Haven’t made a post in while as I had a lot in the air of next steps! 

I was able to ring the bell after 6 rounds of chemo! What heartfelt, joyful tears of a marker of how far I’ve come.  

The thing with metastatic breast cancer is I’ll never ‘win’, ‘beat cancer’ or be ‘cancer free’.  I will be chasing this for the rest of life but I have so much hope with keeping it stable and there so many drugs and therapies that are constantly being released to keep fighting.  So I rang that bell- not because I’ll never have to endure chemo again or that my battle is done but because I did 6 rounds and I was proud of that!  

Then I had a scan- the anxious scan of how everything looks after 6 rounds of chemo.  Not that I expected a clean scan or no evidence of disease- the scan showed what I anticipated.   The tumor in my breast was shrunk! The cancer in my lymph node had shrunk! But the lesions on my liver had not changed- good that they did not  grow- and stable- but did not shrink.  It also showed a ‘new’ spot on my neck.  So a mixed result from the scan.  I then followed up with Dr. Bansal with Duke virtually.   She gave me a choice- said I can push it and do two more rounds of chemo- or I can go on Maintence drugs.   While I don’t want these decisions to be in my court- I told her I want to be aggressive as possible that I’m worried about quantity of life and not the current quality.   So she recommended two more rounds- giving this cancer all I can then go from there. She also recommended a dna blood test to tell my cancer markers which give more information with scans.  I really wanted to hear from my oncologist here at BRCC on her thoughts of next steps- Dr. Gillespie-Twardy who I admire deeply! I met with her and it was a hard conversation - she gave me the choice to do more chemo or not.  I asked if she would push it and she said she would not.  She asked what my support system things and I let her know they want me to give it all I got.  I felt like I couldn’t decide.  She then asked me if my cancer spikes up a few months down the road- would I regret not pushing it two more rounds and I thought- well yeah I might.  So, low and behold- I’m doing two more rounds- giving cancer all I can! Fight fight fight! 

I had my 7th round of chemo yesterday! Taught a 7 hour class on event planning today and doing my breast cancer walk tomorrow! Probably crash in Sunday! 

Grateful for Nick to change my cold caps- such a hard job, grateful for his support to be my side and keep me laughing.  

Grateful to Olivia and all the BRCC nurses- they are truly one of a kind and I couldn’t be more grateful. 

Grateful for my family, friends that are family, work family, church family and all in-between.  

I’ve squeezed in some fun with a trip to Asheville to see my favorite band, made memories with Everett with Rock climbing and enjoying each special moment this life gifts! 

From here, round 8 will be May 14 and my sweet daddy will be there for my last round of this! Then a scan and then Maintence drugs which will continue to attack the cancer and keep estrogen eliminated.  Ovary removal will also likely be in my future.  

Thank you for reading this long update! Grateful, blessed, and ready to give cancer hell!