2018-2019 One of the most exciting times in our marriage (becoming pregnant May 2018) came to a screeching hault when we received a phone call on Thursday, November 8th confirming that Sarah has breast cancer. Our hearts stopped. Breast cancer and being pregnant at the same time. Sarah was also diagnosed with Li Fraumeni Syndrome, so her body can't correct mutations in her DNA that can lead to cancer. The words we held onto during that time were the words God gave Sarah the day we were waiting for the biopsy results."You are going to have an amazing story in the end, because you are going to kick cancers butt and give birth to a healthy baby boy at the same time." Once diagnosed Sarah did two cycles of chemo with baby inside. Then, when her white blood count was the highest between chemos, she was induced at 38 weeks pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Noah. Next, one week after giving birth she started chemo again and they put her body into medically induced menopause at this time (this was the start of hormone therapy and trying to save her fertility during chemo). She finished all her chemo in April 2019. She had a bi-lateral mastectomy on May 1, 2019 then had DIEP flap reconstruction on July 1, 2019. Lastly she continued all her hormone therapy and will be one it for the next 5-10 years .
2020-2021 After dizziness and "feeling off" for months a tumor was found in Sarah's skull on a routine scan. They wanted to remove it immediately, so on August 27, 2020 she had a craniotomy to remove it immediately. after weeks of testing the tumor Sarah was diagnosed with an extremely rare adult intercranial ewings sarcoma (bone cancer). She went through 10 months of intense chemotherapy, as well as 3 months of intense antibiotics to treat a very uncommon bacterial infection in her blood, and 28 rounds of radiation. Treatment was finally finished over a year later, on October 4, 2021
2023 Sarah started having lots of fatigue and her hair started falling out to like crazy. No one could figure out what was going on. They though something hormonal but they couldn't figure it out. About a month later (March 2023) a routine scan showed a tumor on Sarah's adrenal gland. That was removed on May 3, 2023. The diagnosis was metastasized (stage 4) breast cancer. Right now we get to hold off on chemo because there was no other place of recurrence found in her body. Now, as long as the metastasized cancer stays hormone positive there are lots of treatment options and the prognosis for a long life is still pretty good. Now we will keep doing bi-annual whole body MRIs, which we were already doing because we wanted to try to catch if Ewing's ever came back, now we just look for both in the scans as well as any other new cancers since Sarah has Li-fraumeni- it is complicated, lol.
2024 Nearing the end of 2023 Sarah knew something was wrong again but she couldn't tell what. She began to feel more fatigued again and work seemed to be getting harder to do. Sarah kept on pushing through because her last full body scan in October 2023 was clear. Then Sarah got sick with a bunch of different bugs in December and January so she tributed the increased headaches to being sick. Then on February 26, 2024 Sarah had a routine scan that showed three tumors in her brain, all in different locations throughout the brain. Her team worked quickly and with in two weeks Sarah had brain surgery on March 11, 2024. There were mountains of people praying for healing, and God heard every prayer, just what he allowed was different- the tumors were still there when time for surgery. That surgery lead to another Metastatic Breast cancer diagnosis. Sarah's oncologist was shocked because normally Sarah's kind of breast cancer goes everywhere in the body before the brain, Sarah's cancer kind of skipped that. Now we will wait to see what God continues to do and take courage to accept what He allows for Sarah and her family's lives on this earth, which could include leaving this earth sooner then Sarah ever wanted.
We have a team of great doctors to help us through this process, including the Lord as the greatest physician. Please stay abreast through the journal below as we go on this journey God has given us.
Please join us in believing the words above and fighting these cancers with us.
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