Cheers!
Met with our medical oncologist, dr. Williams, today and made a plan. The tumor is estrogen positive as 
we had hoped. This means it is indeed metastasized breast cancer and should be receptive to hormone therapy. It is a fast growing and active tumor so it’s good we moved quickly. Jay said, everything she does is “active and fast.” Ha-ha I will have 14 straight days of radiation (weekends off). I’m told the main side effect will be fatigue which could last a week or so after treatment as it is cumulative. The radiation team is great and apart from the uncomfortable positioning the radiation isn’t too rough. I will next look at additional means of limiting the estrogen in my body such as hormone therapy and removing my ovaries. They will follow me closely with scans these next 3 months to see if the cancer shows up elsewhere. I will simultaneously work on complimentary ways to keep this cancer at bay such as diet, exercise, reducing stress, etc… My doctor was very reassuring that this is treatable right now. There is not a cure for stage 4 metastatic breast cancer but there are lots of options to fight it and I’ve got a lot of fight in me! Our family is so moved by all the love, prayers and support we have received. We are so humbled by the response through Hope Scarves and the increase in traffic to our website and scarf requests. I am staring down cancer again and it is evil and scary. It fuels my motivation to fight and to build hope scarves to spread hope and encouragement to people facing this scary diagnosis. No one should do this alone. After our appointments and treatments jay and I went to one of my favorite lunch spots and celebrated with champagne. Cheers to love, hope, family, friends, faith, medicine, research, the future and so much more. With Hope Lara
Jay and I are waiting for me to go back to get set up with radiation. As I sit here I am just so thankful to have him by my side. He is supportive, funny, helpful and optimistic. I am going to beat this because he and I have some big plans together.
make the experience as pleasant as possible. I was even able to crack a couple jokes as they wrote with sharpies on my tush (to get me lined up for radiation treatments). (Hope College girls can especially laugh at that one!) Jay and I went over the calendar for the next month and I think he finally gets why I am always running around half crazy. Jay has been a rock star taking over both daddy and mommy jobs. And thanks to all our friends who are helping shuttle Mac boys around and having fun. Spent some time at Hope Scarves today too. Erica is holding down the fort magnificently and several amazing friends have volunteered to help with administrative jobs. I am so thankful to have their support. If you have made a donation to hope scarves in the past couple weeks. I promise you will receive a thank you letter soon! Our scarf requests are up for the week just based on more people learning about the organization. I am so humbled that my diagnosis has already meant more people are supported by our mission. We meet with my medical oncologist Dr. Williams tomorrow morning to put all the pieces together and make a plan. If all goes smoothly I will have my first radiation treatment tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow will be a big step toward getting rid of this tumor. I am so ready. With hope, Lara
symptoms- it’s more like a formality). hoping it doesn’t measure brain activity at 6:30am. (Yawn)