If I’m Keeping Score with Cancer: Radiation 4, Bone Mets 0 – Let’s get to 5-0

Monday I start a 10-day regimen of radiation. This will be the 5th time I undergo radiation treatment for metastatic breast cancer (MBC)

In April I shared I was not sure how to “celebrate” being NEAD, or No Evidence of Active Disease. Especially after living with MBC for eleven-plus years. Not to mention the passing of two family members within months, even days (January and April) to other forms of cancer.

I never did “celebrate” the NEAD news.

It didn’t feel appropriate. Honestly, it didn’t even feel real. Living with MBC means you are just waiting for the next scan results.

For me, during these past 12 years (yes, I hit the 12-year mark in October), I have accepted “Stable” as “good news”. However “good news” is not what others might think. “Good news” for me means there is no progression -at the time of the scan – and there is no need to change medication.

The results from my November scans were not “good news”

…but the results were not “bad news” either. It is inevitable there will be progression when you live with MBC. In my case, the scans showed new lesions on my spine and in my ribs.

When I met with my oncologist, I reminded him what he told me in 2010 – as long as we keep it in my bones, we are good – that probably isn’t a direct quote but close enough.

For now, we continue to fight with radiation to stop the lesions from getting any larger (and hopefully manage some of the pain that comes with bone mets). My radiation oncologist and I are optimistic, based on past experiences with radiation, my body will respond well to the 10 days of treatment.

The oral medication I have been taking for three years has managed to keep everything else at bay so the current plan is to increase the dosage if my body can tolerate it, and hopefully, nothing new shows up on the next scans.

Bring on 2023.

May the radiation and new medication dosage continue to bring “good news” for quite a while

P.S. GO FROGS. Super excited to watch the #3 Horned Frogs play Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve.