News of the day

Wednesday this week the mayo oncologist, Dr. G, scheduled an appointment for us to meet virtually. This week he called me after hours on both Monday and Tuesday night, keeping me in the loop with where he was at in working to determine next steps with his team. He needed to meet with the radiation oncologist as well as the surgeon to discuss my pet scan results from last Friday. It turns out that because the cancer has spread in my left breast up to the axillary lymph node and up near the clavicle and over into the mammary chain on the right, the team has determined that that is too much of an area to radiate. It would be too hard on my lungs and I imagine my heart, also. So that means we need to pivot the chemotherapy treatment as it appears my particular cancer has grown resistant to the type of chemotherapy I've been receiving.

Because I have decided to move my care to Mayo clinic, the best option for treatment is a "phase 2 trial to evaluate the efficacy of FASN" and the goal is to reduce the tumors (make them disappear again) and to correct the resistance that the cancer has developed to the drug Herceptin. Taxol is given with a drug called TVB – 2640 along with herceptin to help break the resistance that the body has developed to herceptin so that this particular drug can continue to be used.

Treatment will begin weekly probably in a couple weeks. Because I have agreed to a clinical trial, there will be an onslaught of tests and examinations, I imagine. Starting next week, Tuesday, October 4, I will go to Mayo for a visit with the oncology team to sign the paperwork and have an ultrasound where I imagine they will take the biopsy. The doctor told me the study will require a biopsy before and after treatment. There's a small probability that the hormone receptor status has changed. He said, if I remember correctly, I think it can happen maybe 20% of the time? But we will find out and if the hormone status has changed he has other drugs that we can pivot to.

I'm slowly coming to terms with the reality of weekly chemotherapy again. I told Dr. G that I cannot become couch bound again. I remember how my energy just completely dwindled and I became a couch potato and deconditioned, and put on weight. Of course this was also the pandemic when there was no socialization so I was very isolated as well. I'm going to need to have an exercise program in place where I am active every day. This is the only way to maintain quality of life. And besides, I think I've watched everything there is to watch on Netflix. That's really not how I want to live my life, anyway.

Silver lining continues to glitter. Freddy and I closed on land yesterday up north out near grand Marais. 4 miles south of town five sweet acres are ours! And Brooklyn's too. I told her she had to leave the birds alone but the squirrels and chipmunks were fair game. Freddy was not around when I told her this so I don't know if this is still gonna fly. We will have to run this by Brooklyn's fur daddy. The closing of the land seems symbolic with harvesting the fruits of our labor at this time. I'm grateful my retirement savings allowed us to make this purchase. I think it'll be a great investment and will bring us much more joy than money sitting in an account.

I'm off to a women's retreat for the weekend, I hope to get some deep healing work, grounding, balancing and centering. I imagine I will receive a lot of support! We will welcome in autumn. I'm grateful I have made arrangements to attend this. The timing is utterly perfect.

I hope this message finds you, dear reader, well. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and have some thing fun, nourishing and nurturing planned. Please take good care of yourself. Lots of love.

Annette