April 30th, 2014

I obviously have not updated Nancy's blog since November 2013. Nancy was finishing up radiation treatments and we thought all was well with nothing new to report.

Following the radiation we took a trip to Florida before Christmas for some much needed R&R. For the next several months Nancy was fighting fatigue from the radiation which is fairly common given the amount of radiation she had been given. The only other issue was some nagging lower back pain for which she typically used a heating pad to help. We took another trip to Florida with friends in March and all seemed to be getting better.

During early April Nancy noticed a very sharp pain under her arm that was concerning. She notified the doctor and after a blood test revealed her cancer marker trending up he ordered a bone scan. This revealed numerous "areas of concern" so he ordered a PET scan. The PET scan revealed cancer in the bone in numerous areas.

There are many areas down her spine and ribs, lumbar area and a few spots on the skull. For this reason he ordered a brain scan. The good news is there is no indication of cancer in the brain, liver or lungs, so we now just have to concentrate on the bone cancer.

This is now considered stage four cancer so the plan is to put the cancer into remission. If successful she can live many more years as the bone cancer in and of itself is not life threatening. So the plan is to receive hormone shots and also an medicine that will strengthen the bones. Both will be given once per month.  No chemo is planned at this time.

In addition, to treat the severe pain she will receive ten radiation treatments.  This will hopefully kill the cancer in that area. The are too many spots on the bones to treat them all with radiation so this treatment will only be given when she has pain. The doctor said the pain is caused by the muscles pulling at bone where there is cancer.

Today she is meeting with the radiologist to have the area "mapped out" and will likely start next week with the radiation treatments for ten days in a row excluding the weekend.

Nancy knew the next place breast cancer spreads is typically the bone, but we were optimistic this would not be the case with her. Unfortunately we were wrong.

Here spirits are okay; certainly affected by the pain in her lumbar area where it is hard to get comfortable. She is very relieved it has not spread to the organs.

Please keep the prayers coming and I will try to keep the blog updated as things progress.

Bob