A few facts

First of all, thanks Jessica for keeping the blog updated.  I just wanted to write a quick post, mainly to keep my brother out of state informed on how our Mom is doing, but also so other people that love and care about her will know.

Mom continues to look great and for the most part I think she does great.  That being said, she has had some really really hard days. 

She/we still have a lot of unanswered questions.  First of all, the type of cancer she has, less than 1% of breast cancer patients have this form of cancer.  Second of all, most cancer patients can see their progress with a cancer marker test.  This doesn’t work for mom.  Her cancer marker tests don’t show anything so she has to go by cat scans and bone scans.

As you know she recently finished her three months of chemo.  I’m so proud of how well she did with this and how she maintained such a positive attitude.  At the end of her chemo she had both a cat scan and a bone scan to see how well her body responded to the chemo.  The results although not completely negative were not near what we had hoped for.  The cancer spots in her lungs and lymph nodes are smaller (huge blessing - I don’t mean to sound ungrateful), however the cancer in her bones has continued to spread… quite a bit.  According to her Dr. you don’t usually see the cancer increasing in some areas yet decreasing in others.

Good and bad news, a few days later her Dr. looked at her before and after scans and informed her that although the cancer had spread to more of her bones it wasn’t as much as they had thought because she actually had cancer in those areas before.  This is where it gets frustrating.  It’s good that the cancer hasn’t spread as much as they had initially thought, but why didn’t she know that she had cancer in those areas?  Who looked at her scans?  Was the Dr. just going off some report or did he actually miss this?  Mom has had so many people ask her why she isn’t at the Huntsman or why she doesn’t get a second opinion.  I myself have always trusted that she (and my Dad) would make the right decision, and I think she has.  I know that my Mom spends a lot of time contemplating her current situation and I know that she will have the guidance she needs to make the decisions she needs to. 

For those of us that love her and hate watching her go through such a hard thing, it sounds good to think that there is a Dr. that has all the answers or that someone else knows more, but the truth is, there is no cure for cancer.  The reason this all seems like an experiment is because IT IS.  Thankfully with modern technology some people are able to control their cancer or eliminate it all together, but like I mentioned above, Mom’s cancer is extremely rare.  Not one of us actually understands how Mom feels, but I can only assume that the more Dr.s involved, the more overwhelming it would be.  I can’t speak for her, but more doctors mean more opinions, more tests, more “let’s try this”.  I pray for Mom’s Dr. every day that he will have the guidance and the right answers for HER body. 

They have decided to keep her chemo schedule the same.  She will have chemo every Tuesday for three weeks then have one week off.  She will continue this schedule for three months and I believe have more scans at that time.  They will give her two drugs this time instead of just one (one that takes 3 hours to receive) and the drugs will be stronger.  We can only assume that the side effects will be horrible so please keep her in mind and know that she may need you now more than ever.  Mom has mentioned numerous times how thankful she was for the gifts she received on her chemo days.  Most, if not all of them brought tears to her eyes.  Also, for the cards, dinners, phone calls, etc. 

Some people have mentioned that they want to go see her, but wondered when a good time would be.  I really can’t answer that, but I do know that if you are feeling like you should go see her, you should.  I have no idea how she will feel with this new treatment, but just call her and if you feel like you should, just stop by. 

I feel confident that she will have better results with this second type of chemo.  And Mom, you continue to amaze me!