Chemo Kitteh

My husband just sent me an email w/this photo he made and I had to share.

28 Weeks

Here's our 28 week picture- only two weeks late again! With life spinning like crazy over here, we haven't been great with taking and posting these pictures on time. At our 28 week ultrasound he weighed in at 2.69 LBS and surpassed our doctor's expectations for growth, given my chemo treatment. It's hard to believe right now we're at 30 weeks, and Baby Addison will be here before we know it!

Bra Day Usa

Happy Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day!!! Breast reconstruction is a major part of the healing process for breast cancer survivors, and many women don't know about their options. This organization is devoting themselves to educating women in the USA, and Canada, and I fully support them. In fact, once I'm done with my surgeries I'm going to sign up to be one of their "model volunteers". 89% of women want to see real reconstruction results before their go in for a mastectomy, and having gone through this myself I can agree. Not only would it be great to see real results, it's be great to see younger survivors. Many of the photos I saw were of women in their late 40s and up-- clearly we didn't look the same to begin with, and I found the photos to be uninspiring and sort of depressing. I'm hoping to make a difference with this journey I've been put on.

Blog With Love: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I'm kicking off Breast Cancer Awareness month by participating in the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation's third annual blogger initiative, to Act With Love. Hoping to use my voice to help further breast cancer research by encouraging you (my readers) to turn your awareness into action. Awareness is fantastic, and is the catalyst for action-- but we need more action to have a cure. For such a prevalent disease, we still know so little about breast cancer. 1 in 8 women will be affected by this diagnosis, and research will help us develop targeted treatments for a cure and recurrence.

How do I Act with Love?

Despite the reigning success of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and millions of dollars raised, we still have very little knowledge about breast cancer.  Now is the time to shift the discussion from awareness to pinpointing the cause and accelerating prevention--and you can help!  Turn your fervent awareness of this disease that affects one in eight women, and take action by investing yourself in breast cancer research.  Together we can fast track research and end breast cancer within our lifetime.

What is the Health of Women study?

With the introduction of the Health of Women study (HOW) TODAY October 1st, the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation will revolutionize the fight against breast cancer.  By crowdsourcing health information, and involving the general public directly, we will uncover the information that will end breast cancer.  This groundbreaking initiative invites the public, men and women over the age of 18 of all health backgrounds, to be collaborators by participating in the study via the web or on their mobile devices.  HOW will also turn traditional research practices on its head by creating a venue for researchers to gather and share information, with the definitive goal of ending breast cancer.  To learn more about the Health of Women study, visit: www.healthofwomenstudy.org.

What Is Triple Negative Breast Cancer

You've probably seen me mention Triple Negative Breast Cancer and been unsure about what I'm referring to. Don't worry- I would've been too before this August. It's crazy, over the past two months I've learned more than I have in a LONG time. Terms like invasive ductal carcinoma, adriamycin, estrogen receptor status, and metastasis have become normal vocabulary around our house.

Part of the battle in fighting a series disease in this age of information overload is to keep yourself from becoming just that, overloaded. There's a lot of information out there, and sometimes it seems you can only find the worst. Ryan and I have tried to rationalize what we find, sort of like TripAdvisor reviews-- people don't normally get online to write a review about a nice trip they had, it's generally one extreme or the other. In the cancer world it seems like the majority of the information is from negative experiences or outcomes. Don't get me wrong- I'm fully aware that the diagnosis I have received will kill 108 women a day. But I'm hopeful about the research that's being done and strides which are being made to target treatments for women with my condition. Which brings me to my next point... I found this article earlier today and thought it was super informative, but easy for non-medical folks to read. Take a minute to read this, and it might help you better understand my disease and what we're dealing with.

http://blog.oup.com/2012/09/what-is-triple-negative-breast-cancer/

The big news this week comes from the Cancer Genome Atlas program, which has announced a strong molecular connection between basal-like breast cancer tumors and ovarian cancer. The news stories I have read on the topic provide a great deal of hope for women with basal-like cancers. But the hope is, unfortunately, buried in a greater deal of confusion.

Here’s the hope: We’re getting closer and closer to understanding what makes breast cancer tick on a molecular level, and that means we could ultimately have treatments that target specific molecular anomalies, making the treatment more effective, efficient, and possibly less toxic. Most important, it would be clearer to doctors which patients need chemo and which don’t, saving thousands of people from unnecessary and dangerous treatment. And making chemo for those who need it more precise.

Among those who could benefit most from this research are the women and men with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which is currently treated with anthracylines — chemotherapy drugs such as Cytoxan and Adriamycin — that can cause long-term side effects including heart disease and increased risk of leukemia. Moreover, metastatic TNBC — cancer that has spread beyond to distant organs — can be resistant even to current forms of chemo.

