Never a Dull Moment

Greetings, family and friends!  Here's a little update after my latest trip to Vienna.  Hmm...where to start.

I was feeling quite well after our little spring break holiday but it was short-lived.  I had a couple minor injuries while walking the dog and pulling up my sock (pretty risky, I know) and ended up with new back pain.  I went earlier than planned for a CT scan and thankfully, no new fractures were found.  My bones overall look the same as in February (still full of sclerotic lesions, but not worse).  The only bone that is worse is my skull, with a bunch of mixed lytic and sclerotic spots.  Thankfully my brain is still clear, which was my main worry.  What was found, however, is that my liver is full of new spots; this is not good.  I've had a few bad nosebleeds which can be related to liver problems.  My other organs are still clear of cancer.  I am due for a bone scan this coming week.

So in light of these findings, my doctor in Austria decided to change my chemo drugs to the other two that were shown to be effective against my particular cancer cells when I was tested last winter.  He also focussed my local hyperthermia sessions directly over my liver.  I don't feel quite as good as usual coming home, likely due to the new chemo drugs, but I'm not too bad.  Pain is not much of an issue, just more tired and weak.

In addition to the changes to my treatment in Vienna, Dr. Kleef also suggested receiving a Dendritic Cell Vaccine.  After reading up about it, here's my version of what that entails:  My blood is drawn and sent to a lab in Germany where they separate out my cancer cells and my dendrite cells.  They merge the two together in a petri dish and re-inject it back into me.  With my dendrite cells coded with my cancer antigens, they inform the T-cells of my immune system exactly which cancer cells need to be destroyed.  This treatment is showing up in tons of studies, but it's too soon to know if it's effective in my kind of breast cancer.  The good news is that it's safe with no side effects.  The bad news is that it's expensive and may need to be repeated.

Along the lines of expense, now would be a good time to tell you all about a successful fundraising event that just took place to help us out.  Parents of some classmates of Alexis organized a massive online auction that raised over $24,000!  We were humbled and so thankful all at the same time.  Check out http://www.communityofcaring.ca/ to see some of the great donations.  And thank you again to everyone involved.

So now that money for the treatment isn`t a barrier, I am still weighing options and praying about what I should choose for future treatments.  I will keep you posted.

My friend, Shawna and I had a wonderful time together during our week in Austria.  We have actually travelled a bit together in the past as well (Italy, Florida, other school trips). Vienna is truly beautiful in the spring!  A couple of our touristy highlights were seeing the Sound of Music at the opera house, and pedalling rental bikes through the park at Prater.  It was such a privilage to catch up with each other after living in different cities for so many years.  Thanks to her husband, Duane and children, Tianna and Daniel for letting me steal her away!

Will and Alexis had a great week as well.  Will is actually quite busy right now as he is part of a study and attends daily sessions for magnetic brain stimulation followed by intense hand rehab.  It is looking promising for him to return to work sometime in the near future as well.

Alexis is full into soccer season right now and looking forward to our time this weekend as a family at Pine Lake Christian Camp, with our friends from church.  Hopefully it will not snow on us as it did this past week, right after I planted some garden veggies.  Gotta love Calgary!

Ok, not such a little note, but hopefully that gets everyone up to speed.   Thanks again for your support and prayers.  We love you!

God bless,
Shawna