Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. After recovering from Breast Cancer in 2011, our Mom was diagnosed with Metastatic Breast Cancer in her bones in May 2018. BACKGROUND: In January 2018, she started having extreme pain in her right hip and was unable to walk without an assistive device. She ultimately had to stop working as a care-giver. The cause of the pain was mis-diagnosed until late in May, when a hip specialist ordered a bone scan. The bone scan showed that the Metastatic Breast Cancer had almost completely consumed her hip. There were areas in her spine, rib, and shoulder that were affected as well. She began radiation immediately, and then started oral chemotherapy and other treatments through the summer. Luckily the pain subsided for a few months and things seemed to be looking up. UPDATES AS OF THE START OF THIS PAGE: This Fall, Mom started noticing pain in her left hip. Tests indicated that the cancer had spread to her left hip and had continued to grow in her spine. Because of this, Mom started radiation on her hip immediately, and finished the cycle on 11/20/18. She will go for specialized radiation treatments to her spine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester beginning 12/5/18. On 11/26/18, Mom had another PET scan to determine the full extent of the activity. Results show that the chemotherapy hasn’t been working very well. The cancer is widespread and progressive. It is mostly involved in the thoracic spine (upper back), upper lumbar spine (lower back), head of her right femur/pelvis/hip joint, the mediastinum (chest cavity that holds the heart, esophagus, trachia, lymph nodes, etc.), abdominal cavity, and, most threatening, the left femoral neck ( the region just below the ball of the hip joint). Next week we are going to Rochester for a consultation and then she will start specialized radiation treatments. It is imperative that we do this right away because of the risk of paralysis. We don’t know how many treatments will be required at this time. After the radiation is complete, Mom will start a more aggressive chemotherapy. Along with our parents, Dave & Deb Gilbert; Balinda, Patricia, and Jessica want you to know that we appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Please follow this page for the most recent updates, as Balinda will post details here. Feel free to call or text, but we ask for no unexpected visitors. Also, please remember that cold and flu can cause major complications for cancer patients. We want to ensure Mom stays as healthy as possible. Thank you for visiting our page. We will be setting up a GoFundMe that will be linked to this page. For those of you who feel inspired to assist my parents with a monetary donation, please use the GoFundMe account when I post it. This CaringBridge site is an awesome, free tool. If you want to send money to the administrators of CaringBridge to allow them to continue to offer this tool for free, you’ll see a link that says, “Honor Deb by donating $30 to Caring Bridge”.
