Back at Home

Heather is back at home and today we are at the Cancer Treatment Center to see Dr. Cox, we will see what the treatment plan is, who knows what the next step is.

Of Bagels and Biopsies (oh yeah, and chemo drugs too)

Heather just got out of our visit to the Katmai Cancer Center here in Anchorage, we met with Dr. Susan Delgalvis to further discuss Heathers latest diagnosis. Dr. Delgalvis went over the scan results with the radiologist this morning and she is fairly confident that the cancer has spread to her spine and sacral area, which is by the tailbone, not by the hip as previously thought. She spoke with Dr. Cox back in Fairbanks, which judging by the Facebook pictures I've seen today, looks beautiful- and formulated a plan of action. She is going to schedule a biopsy for the tumor on Heather's spine and hopefully get the results sometime this week. If it is confirmed to be cancer, then Heather gets bumped from Stage 3 to Stage 4 cancer- there is no Stage 5, if you get my drift. If that's the case, then Heathers care plan changes as well, she was originally supposed to have intensive chemotherapy treatments of Taxol which slows the spread of cancer cells, and Herceptin, which specifically targets the cell receptors that “tell” a cell to grow and divide, in her case, the cancer is caused by too many cell receptors telling the cells to grow, thus resulting in rapid growth of cancer (see picture). If she is diagnosed as Stage 4, she will only receive the Herceptin, and that every three weeks. The doctors that be would like to save the actual chemotherapy for if she has a major outbreak of cancer growth so they can beat it back into submission (hopefully).

Read a USA Today article on Herceptin and breast cancer here.   Make sure to read to the end of the article.  Did I mention I'm desperately grateful I have medical insurance?

Heather had her first infusion of Herceptin today, it comes in a clear fluid, unlike the red fluid that Adriamycin comes in. I guess that Herceptin can cause some pretty sever immediate side effects to first time users, such as shortness of breath, lowered blood pressure, and others, so the initial infusion is used to monitor if she would have any negative side effects. Fortunately, she simply went to sleep after eating a bagel I bought her at the cafe downstairs. The infusion was uneventful, other than her sending me down for another bagel and a croissant sandwich (who knew toxic chemicals would stir up such an appetite?). A small bit of positive outcome is welcome with all that has gone on as of late, and hopefully this means that she will not have any major side effects in the future, at least with the Herceptin. As such, she will receive Herceptin every three weeks for the rest of her natural life, and here's hoping that will be many years down the road.

Metastasis Blues

After a weekend of uncertainty waiting for the results of her bone and CT scan, Heathers test results came back today and showed a miniscule spot on her liver, as well as two spots in her bone, one on her hip and one on her lower spine.  The liver spot is too small to biopsy and it is not certain that it is cancer, but the bone spots are likely cancerous and will need to be biopsied.  If it is bone cancer, it is incurable and can only be managed to impede its progress.  Due to the variables of Heathers type of breast cancer we have to go day by day- she could live for mere months or several years, we just don't know.  We're experiencing the same range of emotions that we had when she was first diagnosed- for me, sorrow, rage, and helplessness over the lack of control of the situation.  Part of me is begging for some random person to pick a fight with me, the other part of me wants my M249 SAW back and a few thousands rounds of ammunition to burn through out in the middle of nowhere. Obviously these thoughts are not rational and not very helpful to the situation at hand, but man, this news is enough to make me fairly upset!  Heather is worried about how we are going to tell the kids about this and how long she's going to have to have chemo and treatment, which means chronic illness and pain.  The flip side of this is that we already knew that she was dying, as we all are dying in some way or another, we were just reminded the certainty of that fact.  We will work through this a day at a time and do our best to enjoy our family time together.   

Update

It's been a while since I've updated the blog- Heather's been in Anchorage with Joshua since April 4th when he was born, he's been doing well and of today weighs 3 lbs.  He's really opening his eyes and looking more and more like a normal baby, in the sense that he is not so squishy looking :)  Heather had a bone scan and CT on thursday to see if the cancer has spread in her body since she was diagnosed.  We would have liked to find out on Friday but alas, we must wait until monday.  We are both a bit nervous and perhaps a bit cautiously optimistic that everything will be fine.  Either way, Heather will be starting up her chemo treatment this next week and will receive chemo every week for the next three months, then every three weeks for the next year.  It's been difficult being apart as I've been up in Fairbanks with Joey so we can continue school and work, it's painfully obvious that I make a poor single parent, Heather is really a blessing and the glue that keeps our household running smoothly.  Did I mention that she's also good looking?  Since she's gone hairless she has been the reluctant recipient of dozens of comments on how beautiful her complexion and head is!  There is hope on the horizon, it's nearly summer, Josh will likely be transferred to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital in a couple weeks, and Joey and I are nearly done with school (really cant wait for that one).  Thanks to all of you for your support, both financially and spiritually, it has been a great help.

Catching up

Ok, I realize that it's been about three weeks since I've updated this blog and alot has transpired in that time: Heathers mastectomy went well, she spend a week in the hospital recovering and has now had the chest tube drains removed.  In addition to her breasts the doctors also removed several lymph nodes in her right armpit. 
Due to pain complications, we have been in the hospital every day since her surgery, though we did skip a day when we first got home from the surgery every other day since then has been spent at the cancer center, the ER, or down here at Providence in Anchorage, where we are currently.  Being at Providence is a development all its own, we came down this past weekend to see the neonatologist on Monday to see about delivering our baby sometime in mid-April.  The delivery date has been in constant flux, first we planned on April, then May, then back to April again.  Yesterday we found out that the doctor wanted to deliver Heather today at 4:30 pm, so that is the new timeline.
The baby will have to stay here at Providence for at least a month and a half as he will only be 29 weeks as of today, his original due date was June 22.  Heather is planning on staying down here with him and continuing her cancer treatment down here for the time being, I will be back and forth from Fairbanks as I still need to go to work, and somehow the kids will fit into all of that crazy schedule.  We will see how the next couple months go.