Just Go Fam: September 2022

I get weekly bloodwork at my oncologist office to monitor my body since I am on the drug, Verzenio. That drug can cause a number of issues, including a decrease in important blood counts and impairment of the kidneys and liver. So the bloodwork shows me how my body is doing with it, as well as if my white counts are too low to be around other people safely. Once per month during my bloodwork my oncologist checks my CA 15-3 marker and my CA 27-29 marker.

Cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3) is a protein made by a variety of cells, particularly breast cancer cells. The protein moves into the blood, where it can be measured. CA15-3 levels are higher than normal in most women with breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body (like mine). The CA 27-29 marker, like CA 15-3, is used to follow the course of treatment in women with metastatic breast cancer. Like the CA-15-3 marker, generally, the higher the CA 27-29 level, the more advanced the breast cancer or larger the tumor burden. We want both of these marker numbers to come down, which likely would mean my tumor burden is going down. You may recall that last month my CA 15-3 went from to 88.1 to 87.6 and my CA 27-29 went from 97.9 to 94. I've read that sometimes when you start treatment, your markers even may rise a bit. Also, my oncologist expects my markers to come down slowly, since my cancer has a slower proliferation rate. Well, I was ECSTATIC to discover both markers came down even more this month! My CA 15-3 went down from 87.6 to 69.9! My CA 27-29 went from 94 to 81.6 I still have quite a ways to go to be in the normal range, but I was on cloud nine this weekend with joy over these numbers!! To God be the Glory, GREAT things He has done! In the charts below you can see the monthly numbers since June (since stage IV metastatic cancer was discovered), as well as the first blood draw I had back in 2012 when I first was diagnosed with cancer (stage 3c).

Other than that, it looks my platelet count took a bit of a dive, which is probably due to taking Verzenio (although I am on the very lowest dose possible of that drug). In addition, they told me to be careful and not to be around anyone sick due to my neutrophil count being low (although, last week it wasn't as low as the previous week.)

I am trying to keep cancer in the very back of my mind--I really don't want to think about it and just want to go about normal life. Going to the oncologist office each week and taking all the supplements, treatments and the two drugs also serves as a daily reminder unfortunately. But, we have a lot of normal life happening most days that makes it pretty easy to forget about the cancer. I try to tell myself as often as I remember that, "I am healed and I am well!"

In April 2020 we had a BIG trip planned that got cancelled due to Covid. We re-booked it for October of 2020 hoping that we would be able to go, but it got cancelled AGAIN! We have been waiting until restrictions let up where we were planning to go before we booked again. Well, the third time is hopefully the charm and we are planning to go again next month. We are praying that there are absolutely no issues this time with the trip and we can have some good family time there together. In addition, there is so much education for the kids that is happening leading up to this trip and I know that will happen on the trip. We are SO looking forward to it.

We continue to desire your prayers. We've seen God continue to answer our prayers. Thank you for continuing to be our prayer partners.

Please pray that my cancer goes away for good.
Please pray that my body handles the treatments and supplements well. Last week I got pretty sick during my high dose vitamin C infusion, so I hope that was a one time thing. Please pray that all my blood counts normalize--especially as flu season is upon us.
Please pray that all the details get worked out with our upcoming trip and there are absolutely no issues getting there or getting around there. We would love to have this normal time as a family to completely get away and enjoy each other without issues and without having to deal with cancer stuff, even if for just a bit. Also, we would love prayers that we can find someone to watch our sweet little precious dog Minnie while we are gone. She is so little and loves her cuddles, so we really don't want to leave her somewhere where she is in a kennel all day or is around a lot of big dogs.

I'll end this post with a few recent photos from our "normal life".