Merry Christmas

With the holidays approaching, I think it is important to remind ourselves of just how blessed we all are to have loving family and friends. I am so thankful for my husband and our darling son, without them, I don't know what I would do. I am so very thankful for my physical health- I feel great and am enjoying life immensely. Although I want desperately to know that I have more time here, I am so very thankful for the time I have been given. I am very grateful to my program and my mentor for letting me graduate last Friday, it was a wonderful event.

My doctor appointment last week went fine, all my liver and kidney functions were normal! Yesterday I got back my Ca27.29 tumor marker and once again it is elevated, now to an all time high of 109. This is a 13 point increase, so I think it is safe to assume that something is going on, hopefully it is minor. Now that the initial shock has worn off, I am more determined than ever to continue to fight. And when I say fight- I mean fight fear, which is the only crippling disease from which I suffer. I must learn to trust that God is looking out for me and that He has a plan for me too. During this Christmas season, I am reminded of Mary the mother of Jesus, who similarly faced a very serious medical situation, giving birth without modern medicine. In those days, it was not uncommon for women to die in childbirth. I know my doctor will continue to work hard to find the next drug combination and I know my body will work hard to slow the cancer's spread. So please keep us in your prayers this Christmas season. God bless.

In other news, we have moved to our new house! It was a huge job, but we are done and are getting settled in. Parker really likes the additional space and he enjoys running around and playing ball in the basement. We also got our new pool table set up so we are enjoying that. Parker is still obsessed with pool and insists on playing either on his little table or our big table all day long. We are excited to welcome family for Christmas at our house this year, start new traditions and honor old ones.

Lots to be thanful for

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving was bittersweet, it being the first holiday without my mother. Nonetheless we had much to be thankful for, family, friends & our health. You may think, health- well your not healthy. Actually I am very healthy even with my cancer, and it could always be much much much worse- so for that I am very thankful.

Doctor's appointment last week went fine, blood work showed some changes in liver enzymes- but still within the normal ranges. Tumor markers, which took a week to get, are basically the same. So it is again bittersweet- but could be much much worse. Last month they were 102, and this month they are down to 96. I was really hopeful that they would fall and I could have more confidence in this therapy, but once again I need to embrace the unknown. It is very very very encouraging that they didn't rise, and the doctor says that he is happy if they stabilize at this level and don't change. So for this I am very very very thankful.

So at the very least, I get another month on this therapy- and can relish in the lack of side effects and can be comforted that the therapy is working. Thanks!

Kristin's homerun tee-shirts

First off, I want to thank my brother-in-law, Chad Schwickerath and sister-in-law, Tammi Schwickerath for all the work they did designing, selling and participating in the breast cancer race in my honor. The tee-shirts are really cool, and I'm excited for Parker to proudly wear his soon! It was really touching to hear all the people who donated money or bought tee-shirts on my behalf. It means alot to me to know that there are people out there, wearing shirts with my name on them, that they are thinking of me, and are praying with me.

I had a most amazing dream the other night, in which my mother told me things would be okay and I got to hug her again, and my God- it felt so real. I like to believe that she is up there in heaven fighting for me too, that she is guiding my doctor's decisions and is beside me every step of the way.

I have my monthly oncologist appointment tomorrow and chemo on Wednesday. Really really anxious about this month's lab work. I have hip and back pain once again that coinsides with the locations of my bone mets. It's not as bad as it was when I was first diagnosed with bone mets, but it definately feels very similar. However on a positive note- it does not hurt to push on it, which makes new bone met activity unlikely. So I am going to cling to that rationale, and pray that it is just achy joints from the Gemzar and Carboplatin, combined with lifting Parker, not sleeping well and not exercising. I also have this new really weird pain in my arm on the mastectomy side. The arm pain is just above the elbow over my triceps and only hurts when pressed but feels fine when I use my arm. I'm thinking that its just tendonitis from carrying Parker with that arm, as the pain is worse after a long day of lifting and carrying him. And oddly it has moved up and down my arm so I'm really thinking it couldn't be a new bone metastasis. Plus with all the lymph nodes they yanked out and the radiation, infection, etc- there has to be a good amount of scar tissue on that side. This is still weird considering this area was not irradiated or touched during surgery.

Also in honor of the Packer's recent victory, here is the next Aaron Rodgers!

Two treatments down

Treatment on Friday went well- no real side effects. The worst was some bone aches that night and some fatigue on Saturday and Sunday. So all together not bad.

Also met with the doctor and discussed my lab work. My routine brain MRI (every six months) was normal and all my liver enzymes were at least alittle better than last month, and all within the normal range. Just got my tumor marker levels back today and they barely increased from last month, to my all time high of 102. This is good news, but not the change I was hoping for. I was secretly hoping they'd fall alot, but its not all that surprising that they increased slightly because it can take a month for the tumor markers to normalize after starting a new therapy. The Dr. said that within the first month it is not unusual for the numbers to jump as many cancer cells are dying and shedding the Muc1 protein into the blood. So maybe next month I will see the huge drop that I was hoping for.

House is coming along nicely- granite counter-tops and sod are in and down. Here are some pictures of the hickory cabinets in the kitchen.

1 treatment down!

Chemo today went better than expected-no reactions and I was able to stay awake for the whole time! Took a little nap when I got home but feel'n good. Thanks to everyone for all your words of encouragement and thanks to Emily, Lindsey and Sabrina for stopping by. And of course thanks to the wonderful staff and nurses at the UI Cancer Center. The pharmacists said to expect some flu like symptoms and maybe some nausea, so altogether- not too bad.
Praying this is THE ONE.

On another note, I've already started my list for Santa this year- I'll settle for stable disease, but a big box of NED would be greatly appreciated.

New game plan

So doctor's appointment was what we expected and not what we feared most. Lungs, Liver and brain were clear and mild progression in the bones- vertebra T9 and more of the pelvis. So now there are 5 spots in the bones. Hard to say how big they are because imagine techniques only indicate bone/cancer activity.

New systemic treatment will include Gemzar and Carboplatin and I will restart Herceptin. TDM1 compassionate use trials just closed, so I won't be able to get that until fall of 2012. Nice thing with the new drugs is they have few side effects, some fatigue and nausea but no hair loss! Plus I can say good bye to the hand and foot syndrome and the lactose intolerance. So hopefully the pounds don't just pile back on after I'd lost some weight (the only perk of my tykerb). No pre-meds, so no prednisone or benadryl on treatment days, so I don't think I'll need to sleep the whole weekend after treatments either.

For those of you interested, I've included a hair update (see picture).

Slight set back

First off let me say that I feel GREAT! I am doing everything I did before cancer (minus working... hee hee hee). No pain, very few side effects and the house is getting siding and drywall!

However... my tumor markers are back to the levels they were when I first heard I had bone mets. They had been climbing for about 3 months and doctor decided it was time to see what was going on. So yesterday I had a PET scan, of course cried during the whole thing. Asked the doctor to not let me know anything until we could meet in person on Tuesday.

He did say that the next therapy would be TDM1, here is a video on the new experimental drug.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=...dicate&section