The research on the genome project, published in the 23 September 2012 online edition of the journal Nature, ties basal-like breast cancers to ovarian cancers on a molecular level, suggesting that ultimately TNBC could be treated with the less-toxic chemotherapy used for ovarian cancer, including a mix of a carboplatin (Paraplatin) or cisplatin with a taxane such as paclitaxel (Taxol) or docetaxel (Taxotere).

That’s the hope. Now the confusion. The biggest confusion revolves around our understanding of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Some news stories I have read equate TNBC with basal-like tumors, as though the two were synonymous, which is not accurate. There is a correlation between TNBC and basal-like cancers, but not all TNBC tumors are basal-like, and not all basal-like tumors are TNBC. In fact, some researchers break TNBC into three subtypes, including basal-like and non-basal-like.

The other, and bigger, problem, come in the terms journalists and researchers use for TNBC: “particularly deadly,” “especially aggressive,” and “lethal.”

I understand why these words are used; it makes the research appear more significant. But these terms can frighten and depress those with TNBC and their families, and the research is significant enough to stand on its own without hyperbole.

Lost in the hyperbole is the fact that most women survive TNBC. The rates depend on too many factors to offer a generalization, but multiple studies have shown from 70 to 90% of patients with TNBC with no recurrence after five years. And rates for TNBC recurrence drop significantly after three years, so TNBC patients who have reached five years without recurrence often face better long-term odds than those with other forms of breast cancer.

It is a disease to take seriously, but who doesn’t take cancer seriously? Patients and survivors don’t need frightening words for effect. They are frightened enough.

Triple-negative breast cancer gets its name because tumors of this subtype lack receptors for estrogen, progesterone, and the human growth hormone Her2/neu. The significance of being negative for these receptors is that TNBC lacks a targeted therapy, such as tamoxifen, which blocks the effects of estrogen, Arimidex, which prevents the production of estrogen, and Herceptin, which treats her/2-positive tumors.

So, TNBC is a disease defined by what it lacks. But, thanks to research on the human genome, it may soon be defined by its specific molecular characteristics. And treating something you can define is a whole lot easier than treating what you can’t.

Patricia Prijatel is author of Surviving Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, published by Oxford University Press. She is the E.T. Meredith Distinguished Professor Emerita of Journalism at Drake University. She is doing a webcast with the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation on 16 October 2012.

Nursery Curtains

Our curtains are up! My mother in law is staying with us right now, and was sweet enough to help make curtains for Baby Addison's room. The "look" that we decided on was blue walls, with white furniture, and touches of red and blue around the room. We didn't pick out a bedding set, because I wanted to room to look more curated instead of straight from a bag. We registered for several sets of sheets, with different patterns in blue & red (baseball, stars, whales, etc), and my mom will be making a bed skirt in a navy and white gingham.

I scored this Dutailier glider on Craigslist, and my mom is recovering the cushions in navy with white piping. It's going to be too cute! The crib skirt will be here when my mom comes into town on Thursday, so I'll post more pictures when I have it!

The fabric on the bottom is royal and navy stars, and we accented with a red ric rac. I love how they came together!

Bath & Body Works Sale

Friends, there's a big candle sale happening at Bath & Body Works this weekend! All of their 3 wick candles are 2 for $20 , and you can get them 3 for $30 too! The does sale start today, but if you go Saturday between 1p-5p you'll get a free smaller candle with purchase! I love free!! The small candle is one of their new fall scents, I can't remember which but it smelled amazing.

They have some new scents for this fall season, and my personal favorite is Nutmeg and Spice. It smells just like my mom's sugar cookies! I'm excited to hop into the store (w/Lysol wipes and Purell) to pick out some new fall favorites!!!!

Peace

Saw this image on the Facebook site for the Breast Cancer Society and thought I would share. During this physically and emotionally trying time, it's sometimes difficult to find peace in your heart.

PEACE

It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. 

It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

24 Weeks

Here's the 24 week picture. This week we were able to have Ryan's mom take a fun one of both of us too! On Monday we had an ultrasound and saw that Baby Addison is growing right on schedule, which is such a relief. The chemo will sort of stunt his growth, so the doctors are shooting for 5 lbs at 37 weeks. Right now he's 1 lb, 6oz. Keep growing, baby!

Ballpark Bob

Yesterday I finally used the Gilt credit that I've had for over a year. I couldn't believe this super cute baseball bear, his name is Ballpark Bob. It's 24" too! We're planning on taking the baby's pictures next to it to see how he's growing. Baby Addison can't get here soon enough!