My trial of 150 mg Verzenio

First off, if you are a Believer I ask that after you read this post, please say a quick prayer for me. I believe in the power of prayer and am so thankful for those who are praying for me. It means a lot!

What a week! I feel like this cancer thing has almost become a full time job. Between all the natural treatments, blood work, appointments, research, phone calls to doctors, potential treatment facilities, emails and more, it takes up so much of my day!! I have been trying to do some of my phone calls and research outside in the sun by our pool. It's so therapeutic! All throughout the day I'm still drinking my juices that Drew makes for me in the morning. I feel like those are helping me so much.

I feel like I am eating okay, although I definitely admit I should consume a lot more calories. Cancer itself uses a lot of energy and my metabolism at rest is increased due to the increased inflammation caused by my immune system fighting. So I definitely need more calories. I'm just trying to figure out how to get those calories. This morning I weighed 94.8 lbs. I really don't want to lose any more weight. 

As far as conventional medicine, you may recall my oncologist wanted this first line of treatment to be the combination of exemestane (aromatase inhibitor) and Verzenio (CDK inhibitor). You may also recall back in 2012-2013, my body didn't handle medicine (and chemo) well. In fact, we had to stop early, not even completing their regimen, due to my immune system tanking. In hindsight, I believe it was a good thing to stop. I honestly wish I had taken a completely natural approach to cancer treatment at the beginning. But, in 2012 I didn't know what I know now. After all, it was my first time to go through something like that I never had cancer on my radar at such a young age. However, I also have to trust God's orchestration in all of it, because I did feel led at the time to do what we did, which ended up being a combination of allopathic medicine, with natural integrative approaches as I learned along the way. My regret for not going all natural has to do with the lifelong effects of that treatment that I still suffer with today, almost 10 years later. I just feel like it wasn't good for MY body. Anyway, all that just to say I was very concerned about taking the Verzenio from the start. I know my body very well and better than anyone else and I should have trusted my gut, which I also believe is often the Holy Spirit's guidance. This time, Drew had the same feeling about Verzenio as me--so it was probably definitely the Holy Spirit nudging us. The medication comes in 50mg, 100, mg, 150 mg and 200mg doses. The dosage for me was going to 2 pills of the 150 mg dose each day. To ease me into things, she was having me do one pill only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Last week was my first week. I decided to take the dose at night. So, on Monday night I took the dose. Not long after I became extremely nauseous and pretty much didn't sleep that night, as I awoke every hour feeling like I was going to vomit. The effect lasted a full 12 hours. I was so thankful when the effects went away and I started to feel more normal. I knew my next dose wasn't until Wednesday night, so I had a break and was able to get some sleep on Tuesday night. I just couldn't imagine following up with another dose when I awoke on Tuesday morning! On Wednesday I took my next dose (a little earlier in the evening, around 8:45p) and didn't even sleep a wink all night, although the nausea was not as bad. It was complete misery though. I suspect somehow the drug counteracts the effect of Melatonin on my body: if that is the case though, it would not be good as Melatonin has antiestrogenic and antioxidant properties and studies indicate it is recommended as a supplement for breast cancer (and other cancers) for that reason.  I really need my sleep so my immune system can fight the cancer.  On Friday morning I had blood work.  I waited there for the results of at least the CBC part, so I would know where I stood before taking my next dose that evening.  After all, we are doing the bloodwork weekly because of the Verzenio.  It can cause some nasty side effects to Kidney function, liver function and immune system for some people.  Y'all-it made my immune system tank!  And that was just from two doses spread apart.  Just for perspective, if it was 2012 when I was receiving chemo, they wouldn't have even given me chemo due to my weak immune system.  My white blood count was low, my LY% high, my neutrophil count was low, and my platelets low. I haven't received the Kidney and Liver function results yet.  But, based on those numbers the oncologist said she is going to lower the dose to 100 mg.  Still, I don't know how I would be able to two of the 100 mg doses per day since one 150 mg pill/day on only two days caused those negative effects.  The prescription won't be filled until Monday, and we have some time to pray about it more. 

In the meantime, I found one local MD who will run the onconomics RGCC test on my blood.  I have researched and absolutely love her approach.  You can see her story here.  At her naturopathic clinic I can also get many of the treatments I am wanting, like IV Ozone, high dose IV vitamin C (which I actually have already been getting elsewhere) IV Curcumin, and various testing.  I found a great place to get Infrared Sauna treatments.  In fact, I had one this morning and it was amazing!!! I am really looking forward to my next session. I will do another post at some point when I have more time about why I want to do certain treatments and how they are beneficial for my cancer eradication. I am still considering some alternative treatment facilities as well, but seeing what I can do locally in the meantime.

Abbey watching the fireworks on the 4th with friends at Dell Diamond.  They were amazing fireworks!

On a very happy side note, we had such a wonderful 4th of July weekend at home.  Also, Drew and I had a double date last weekend!  Some good friends of ours suggested that we go grab some dinner while our kids, who are all old enough, responsible and the same age stay home and play some board games and watch a movie.  It was amazing and life giving.  What a wonderful distraction from everything going on--I felt so amazing after.  And our children had a blast as well.  Thanks for suggesting that Christy and inviting us!

Prayer Requests for this week:

1.  That the Lord continues to make the perfect treatment plan path for me known.  

2.  That I am completely healed from this cancer.

3.  That I can get good sleep and feel physically well so I can wake early and workout.

4.  That I can figure out how to consume more food (the food that is good for cancer fighting).  I don't want to lose any more weight.

Thanks so much prayer warriors!  You are so greatly appreciated and loved!!!

Weekly Update on Heather's Cancer Journey

Good afternoon friends and family!  I started the day with a nice long walk on the trail behind our house, listening the entire time to God's word and praying.  For those of you going through something similar, I highly recommend immersing yourself in God's word.  While I walked I listened to this video: https://youtu.be/0gQILVCBH8k. It's basically just tons of healing scriptures read by John Hagee. I've also listened to these from "Soakstream" over the past couple of weeks, but honestly the guy's voice eventually starts to put me to sleep: https://youtu.be/Ig6EZ3P1vz4.  So many verses stood out this morning on my walk.  The first is in Proverbs 3.  Starting in verse 5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."  Most Christians know this verse and have it hidden in their hearts. But, the verses following those really got my attention this morning. Verses 7-8 say, "Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones."  

How I'm feeling:

My bones have been really aching lately.  So, of course, that verse got my attention (more on God's word in a bit). It's strange to me that before my PET scan, I didn't necessarily feel many of the cancerous areas on my bones.  But, since then, my bones have been aching randomly in the cancerous areas.  Not all at once, but I will have pain in my sacrum, and then sharp pain in my hip....then later random rib pain.  It feels like a toothache if you have ever had one of those---that deep throbbing awful pain.  But, it usually doesn't last long.  It comes and goes.  I'm on probably too many Facebook groups related to my cancer and natural healing, trying to gather data from enough people to figure out what is working for them, as well as get others' experience of the drugs I am going to be on.  One thing I have read is that when cancer is "dying off" you can get die off pains.  I really pray that is what the pains are.  Unfortunately, it sounds like you can feel those same pains when the cancer is growing.  But, the good news is I see a lot of people talking about die off pain.  It's interesting that I wasn't having this pain in all these areas before (just mainly had the pains in my legs, which is the area I didn't even get scanned.)  So, these pains have been occurring since I have been on exemestane (the aromatase inhibitor), having a ton of people pray for me and have been adding new supplements, juicing and eating plant based.  By eating plant-based, I'm removing a ton of inflammatory foods.  Many of you know that back in 2012-2013 our family changed the way we ate, eliminating sugar and eating just real food (organic--and when eating meat we eat organic, pasture raised or if beef, grass-fed. If you look through old blog posts from 2013, you can read a lot about that journey.) Over the past year prior to my recent diagnosis, we ate more "treats" out, we ate out more in general, I started eating less and less veggies (although still a very healthy diet) and overall my diet was probably more inflammatory.  And sometimes, I just didn't eat enough because I just got in a rut and didn't feel like eating (hello, cancer).  I'm praying these changes to which God has directed me will help heal my body. I believe God alone can heal me through the prayers and total faith and belief in His healing, but I also believe that we should take the very best care of these bodies God has created--and if He reveals something to us that we should be doing to take the very best care of our bodies, then we should do it.

Other than the awful bone pain, my energy level has been great!  Working out in the morning helps.  I've been eating more---and everything I am eating is super nutritious.  Drew is so awesome and really is the best husband ever!  He spends time in the morning making my juices for the day.  Right now the juice includes a TON of carrots, a green apple, ginger root, turmeric root, cabbage, romaine, and sometimes other greens like escarole, or chard.  Sometimes for lunch I will eat a smoothie that has a tons of greens in it, as well as some berries.  So I feel like the nutrition I am getting is definitely helping my energy level.  Also, in my post last weekend I mentioned that my weight was dropping daily.  I was hovering at 95/96 in the mornings.  Well, I am happy to announce that at the beginning of the week my weight started creeping up slightly and I am no longer on the downward trend but holding pretty steady.

