Next Phase

On Monday I received good news.  My latest PET scan showed that the Red Sunshine worked as well as we had hoped.  There is still cancer in me, though, and I will need more chemotherapy to continue to kill it.  Unfortunately there is a lifetime limit to how much Red Sunshine I can have because of how it can impact my heart function even years after treatment.  I have reached that limit.  So now we move on to the next phase of treatment, which I found out will be another form of chemo called Taxol.  Taxol will be given two weeks on, one week off.  My first treatment will be this Friday (August 23).  The hope is that I will have 12 doses of Taxol before scans will be repeated, but they may be repeated sooner if there is any question about the effectiveness of the treatment.  I will do Taxol infusions until my scans are clear and we can talk surgery or until my body stops responding to it.

Transitions are scary.  I know the cancer responded to the first kind of chemo.  I know that my body was healing.  I have no idea what will happen with Taxol.  In church on Sunday, our pastor talked about being tested.  This is certainly a time of being tested for my family and me.  I am choosing to put all my faith in God and pray for the best possible results.  However, I am human and have moments of anxiety and fear.  I try not to let those feelings take over, though.  When those feelings creep in, I remind myself of how far I have come and how strong I have become.

I will update sometime this weekend and let you all know how the first Taxol treatment goes.  Please pray that Taxol is effective and that I continue to feel stronger with each treatment.

Taking a selfie while waiting for my PET scan