Next up: radiation therapy and another surgery

Here are Liam and me enjoying a date in Cbus, even after getting some rough news last week.

My scan results on Aug 10th (nine weeks after my June surgery) revealed 2 new pelvic wall tumors. One is almost 5 cm and one is almost 2 cm. I was not expecting a completely clear scan, but I thought any growth might be smaller and give us a bit of a reprieve. My oncologist called the cancer "incredibly aggressive" and is recommending "split radiation." 

The plan is to start radiation next week for 5.5 weeks followed by abdominal surgery end of October. The surgeon can only remove the cancer that is visible, so we are hoping the pre-op radiation will "stun" any microscopic cancer cells preventing a quick recurrence, like the one I just had. 

We didn't attempt radiation before, because it can make surgery more difficult due to scar tissue that develops. But in this case, we know the cancer has been pretty resistant to chemo and is growing so quickly that a growth inhibitor and hormone blocker can only do so much. At this point, it seems worth it to take the risk of radiation in the hopes I won't need as many future surgeries. Without radiation, or some way to get at these microscopic growths, the tumors could just come back after each surgery, and I can't get abdominal surgery every 3 months.

And at some point I would likely start a new chemo pill, and maybe a PARP growth inhibitor, depending on genetic results. 

I plan to stay in Ohio for the surgery. Dr. Liebner is working with Dr. Haglund (radiation oncologist) and Dr. Grignol (sarcoma surgeon) to take the best care of me possible, and I'm feeling good about the team. I have a call with Dr Singer (NYC surgeon) this week, so it will be good to get his thoughts on all this as well.

This is obviously not the news we had hoped for, but we are forging ahead and feeling grateful for all the fun we’ve had recently (see below!) and all the love and support from our community. We really enjoyed NED life, even while recovering from intense surgery and even though new tumors were growing. So while we may have lost that status, we hope to enjoy our lives in the same way, knowing we have new plans for treatment and will bring all we can to get the disease under control.

Since the June surgery, I've been able to spend amazing time with people I love and have adventures in PA and NY.

Fiona's birthday and a visit from Libba and Verona

Visit with Ben, who I met in Tacoma and now lives in Vancouver!

Visit with Annie, a dear friend from college I hadn't seen in ages

Visit with Merry and Fritz, porch party!

Poconos cabin with Coop, Laura, Gabriel and Hazel. Nora eats her first s'more and is blown away by the sugar rush. Fiona swims with her head underwater!

Troy, NY pit stop with Mike, Katherine, and Felix (with a false alarm positive rapid covid test that forced us to take precautions, but we still had a blast)

Adirondack cabin visit with Mama, Papa, and the Hockleys. 

Visit with Alicia, Peter, Rosa and Meridel. They live in the UK and were stateside this summer and drove all the way from MN! 

Celebration of Janice and Mike's move to central Ohio. Hooray! 

I feel so lucky and grateful for all of the above, and while we know the next couple months will be challenging, we are feeling buoyed up by all these fun experiences and all the love that continues to come our way.

xoxox,

Molly