Hi Family and Friends,

After 7-8 months of focus and treatment, I can finally deliver some good news! I had my normal 3-week chemo on Monday, my 4-week Lupron shot the week prior, and my quarterly PET scan on Wednesday. I told my oncologist at my Monday appt that I felt I was due for good news after so many past scans just read as “better than bad news”. It’s a hard pill to swallow. I have been working hard and staying positive from the beginning, but I really needed the lever to move to justify our hard work at fighting this awful disease, especially since my treatment plan is aggressive and we have been non-stop attacking it since day one. 

So after a sleepless night of scanxiety, and a ride from my sweet friend so I could take my claustrophobia meds to get in the tiny machine Wednesday, I received such great news. In short, the masses have finally shrunk. Some masses are delineated. Some other spots are not even popping up on the PET scan. While it’s still there and the fight is never ending, we are making movement! Much needed movement!

I plan to find out more thoughts from my oncologist at my next visit, but my non-medical background thinks that the full estrogen cutoff we pushed hard on in January (a daily pill, chemo, plus a shot to my buttocks muscle that inserts a seed that shuts down ovaries) has effectively challenged the fuel source, as planned. 

I do realize that cancer marches to the beat of its own drum, so things could/will change again in the future, but for right now, I will dance to the beat. 

In the stolen words of recent texts from William Bailey, my friend,  my “family” and my fellow cancer fighter, who’s funeral service we returned from yesterday: “Focus on your family and yourself, be tenacious in the fight, jettison the noise…You fight like hell, no surrender, cancer receives no quarter.”

I will fight extra hard for you, Will. You are still my coach in this…

Hugs to all,

Danielle