Rosanna's Metastatic Breast Cancer Journey

Before today's treatment, I had lab work done and met with a doctor (not Dr. Sinclair as she was covering at another hospital this week).  My lab work looked better than it has in a long time.  I am no longer anemic and my liver counts were all in the normal range.  At an appointment about a month ago, Dr. Sinclair commented that it is very rare to see anemia improve during chemo treatment.  So thankful for this blessing!  I think the extra week and a half off from chemo helped my body process everything, which in turn helped bring down my liver count that had been slightly high. I read a copy of the PET scan report, and while a lot of it goes over my head, I can get the gist of it.  Seeing words like "decreased", "resolved", "no suspicious", and "resolution" are all words that you want to read on a PET scan. The treatment went well.  Apparently allergic reactions are somewhat common with Taxol, so I had to take stronger IV steroids befor...

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 responde...

Waiting has never been my strong suit.  When I want something, I go after it.  I typically feel anxious as the waiting time increases.  Here I am, though, almost four months into my cancer journey, and I'm waiting to hear what the next course of treatment will be.  Do I need to know right this minute? No.  Whatever the doctors decide will be exactly what is supposed to happen.  It really doesn't change anything dramatic.  Either way, I will be receiving treatments that will have side effects.  In some ways, maybe not knowing is better because I can't drive myself crazy researching and reading everything there is to know about the treatment.  I proved during AC (my red sunshine) that the side effects they tell you that you will experience don't always happen.  So maybe I am better off letting this all remain a mystery until it's time to start the treatment.  I have found that a certain amount of ignorance is bliss in this cancer worl...

I had my final round of red sunshine today. 🌞  My oncologist was on vacation so I saw a different oncologist.  He was very amazed by how well I am doing and said I could be a poster child for the toughest chemo treatment there is.  I'm feeling very blessed that I have responded to and tolerated this treatment so well.  I also met with palliative care.  Apparently I was referred back in May when I was in a lot of pain and the referral got lost in the system.  They insisted I meet with them, but the doctor quickly realized there was no need to meet because I am not in any pain and I am experiencing very few side effects.  My 60 minute appointment turned into a 15 minute visit. Forever thankful for my beautiful sister. In the next few weeks I will have a PET scan and MRI to look at how much progress has been made. I'm excited for these results.  We are still waiting to hear what the next treatment will be.  The tumor tissue is still...

Last week was a busy week.  My mom, Jason, and I went to Dana-Farber on Monday to see Dr. Overmoyer.  While waiting for my appointment, I had the opportunity to visit with three of my former co-workers.  It was nice to see familiar faces in a not so familiar place.   Dr. Overmoyer was impressed with the improvements that you can see/that I can feel.  She felt it was time for a CT scan and set up a schedule of treatment/imaging to get me through the summer and into the fall.  She also gave me the week off from chemo because she wanted the CT scan before I had any more chemo. When she was getting ready to leave the room, I thanked her for giving me hope in this journey.   She turned around and said, "Thank you for getting well."  The words brought tears to my eyes.  I felt I was getting better, but to hear a doctor say it was so encouraging.  I am getting well.  Almost to the point that I can remove the word "getting" from that sent...

Music has always been something that I valued and appreciated.  Lyrics speak to my soul and I listen for the message in every song.  When my cancer journey began, my sister asked me if I had picked a "battle" song yet.  I'm still working on finding the perfect song, and I can't imagine picking just one song. As I was thinking about this last night, it dawned on me that one has been staring me in my face my whole life and I had never really thought about it as a cancer fight song.  In a way it could be considered my family's theme song: Dream On. More than 40 years ago, my dad set out to be a full-time lobsterman.  He had a boat and a dream to go fishing the way his father and brother had done.  He chose to name the boat "Dream On" after Aerosmith's hit, "Dream On."  This boat is still the boat my father fishes on.  In an industry where most fishermen go for newer, faster, and bigger boats, my dad has had the same trusty boat for over 40 y...

 Just keep swimming! Love this guy with everything I have.  My parents, sister, and I are so grateful for his love and support.  He wins husband and father of the year for sure. Today should have been my first official day of summer vacation.  Instead, I sat for 5 hours having blood taken, waiting to see a doctor, meeting with the doctor to discuss symptoms, waiting for chemo, and finally receiving my fourth chemotherapy treatment.  Not exactly how I envisioned my summer when I was dreaming about it this past winter.  But...  God has a plan and there is a purpose for this journey that I am on.  That purpose hasn't been revealed to me yet, but I am starting to find some positives from this whole journey. Today's treatment was the "long" treatment.  I have an extra medicine pumped into me once per month called Zometa.  This medicine is supposed to help relieve bone pain due to the cancer spreading to my bones.  ...