left L4 (this one showed an increase in SUV max from 2.7 previously to 9.1 now,) superior left acetabulum (hip) and mid sacrum.) I didn't see any mention of ribs, which WERE mentioned a year ago, so that's good. 

I also had an increase in uptake in my lymph nodes (4 of them showed uptake, whereas I believe there were more in my PET scan a year ago) and my liver showed two areas increase slightly in uptake and one decrease. 

The oncologist's opinion was considering it has been a year, it is fairly stable (aside from my l4 vertebrae) but heading in the wrong direction. So, she wants to switch some things up and I will research those things over the next couple of weeks while we are awaiting insurance approval. (She wants to switch from the aromatase inhibitor I have been on to a different estrogen receptor antagonist, Fulvestrant, and a different targeted therapy, the CDK4/6 inhibitor Kisqali.) In the meantime, I have been doing testing with a functional medicine doctor and I am hoping to find those results out within a couple of weeks. I am trying to figure out what is going on with my immune system. 

What is crazy is I feel great! I would never know I had cancer had I not gotten these PET scans. I know probably diet and exercise help me feel so well and have so much energy to Go, Go, Go! The only thing I have noticed is a little more back pain (I always have back pain, it's just gotten a little worse. But, I think I am fairly immune to the back pain since I have had it for so many years due to my scoliosis.)

Anyway, we would love your continued prayers! I know with stage IV cancer, things can change for the worst in an instant. But, I keep telling myself, "I am healthy, I am healing, I am well!!" Thank you Jesus! This is how, specifically, we would love prayers.

• That we can figure out how to get my body in tip-top shape so it can fight the cancer itself (with specific natural healing modalities, supplements, foods, etc. This is why I am getting testing with a functional medicine doctor.)
• That we can make the right decision in whether to increase high dose Vitamin C infusions, keep it the same or drop it. It is so hard to know if they are helping. If I stop them, and see an increase in my cancer, perhaps they work? But, that is risky. Perhaps they are keeping me somewhat stable? I need wisdom here, because they are EXPENSIVE!
• That my cancer just goes away! I do believe in miraculous healing. 

Thank you for reading!

March 2023 Life and Cancer Updates

Life in 2023 has been a bit hectic thus far, but it is all looking up from here!   We've had lots of basketball tournaments (a few out of town). At the end of January, my cancer markers were looking great and my circulating tumor DNA number (Signatera test) had dropped significantly (at the end of October it was 1.59, and at the end of January, it was .69). Then, many stressful events occurred. At our district basketball tournament in Mansfield, TX at the end of January, Abbey was swung to the floor at a basketball game by an opposing team player and rushed to the hospital with a compound fracture. Both her radius and ulna were broken in her right arm and one of the bones came right through her skin. It was rough and she underwent surgery where two rods were placed in those bones to hold them together. I felt so badly for my sweet girl. I hadn't gotten any sleep in the hotel the previous night, and now, I lost another night of sleep caring for our sweet girl on (making sure she didn't roll onto her right arm while sleeping).

We got back early on Sunday morning, and I managed to get a little sleep Sunday night and Monday night. Then, my dad came to visit on Tuesday. We had been looking forward to his visit, but only got a little time of fun with him until Tuesday night, when a terrible ice storm came to our town and we lost power (cue more nights of no sleep).  We lost power for days and had a lot of destruction at our home. We lost trees, massive tree limbs on our gorgeous live oak trees and several massive limbs even fell on our home in five places, damaging the roof and gutters. We also had limbs fall on other things all around our house, causing a lot of destruction. Our friends and neighbors were so kind to offer us a place to stay with them since they had warmth and power (this was especially important since my dad was there visiting). I say all of this only to explain the battle I have had with the lack of sleep and stress lately. With all that, some of my healing modalities couldn't happen. So, needless to say, I was not surprised at my next blood draw to see how my tumor markers came flying back up (not good). You may recall that in December, my PET scan showed remarkable improvement. In fact, many of the cancer tumors were completely gone and the ones that remained were greatly reduced. Things were headed in the right direction. Since things were improving, I decided to test some changes I had made previously to see if they were necessary. With Christmas, I added occasional sweet treats. In addition, I added more occasional meat to my diet. Honestly, every time I did though, I regretted it, as I didn't feel well after. I have learned that meat doesn't make me feel well. Everyone is different, but it is better for me to have very high quality fish or chicken occasionally only. Red meat in general is no good for me. The other problem with meat, is that when I do, I eat less vegetables (nutrient dense foods that my body craves). I also had higher glycemic index foods on occasion. 

 

We tried to take care of the massive amounts limbs that fell around our house and property ourselves, but they were just too numerous. We finally caved and, after getting the most reasonable quote we had seen, paid a company to help us clear all the limbs. Although our front yard looks so much different (not in a good way, due to losing a huge canopy of live oaks that we previously had), having all the branches cleared to where we could actually see our home lifted a very heavy burden. 

Anyway, fast forward to Monday, March 13, where I had my 3 month follow up PET scan. I was at peace during the scan due to all the prayers going up on my behalf. I received the results on Thursday by phone, along with the request that my oncologist wanted to meet with me the following day. Anytime your oncologist wants to meet with you as soon as they receive your scan results, it is not because they are good results. My results showed progression of the cancer in my bones and lymph nodes (from the previous scan), but my liver tumors are stable. It definitely wasn't the response I was hoping for, but with the stress and lack of sleep I had over the past couple of months, I definitely wasn't surprised. I experienced changes in eating, my healing modalities and exercise, sleep and stress and I am hoping that by going back to the strict lifestyle I had during the first 6 months of treatment, and with prayers, my cancer will go away. I am also working hard on making sure I deal with stress the right way. Stress kills, y'all. I think my labwork clearly shows how important sleep and stress reduction is.

After speaking to my doctor about other treatment options she was considering, we agreed to stick to the current course for another month and see what happens to my circulating tumor DNA. At my last ctDNA test at the end of February, we noticed it was back up to 1.47, from .69 (it was 1.59 at the end of October). 

 

 

Typically, you will see changes in that prior to seeing changes in diagnostic testing. Considering the PET scan seemed to line up with this increase in ctDNA (my Signatera test results), it seems like a pretty good indicator to my treatment response. A blood draw is much easier than a PET scan. So, I will get weekly blood draws (my ctDNA every two weeks) and in a month, I will meet with my oncologist to see if things are working and what our continued plan is. I will schedule another PET scan in 3 months, in June (which will be one year from my initial scan.)

 

So my plan is to go hard core on all my healing modalities, diet, exercise, stress reduction, prayer and meditation, deep breathing and more! I would love your prayers---prayers that God leads me to what I can physically do to help heal this cancer and bring my body to a low inflammation and healing state permanently.  I want this cancer gone--and gone for good! I would love for your prayers of complete healing of my body so that I may enjoy many, many years with my family.  Thanks for your continued prayers!