And We're Off!

After a long week of wondering which treatments she will do, Mom met with her medical oncologist today and started chemotherapy.  We all felt very comfortable with this decision and mom was ready to get started!  The plan is to have 4 cycles of chemotherapy for now, one every 3 weeks.  At the end of that Dr. Gray will evaluate her and decide if she is going to give a couple more cycles or not.  We are lucky and unlucky in the manner that we both (mom and I) know a little too much.  She was a medical oncology nurse for years and I am a medical dosimetrist at the Bismarck Cancer Center.  So it has been hard to decide which treatment route would be best for her, but we are so fortunate that we work with amazing doctors and coworkers that are so willing to help with anything, we feel she is getting the best treatment available to her right now.  She did great through her first treatment, had smiles the whole time.  She received a fun picture from her Williston coworkers that made us all smile and shed a tear, it is pictured below.

 

 

 

I will keep you updated with how she handles this first round of chemo.  She also will have a chest x-ray tomorrow to see if the fluid has returned to her lung or not.  We are hoping it hasn't!  After her chemotherapy she went right home to "sleep".....well when I called a bit ago she was cleaning the house!  Of course she was.  She told me not to tell Dad but I guess that's out the window.  She also celebrated a birthday this week!  Here is a picture with her cake!  (the kids call her "Shrama", I would have loved to see my dad explaining that one to the cake decorator)

 

 

So we're off!  Thank you all so much for your prayers and all of your kind words!  She is still keeping her positive attitude and is still sassy ;)  so keep the prayers coming!  Here is the wig she plans on wearing when she loses her hair.

 

Let's Do This!

We received the results from the PET scan, and it was very optimistic.  It didn't show any uptake in her bones or liver, the only spot that lit up was a lymph node in her mediastinum.  So it was "good news for the bad news" if that makes any sense.  PET scans only show lesions that are 1cm or larger, so there could still be some microscopic disease somewhere else, but she was excited she didn't look like a Christmas tree!  :)  Her disease is stage 4 because of the metastasis, and is not curable, but we are optimistic that she will have some good years with all of us! 

Yesterday she also received a call saying there are some suspicious lesions in her breast, from a mammogram she had a few weeks ago.  She will have to go back for a repeat mammogram on April 24, but we were told this will not change her plans for treatment because it is metastatic disease.  Mom is set to meet with her chemo doctor next Thursday (she saw a locum today) and will probably start her chemo treatments that day.  We are not sure how many cycles she will have for sure.  The plan will probably be to do chemo followed by hormonal therapy.  We should know more next week when we see the chemo doc. 

Enough of the boring stuff, I'm sure you are all wondering how she is doing!  Well of course we walked out of the hospital today and it was going to be 70 degrees today and she said "We need to get home so I can take those babies outside and play!"  So this is not slowing her down at all.  She has been mentally exhausted, and physically too, but has now slowed down one bit.  Once we get into the grind of the treatments, we will be sure she is getting the rest she needs.  Not sure how we will slow her down, but we'll figure it out.  She is ready to get some nice new hairdos (wigs), and we are all shaving our heads!  Okay maybe the boys are....;)    After I posted this blog yesterday, we spent the evening going through all the nice comments on the blog, Facebook, email, texts, everything.  It was so wonderful, I can't tell you enough how much those words mean to my mom and all of us.  Thank You Thank You!!  As my mom said, "Let's Get This Party Started!"  I will update you next Thursday with what happens at that appointment!  Thank you for your prayers!

The Strength of My Mother

Well our family has run into a little speed bump in our lives.  A couple of weeks ago, our mother, Belva, was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.  She went in for a pre-op chest x-ray for a surgery she had previously scheduled, to remove a cyst in her wrist, and they called her to come in and discuss her chest x-ray.  Right away she knew this wasn't good.  She is an 18-year breast cancer survivor (as of April 8 this year), so every time she receives a call like this her first thoughts are that her cancer is back.  So she went in and her doctor said there was a pleural effusion (fluid buildup) in her lung.  She would need to have this drained and tested to see what was going on.  This all happened on a Friday, so we had to wait the weekend to see what was going on.  Longest Weekend EVER!!

So the next week she went in to have the fluid drained.  The procedure went fine, and 2 days later she received a call from her doctor saying there were metastatic breast cancer cells in her fluid.  We were all in shock.  She had no symptoms indicating anything was ever wrong.  She had played 2 hours of tennis every day the week before when she was on vacation, so she is in very good health.  Of course the first thing she said is "What about the grand babies?  I need to teach them to play ball!"  She is always thinking of everyone else and trying to console us.  She could deal with her cancer, she just worries about everyone else.

So mom decides she would like to go visit Mayo to see what they have to say and then come back to have her treatments in Bismarck.  That next week was brutal waiting for them to call.  She was told by a nurse there they would call when the doctor was done reviewing her charts.  She waited all week until Friday and then couldn't wait any longer.  Can you imagine waiting all week wondering where your cancer is in your body, sitting by the phone every minute hoping it rings?  That was so exhausting for her.  We all wanted answers, and we knew this is probably what happens a lot, but could not wait anymore. 

With the help of some friends we were able to get her in to a medical oncologist at Sanford.  She saw the doctor that Tuesday, had a port placed Wednesday (for chemotherapy) and had a PET scan Friday.  So we went from sitting there waiting, to a busy week of procedures and scans, which we were glad about.  My mom was so mentally and physically exhausted by Friday, but of course she still came to Minot with our family to watch some basketball and went to visit some good friends.  She has received many calls, texts, cards, etc from so many wonderful people.  They truly make her day!  I told her I would start this blog to keep everyone informed on what was going on.  I know people want to know what is going on but don't want to keep bugging her.  She still appreciates calls and texts and everything, but if you want updates I will try to do this as we know what is going on. 

So now we are just waiting for the PET scan results which we should have today.  That will tell us more.  My mom is the most amazing person.  Having gone through this before, she knows what to expect (sort of), and is still taking care of grand babies throughout all of this, and having us all for family dinners, etc.  Sometimes things in our lives are hard, and then you get hit with something like this.  We have such special people in our lives-from coworkers to friends, to family....we appreciate all of you and all of the support you have shown!  Mom and I will keep posting to keep you updated, but you are still welcome to send messages to her, this just will keep everyone more informed.  She has a long road ahead, but with God by her side she will be able to get through it!  Love you all!

Sarah

Mom with Mason and Ava.  They love her so much.