Today, we met with Dr Carey again, and she recommended Lori for a small amount of radiation to the primary tumor. She is concerned that the tumor will begin to cause surface problems if it isn’t reduced in size quickly. For reference, the tumor measured 7cm x 5cm last time they checked, and today it was 12cm x 9cm. The nice thing about UNC’s method of care is that there is an entire team of specialists all required to be present every time Lori sees her oncologist. Continue reading

Since my last update, Lori has continued to receive once-a-month Doxil infusions at the UNC Cancer Clinic. Scans had shown progress with the reduced tumor size, and she experienced very few side-effects. However, over the past few weeks, we’ve noticed considerable growth in the tumor. At her latest checkup, Dr. Carey was concerned but needed further testing to see what was happening. Continue reading

Prior to Lori’s latest check-up (last week), the Dr. ordered another round of body scans to compare last quarter’s results. Three months ago, we had just begun to think that the chemo was working…finally…but we didn’t have a lot to go on other than physical feel of the tumor size. Back then, the scans confirmed bone and liver lesions, and the tumor was measured for future reference. Over the next couple of months, Lori and I felt like the tumor continued to shrink. Continue reading

We met with Dr. Carey on Thursday afternoon, and the meeting went as expected. She’ll continue with the Doxil chemo, and next month we’ll get full body scans done again. All of Lori’s labs were good. Her liver is functioning normally, hemoglobin was only slightly low (anemic), and her platelets were 109k which is really high for Lori…which is a good thing. Everything else went along smoothly. The infusion floor was actually ready for her this time so we didn’t experience any lengthy delays. Continue reading

It has been another good month. Lori still doesn’t have any big side effects from the chemo. Tomorrow is another day of appointments and an infusion (likely) of Doxil chemo. We really don’t have a lot to update. The way I look at it, no news is good news. We’re not sure if the tumor has shrunk any more since last month, but we’re pretty sure it hasn’t grown. We’ll see what comes from tomorrow’s meeting with the Dr.

Last week, we met with Dr. Carey and we came away very impressed by her attitude and wealth of knowledge. She was very interested in all of Lori’s previous tests and seemed eager to further investigate the details of her cancer. She gave the same diagnosis overall, but she wants to investigate the possibility of Lori’s type of cancer as being a hormone-based cell. Continue reading

We got the results of Lori’s BRCA test back, and unfortunately she is positive for the BRCA 1 mutation. She was negative for the BRCA 2. There are various levels of mutation in these genes, but Lori’s is the kind that causes disease, and it is the cause of her cancer. While this is bad news because it affects the family so much, it’s oddly kind of nice to know this is the cause. Also, Lori is now eligible for PARP inhibitors which have shown great promise in clinical trials. Continue reading

GOING HOME:
We have been making plans to return to NC Aug 10. We’re going to try to live there again as a family in our house to resume a quasi-normal life. We have scheduled an appointment with an oncologist at UNC (Dr. Lisa Carey) to resume Lori’s treatment plan. Today, we met with Dr. S once more to get a final check-up before returning home, and when we mentioned we would be seeing Dr. Carey, he was extremely pleased. He raved about how good she is; “world-renowned” were his words, and he is certain Lori will be receiving excellent care from her. Continue reading

Posted Jul 24, 2014 9:11am
Lori wanted to share the audio from her time speaking to the congregation at Dayton UM from this past weekend. I take up the first chunk of time speaking too, but I don’t blame you if you just skip ahead to when Lori talks. It’s much better.

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We met with Dr. Burstein this afternoon at Dana-Farber. He was nice to talk to, and he was very blunt about Lori’s diagnosis. We didn’t really learn anything new about the prognosis, but we did gain his philosophy on treatment. Bottom line: he is similar to Dr S. but he seemed more excited about a couple of trial options than Dr. S. does. Continue reading