Laura Conklin

Laura was diagnosed to have breast cancer in January 2017. Since that time she's had innumerable doctor visits and medical tests. The breast cancer metastasized in her spine and caused damage to her back bone from her neck to her tail bone.  That was the cause of the compression fracture that originally led to the need to seek medical care.  Ultimately Laura would experience three different compression fractures.  Radiation treatment was prescribed to reduce the size of a tumor that was causing pain and pressing on her back bone.  That treatment was successful.  They also designed a special "turtle shell" like back brace for Laura to wear at all times when she Is away from home.   The particular type of breast cancer is one that is treated with a hormone therapy pill and a chemo pill.  The chemo pill treatments are 21 days of one pill per day and 7 days off.  Over the months of cancer treatments Laura's cancer tumor markers have dropped dramatically.  So that's good news.  Unfortunately, not long after being diagnosed to have cancer, Laura developed shingles.  This is not uncommon for people who have cancer as their immune system is not very strong.  For a couple of months the pain from shingles was so severe that Laura could give little thought to her cancer problem.  And it was hard even to leave the house for doctor's appointments and that sort of thing.  Sometimes the pain attacks were so intense that it would cause her to cry out in pain.  This continued for a couple of months and is only now  markedly improved.  In recent weeks Laura has been able to get out of the house and do more.  The cancer treatments continue together with regular checkups to check the tumor markers and white blood cell counts.  Regular imagining tests are also conducted to check the status of Laura's back.