Ansley with sis Dec. 08
Our first high came when it was determined that the cancer was only in her bones. If they could keep it in her bones, she could live another 5-10 years. As we teeter at the top, her oncologist goes through her options. They are few. She can’t take the chemo she had previously because it caused her to have heart failure. Her chemo choices are now limited to a pill along with radiation and a monthly treatment with an osteoporosis medication to help build up her bone density. They also offer her a clinical trial. The clinical trial consists of the pills she would get without the trial along with a new chemo injection. She chooses the clinical trial. But she has to have the radiation before she starts the trial. So weeks pass while she is tattooed and radiated and gets ready for the trial.
The trial is not blind and there are two branches. One branch gets monthly pills. The other branch gets the new shot each month and the pills. There has been quite a bit of success with the shot and the pills—but, her draw is just the pills. We plummet to the bottom . Then clickety, clickety we ride to the top as she gets her monthly chemo and bone scans and find the cancer has not progressed. ANY progression means she’s out of the trial because the new trial med isn’t working. Out of the clinical trial means her options are reduced to a different, possibly less successful medication.
Despite the bone scans and monthly visits to her oncologist she continues to see patients. Her patients love her and are willing to be shuffled around and rescheduled at the last minute when something unexpected comes up for her. I laugh when she tells stories about how her patients are whining to her about runny noses and bruises and she wants to say, “You think that’s bad, I’ve got cancer—now buck up!”
Six months go by, not much to report. She has little twinges of pain now and then, but all of her tests are “normal” for someone with metastatic breast cancer. Then about 8 weeks ago, out of the blue, her back hurts her so badly she can’t take the pain. Being a nurse practitioner she knows too much and she panics as she wonders if her vertebrae are collapsing around her spine and will she soon be paralyzed. Pancake collapses of the spine can happen to patients with cancer in their vertebra. White knuckled, we fall from our high as she schedules an MRI of her spine to look for signs of spine collapse or nerve damage.
To be continued…
