12 years, 5 years and today

I've been thinking a lot about dates recently… July 7th being the day I was originally diagnosed with

breast cancer, 12 years ago.  I am also coming up on 5 years since my stage 4 colon cancer

diagnosis… which is significant.  If you google 5 year survival rates, they aren’t pretty. 

I therefore do not google.

Continuing on the milestone theme, Ian informed me last week that my most recent chemo infusion was my 65th lifetime chemo.  In a way it blows my mind... but for the most part, it has become such the norm that I forget what life without this 2 week rhythm is like.  

In terms of medical updates, things have been stable up until now for the most part.  Scans have intermittently shown marginal increases in size (marginal not measurable… which is a distinction I have learned to be key).  There has subsequently been no need for change in treatment from an efficacy perspective, although I’ve been starting to develop neuropathy which means my time on this chemo regimen is coming to an end.  My doctor recently dose reduced my chemo to 80% which has been nice in terms of side effects; the “chemo yuk” being noticeably reduced.  

I saw my doctor today after a chest xray and it looks like this line of treatment is starting to fail.  He has bumped up my CT scan to confirm but I will likely be switching lines of treatment shortly.  I am currently trying to look at the positives of this treatment change.  I will be switching to an immunotherapy… so no chemo yuk!  I will also be able to lose the steroids so I have a fighting chance to lose the steroid weight I have gained and maybe get my old face shape back (lose the moon face). I am trying not to think about how every line of treatment that fails brings me closer to the end of my treatment options, but that's easier said than done. I know I was really angry at my last treatment change but I'm not this time. I've been trying to figure out what I feel to be honest. Resigned? I guess I knew this chemo wouldn't last a really long time and I wasn't a huge fan of it anyway (it has been harder than the previous) so I suppose saying goodbye to it is a little easier.

I am bound and determined to get back to running on a regular basis.  I really struggled after spraining my ankle last year but after speaking with a dietician and drastically increasing my protein intake I have finally been able to lose the muscle and joint pain I was battling.  So I got to celebrate shaving 10 seconds a km off my 5km pace this week.  Take that lung mets!!! 

In other news…as a family, we are really looking forward to our planned trip to the UK in August.  We will spend almost 2 weeks touring around England with a brief adults only trip to Edinburgh (thanks to our dear friends who we are visiting).  The kids are so looking forward to reuniting with their friend who moved back to the UK in March… texting and Facetime have not been cutting it. So we will be trying to cram in all the testing and treatment changes before we leave as well as trying to give the kids a fun summer experience in the meantime.  

Stay tuned for fun pictures to come!  Love to you all and hope you are having a wonderful summer too. 

A photo I took on a sunrise run this week.



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