Nothing but Good News!

Whew. We went to see my oncologist at UCSF today to get the results of all my scans from yesterday and to talk about how things are going. My scans all look good (unremarkable is great!). Still no cancer anywhere except the breast and the lump that used to have a volume of 1.7 cubic centimeters now has a volume of .12 cubic centimeters!! This shit is working! We talked a little about what comes next and at least for now I'm going to stay on the trial for 2 more rounds (a month or so). After that I've got to decide if I can work while taking this crap or not. Hopefully these next two rounds go as easily as the last one. If they don't, then we'll figure it out. My doctor thinks the logical thing to do after the trial is surgery to remove whatever remnants are left. After that it is back on Herceptin with vigilant monitoring. My birthday is coming up and this is a really nice early present!

Look Ma No Hat!

My hair is not long enough and thick enough for me to go hatless. It isn't super thick, but passable and I'm pretty tired of wearing hats at this point.

I'm hoping that the mousey gray color will be replaced with my normal dark brown (with a bit of gray) in a couple months. That's what happened last time anyway.

So far this round of Tykerb has been a little bit easier than the last one (knocking on wood as I type!). Not only have I gotten dressed everyday, but I've even made it out of the house everyday! I've actually been taking fewer anti-nausea meds this time around. I'm not sure how much they do for the nausea and they make me really tired.

Keith got a nice treat today; his mom called and talked to him briefly! They replaced her trach with a metal one that allows her talk a little bit. Her voice was a little weak but he was psyched to hear her after so long. Crossing our fingers that she continues to improve.

Here We Go Again...

Those nine days of no drugs feel so good. For the five days I take the meds, this stuff is way harder than the chemo cocktail I was on, but my recovery is much different than it was with chemo. I feel better as soon as I stop taking the Tykerb, Ketoconozol, Immodium, Zofran and Octreotide (there are a couple others I take when the nausea gets really bad, but those are the ones I have to take). With chemo every round I got a little bit more worn down. This doesn't seem to be having the same effect (knock on wood).
This is my last round before my scans on the 20th. On the 21st, I'll see my oncologist at UCSF to discuss the results of the scans. I also want figure out what my options are. I don't think I can work on this regime. It will be hard to quit the trial if it is working (fingers and toes crossed!), but I'm hoping there are other possibilities that would work well and won't be so damn hard.
During my 9 non-treatment days we got a lot done! We bought a truck! Keith has been talking about getting a truck again for years and we finally just did it. We walked over to the Toyota dealer on July 3rd and told them what we wanted and on July 4th (yeah, I can't believe they were open either!) we picked up a dark grey Toyota Tacoma. We're both excited about the new vehicle, but we didn't expect Red to be so excited. This is a 70lb dog that I have had to hoist into my car on multiple occasions...we get a truck and that fucker jumps right in every time. He LOVES the truck. So, who ever said "dogs love trucks" was definitely right!

Once we got the truck we used it to go bet a bunch of mulch and some stones to use as edging for the front yard. The yard looks much more pulled together. I can't believe we didn't do it years ago. We're joking that the new edging and mulch will make our neighbors think we're getting the house ready to sell! We also took a couple of hikes (local and out at the coast), went up the hill and watched fireworks from three different cities at once (pretty cool). There has also been lots of time for lazing around and enjoying summer!

Keith's mom continues to see some progress. She's working hard at rehab and if things go well could be home by August! I think the idea of being able to finally go home is really getting her excited.