"stable disease"

I hate the disease part, but I love the stable part! Good news today! There was no (significant) change at all in Mom's scan! The lymph node (with breast cancer) in her abdomen still appears completely normal. The lymph nodes in her chest are still enlarged, but no different. The pancreas, liver, and everything else in that area show no signs of disease.

There were a couple of surprises, but nothing Dr. Tauer is concerned about. First, the scan showed "stable sclerotic bone metastasis" on Mom's T12 vertebra. Dr. T had the radiologist look back at previous scans, and apparently this was first seen in 2006. Dr. T said it could just be some arthritis; the radiologist called it metastasis because he knew Mom had stage IV breast cancer. It has never changed and never lit up on a PET scan, leading us to believe it's not cancer. I'm not sure why we're just now hearing about it. We only recently started getting written reports of the CT scans, and it probably hasn't been included because it was "old" news. No follow-up will be done (except her normal CT scans) unless Mom starts showing symptoms. The second thing is that Mom has an ovarian cyst. Dr. T said that it looks benign and that women get them all the time. He's not worried.

The plan is for Mom to continue Herceptin (infusion every three weeks) and Tykerb (pills she takes daily). We'd love to drop the Tykerb because we think it's the source of most of her GI problems, but Dr. T isn't comfortable stopping it just yet, if ever. If it ain't broke . . .

Mom requested a genetics consult, because you know it's kind of fishy that she gets so many diseases (breast cancer, Crohn's disease, and pancreatic cancer in the last 11 years . . . but who's counting?). Dr. T said it would probably be a good idea since she's never had one before, so he set up an appointment for her with the geneticist tomorrow.

So there's the October scan report! Thank you so much for praying us through another scan day. We appreciate it more than we can say.

And we would appreciate very much it if you would also keep our friend Joan and her family in your prayers this week. Joan has been battling stage IV lung cancer for about three years now, and this week she's entering a new trial in Nashville. She should begin the trial drug tomorrow. She and her family/friends will be doing a lot of traveling between here and Nashville over the next few weeks. Pray that this treatment will be successful in stopping her cancer's growth, that the side effects would be minimal, and that Joan would begin to feel better soon! God has been glorified through Joan's journey, and I'm excited to see what he will do in this next chapter.

Thanks, friends!