What am I doing for Treatment?

From the conventional side of things, I am still planning on trying my Oncologist's plan of the aromatase inhibitor plus the CDK inhibitor (brand Verzenio).  I have actually been taking the aromatase inhibitor since mid June. Although, I will say that having the meeting with the oncology pharmacist this week scared me quite a bit about Verzenio.  For example, she said I have to use gloves when I take it so I don't get it on my skin and then transfer it to someone else (since it can be absorbed through the skin).  Also, I can't be in crowds and I can't be around anyone who is sick.  I will be getting weekly bloodwork to make sure my kidneys and liver are doing okay on it and that my white blood cell counts and red blood cell counts are still okay.  Basically, it seems this drug can potentially harm every part of my body and immune system.  And I definitely need these things to fight the cancer. Oh, and they also gave me a ton of anti-diarrhea medications when they handed me the prescription.  Thankfully, the doctor is easing me into it by doing half the dose and only three days this first week.  But still, Drew and I have reservations about it and will continue to pray that God direct us to the right treatment.  Drew's work offers an awesome benefit, which provides getting a second opinion at no cost to us.  So, I have started the work to do that as well since it is of no cost to us.  It never hurts to have several options.  Also, I have appointments next week with Naturopathic doctors.  A big difference in these docs and your traditional docs is that my traditional doc is trying to just get the cancer to be stable or go away to below detection levels.  She doesn't care what I eat or drink and is not even trying to figure out what may have caused the cancer.  There is no medication that kills cancer stem cells in the traditional oncology world (did you know there are proven natural substances that actually kill cancer stem cells see here, here, and here for example.  The trick for me is figuring out proper amounts/dosages).  A naturopathic doctor will try to discover the what may be going on in my body to cause inflammation.  I imagine we will be doing testing for fungal infections, viruses, bacterial and parasitic infections and taking meds/supplements to rid my body of those.  How can my immune system focus on ridding my body of cancer cells if it is tied up dealing with any of those things I just listed?  In addition, I am trying to find a naturopath (I found several) that can do a RGCC (the greek test) on my blood. Their onconomics test will expose my blood sample to cancer treatments and natural therapies, recording how effective they are at targeting cancer cells.  This will show me the therapies that have the greatest chance at killing the cancer.  Based on my extensive research this week (I seriously feel like I am cramming for very important test), I have come up with a list of important supplements, I have figured out my diet plan moving forward, as well as some natural therapies I want to include (Ozone therapy, infrared sauna and hyperthermia, and IV infusions).  I have been trying to decide whether I can do these things locally or will need to go somewhere for a few weeks to get an intensive treatment.  I will have to post details about all this in a later post.  Just know I have been in contact with a countless number of these types of natural treatment facilities and am even still waiting on one to review all of my reports and give me a recommendation of treatment.

How is the rest of the family doing?

This week we managed to squeeze in some fun family time, playing Mini Golf together, playing games, going on our normal evening walks, having some family swim time, having some friend time swimming, playing and going to the water park.  Although the news was hard, we are going to try to keep things as normal as possible.  This means we are still planning on homeschooling, doing our normal homeschool groups and co-ops, church, fun events, etc.  I pray that if I start this new medication, I do not have any negative side effects.  If my immune system gets too low, I imagine it may limit our ability to do certain things since I can't be around germs and risk getting sick.

Abbey at Monster Mini Golf this week.

The last hole at Monster Mini Golf

At Typhoon Texas on Friday

And here is one second from every day in June in our house...

Prayer requests for this week:

• Please pray that God will guide us in treatment decisions--where to go and what to do
• Please pray that I will have NO side effects from Verzenio.  
• Please continue to pray and BELIEVE in complete healing and eradication of all the cancer (and circulating cancer stem cells) in my body

 

Some other verses the Lord highlighted to me during my morning walk:

Mark 9:23: Jesus said unto them, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes."

Psalm 118:8: It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

Matthew 13:58: And He did not many great works there because of their unbelief

And especially this one:

Psalm 118:17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and I will proclaim what the Lord has done!