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!