This is Amy's husband Jesse..

It saddens me to say that Amy lost her battle with Metastatic Breast Cancer on June 13, 2015 at 11:24 AM.

If you would like to donate to our family please go to the following link. Any donation would be greatly appreciated.

Amy's Cancer Fund

Thank you

LBBC Conference and Chemo

I went to the Living Beyond Breast Cancer Conference in Philadelphia, PA this weekend.  There were a few good speakers, some interesting vendors, and some interesting new metsters (people with metastatic breast cancer) to meet.  I was worried about handling the flight, but managed it without too much trouble.

Today, I had like my 4th or 5th Halavan chemo treatment.  It started out with me getting sick, but they quickly got that under control and the rest of it went smoothly.  I now have to get a pre-liver panel done and three post neupogen shots(for low white blood cells).   Hopefully this stuff is working.

The also increased my pain meds to three Oxycotin doses a day and told me to take the liquid morphine when I got to level 5 pain instead of 8.   This is is in an effort to better control my stomach pain.

Long Awaited Blog Entry

Ok, here is your long awaited and highly requested blog entry.  This month I had my Y90 mapping and infusion done.  This is the process where they plant little gelatin capsules full of radiation into my liver via a blood vessel in my leg.  It is a highly targeted radiation and mainly only damages tumor material and leaves the good liver material in tact.  This was finished up last Monday and I was supposed to have a week of "real bad flu like systems".   I can't say I ever had those, but I definitely felt pretty out of it and had some serious issues with my stomach and eating.  I lost about 20 lbs over the past few weeks.   I'm just now getting back to where I can somewhat normal again.

I also, over the past few weeks started a new chemo called, Halovan.  My first round was a bit too strong and wiped out my entire immune system.  I had to go get 4 days worth of Neupogen shots to boost it back up last time.  At the same time, Jesse was busy bringing in a bad "sinus infection/bronchitis like thing" for me to get.  Thanks for the prayers, I managed to dodge this somehow and never got sick!  No way I dodged that without them! Besides the immune system dropping out on me, I had very few noticeable side effects from the chemo.  It seemed to only effect immune system and give me some mouth sores.

I had to go to to the ER this weekend due to stomach pain.  They had to break down and give me some liquid morphine and experiment a little with my Oxycontin to see what would help.   We found doubling it makes me a zombie, and are currently just using the morphine for break through pain.

I had my second chemo round today, hopefully I won't have too many side effects.

Decisions

Big decisions to be made this week.  I have an appointment with my local oncologist on Wednesday and one at MD Anderson on Thursday. I'm hoping to get some recommendations so I can come home and make some decisions.

I'm actually ready to be back on treatment because it's always pretty painful being off of it. The last few days I've been dealing with some pretty serious pain in my tailbone.

Liver Biopsy

I just realized I haven't updated my blog in quite a while and thought that maybe I should.  A lot has happened since the last entry.  The scans came back showing progression in the liver and ovaries.

After a discussion with my local oncologist, we agreed that a liver biopsy was the next best course of action.  The liver has been unresponsive to all treatments this year, leading us to believe that the receptor status may have changed.  A liver biopsy will confirm receptor status and also check for some other subtypes that may qualify me for some new clinical trials.

The biopsy is scheduled for Thursday this week.  I spoke to them and it sounds rather straight forward and simple.  They will simple make a small incision, and do a core biopsy using a small cylindrical tube about the size of a pen.  The tissue obtained will be tested for ER, PR, HER2, Androgen, FGFR, and GPNMB.  There are several trials the local oncologist has that I may qualify for after the biopsy results are in.

I also plan to make a trip down to MD Anderson to get a second opinion on treatment options at this point.  This is sort of a critical point, because if I choose to do a treatment involving chemo, I'll be on my 3rd chemo.  Many trials will not take you if you have had more than 3 types of chemo.

Preparing for scan results

I'm sitting here trying to mentally prepare myself for the phone call I have to make tomorrow.  I had scans done last Wednesday and still haven't received a phone call with the results.  My Scanxiety is at it's peak tonight.  I'm hoping that the results are good again so I can continue on this trial.  It really gets hard sometimes to come up with the courage to deal with things some days.  Prayers welcome.

Chemo #11 complete

I completed my 11th round of chemo today.  I had my day changed to Tuesday on the weeks I don't have to see the doctor.  Mondays have become rather busy and what should take a couple of hours was becoming an all day ordeal.  The change turned out to be a good one and we were in and out in a much more reasonable amount of time today.  I took my step mother, Christine, with me and enjoyed catching up with her during treatment.  I've only been home a few hours, but other than being a little tired, I'm feeling well.

Thursday, I'm flying out to DC for the advocacy project lead training.  I'm sure I mentioned previously.  I'm looking forward to it, but a little nervous about going alone.  Once I get there, I have an assigned roommate who is going to be in the same program.  I haven't met her yet, but think it will be nice to meet another like minded person who wants to make things better for those who have this crappy disease.  Christine Benjamin, from SHARE where I'll be volunteering soon as a helpline person, will be there also, along with some others from her organization.

Sunday, I'll be returning to DFW around 5ish and driving down to Houston so we can get on our cruise.  The cruise leaves Monday morning out of Galveston.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Scans to see how the trial and chemo are working are not going to be required until January.  I'm relieved and annoyed both by this.  It means I don't have to deal with it until after the holidays, but I'll still worry because I won't have scans to tell me it's working.  Always something to worry about with this disease I guess.

Abraxane chemo #10 complete

Another successful chemo treatment today without incidence.  I felt well enough to go to w
Whole Foods and walk tonight.  I'll be getting week 11 on Tuesday next week, if anyone would like to go.  I moved to Tuesday because Mondays are getting way too crowded.  Next week will be lab and treatment only, so hopefully won't take as long.

Multi-part article on what NOT to say to someone with Metastatic Breast Cancer

Multi-part article on what not to say.  This won't tell you what to say, but it will tell you what to avoid and why.  Yes, I hear these things almost every day from someone.  

http://metathriving.blogspot.com/2014/10/october-8-things-not-to-say-part-1.html?m=1

Coping with other people's reactions to Metastatic Breast Cancer