Update: 1 Month To Go?

As April rolls in, I'm rounding the corner on what may be my final month of chemo. I am scheduled for 3 more treatments and then I do another PET scan. Fingers crossed, hopefully that scan will show that my cancer has reduced even more since my scan in January. That scan will help the doctor determine if I should continue on chemo a bit longer or switch over to hormone therapy.

We are not expecting the scan to show that the cancer has been eliminated, just reduced. Even without eliminating the cancer with chemo, hormone therapy may continue to reduce cancer activity or at least hold it in stasis. Hormone therapy means taking an estrogen-blocking medication since my particular cancer feeds on estrogen. Then for the next several years I would continue to have regular PET scans (not sure of the interval) to monitor if the cancer has started to grow again and if I should do more chemotherapy.

At this point I'm feeling very positive about my prospects. Even without doing a scan, I've had some feedback on my cancer through the observable tumors in the breast and armpit. This past month the tumor in the breast has entirely disappeared as far as I or my doctor can tell! The tumor in the armpit is more stubborn, but does seem to be shrinking a bit. If that sucker disappears in this final month of chemo I will be thrilled. (On a related note, my bulging disk back pain has improved. Last month it was so bad I felt almost bedridden and couldn't sit for more than 10 minutes. After a month of specific core-strengthening physical therapy I feel back to my "normal" with the pain being significant only about 1 day a week and the last hour in the evenings.)

Even with disappearing tumors and really good scan results, it will be a long time before I feel like I am "out of the water," if ever. Cancer has a way of resurging. Thankfully it can be attacked with chemotherapy multiple times and I've shown good response to such treatment. I'm also attacking my cancer nutritionally by switching over to a low-sugar plant-based diet and I've heard some encouraging stories with that approach (stage 4 cancer patients still going strong after 20 years). My hope is that once the chemo has beaten back these big tumors, the combination of hormone therapy and better nutrition will keep me in remission for a long long time.