Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend!

Mom had a follow up appointment with Dr V last week, so I wanted to post another update as it has been a few months since the last one - which as I've said before is always good news :)

Mom is still doing pretty well and the most recent scans and tests done still indicate that her cancer is stable, which is always what we hope for when we meet with Dr V. The good news we received is since the disease has been stable for about a year now and Mom is doing well, Dr V feels comfortable shifting her follow up appointments to once every six weeks, instead of once per month! This is a good sign, we felt, that Dr V is comfortable and confident with where Mom is right now in her treatment and overall health being pretty consistent, to increase the time between appointments to a little bit longer!

As a follow up to my last update in the spring,  Mom did meet with cardiologist Dr. Patel, which went very well overall. Mom enjoyed meeting with him and liked talking to him, and the EKG and other test results all came back normal with no concerns about her heart at this time, being affected by her treatment.

Mom also spoke to Dr V about obtaining a medical marijuana card, to which Dr V had no objections to, or opinion of, one way or the other. Mom has been considering this avenue for the past several weeks, and so after meeting with Dr V, she went back to the Doctor that originally discovered her cancer (Dr Stretansky) and got her card last week.  There are a couple reasons for this  - She has not had many issues overall, but a fair amount of the time she may not sleep all that well, and she also has intermittent issues with nausea, mostly around the time every few months where they have to give her a dye into her system to perform a bone-density scan. Thankfully these scans only have to happen a few times per year and not monthly, but the last couple of times she has had the dye, it has made her feel pretty bad for 5-6 days afterwards. So, with all that being said, she was offered a medical marijuana card early on after her diagnosis last year by the Dr Stetansky, which she never took. However, more recently she has been researching how medical marijuana in its various forms, has shown signs in early testing to help with both the side effects of her treatment (sleeplessness, nausea etc) as well as the POTENTIAL (in animal testing) that it may...may...aid in helping directly with her tumors and keeping them in check as well. The testing is in its very early stages as most people know medical marijuana and it's benefits have only recently became accepted in many states and by legit research and medical professionals, but there is evidence that likely will continue to be discovered and expanded upon in the coming years & decades in human trials, that medical grade amounts of CBD and THC found in marijuana have a lot of benefits, potentially astounding benefits down the road, to cancer patients. 

There are various ways in which medical marijuana can be dispensed when purchased from an official shop operated by the state of Ohio. Dr Stretansky suggested to mom that two of the most effective for her may be in the form of gummies to chew and swallow, or via a vape. Mom will decide which ways work best for her with the help of one of the workers when she goes in the first time. 

Lastly, mom asked me to include a link (below) for some common questions and answers that she has gotten from various friends and family, to help alleviate some of the misconceptions around her diagnosis, of what metastatic breast cancer is, what it isn't, and several other common questions that people often have. I hope if you've read all this way, you'll take a few more minutes to read the link below! (This site does not allow for hyperlinks, so please copy the link below and paste it into your web browser)

https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/types/recur_metast/myths

Thank you to everyone for your continued love and support!