radiation-therapy – Life As I Know It

🌷Stepping into Spring and Uncertainty

March 14, 2026

Happy spring! It’s been crazy warm here with basically no snow this winter. It’s made it a bit easier to get outside but also worrisome.

Christmas in March – Glen and the girls got me a stained glass making class for Christmas. You can see how beautiful the weather looks!

One thing I try not worry about is this damn cancer. There is a lot about my situation that is out of my control. Sometimes it’s hard not to worry and in those cases I only give my self a set amount of time and then I put the worry away.

It’s been a wild three months.

🌷 Radiation to my C1 last fall looks like it was successful in stopping that cancer lesion.

🌷 I was taking a walk in January and my hip/femur (greater trochanter) fractured. It was minor and no longer hurts. Still, walking may = fracture.

🌷 This week I had 5 doses of radiation on that fracture to try to knock down the cancer and reduce any further fracture.

🌷 This week I had a total of 8 medical appointments (5 radiation, a PET scan, an oncology visit, and an echocardiogram).

🌷 PET scan results were not great. Looks like the cancer has gotten a bit more active. Looking at changing treatments.

As you’ve probably learned from me by now, there are a finite number of treatments. Once those run out there is nothing to stop the cancer.

How many treatment lines are there? It varies for each person depending on your cancer subtype. Exact number is unclear (but not a huge number, maybe 6-10ish?). The positive side is that research and clinical trials are making more drugs available all the time. The drug I’ve been on for the past 2 years was not an option for me when I was diagnosed! I just need more drugs to become available and approved!

I don’t know what I’ll do for my next reatment line. We are looking at a clinical trials.

Please, please, talk to your fiends, family and neighbors about how important it is for the federal government to pass budgets on time and to fund cancer research! I know several promising trials that have stopped because of all the nonsense going on with the budget and NIH. It’s not partisan, it’s life or death for some of us.

All of this being said, I’m optimistic that I’ll find a good next treatment and hope that the side effects will be minimal and it will be very effective.

In the meantime I’m doing all the things! So far this year I’ve taken ballet classes, a sketching class, Spanish lessons, signed up to work with a personal trainer and am looking into learning to knit. I have a few trips planned with the girls and will enjoy every single day.

Wishing you all a fantastic rest of March. I’ll share more when I know it.

I was in Kansas City for work and caught the Univ. Colorado Women’s BB tournament game!

Busy September capped by radiation ☢️

October 11, 2025

September was a busy month for me in managing cancer.

Back in June I had a brain MRI, which includes the very top of your spine (cervical). At that time, it looked like there might be an active tumor in part of my C1 vertebrae. I also had a full body PET scan that showed “stable” cancer at the time (mainly my spine has been problematic).

The stable PET scan means that my treatment (Enhertu) is largely working. However, the tumor on my C1 made me nervous. Your C1 is directly at the back of your head at the height of your nose. If anything goes wrong there it can be complicated and in the words of my oncologist “catastrophic” 😳

After discussing with my oncologist in August, we decided to radiate it. It’s not uncommon with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) to consider radiating smaller tumors if everything else is stable or no evidence of disease (NED).

So, I decided to pack this in to September which was already busy.

After another MRI of my cervical spine I met with a radiation oncologist. He wanted to do Stereotactic external Beam Radiation Therapy (SBRT) – a concentrated radiation that would have been 2 sessions.

My insurance company disagreed with my radiation oncologist and wouldn’t cover it.

I could appeal it but that can take weeks and I didn’t want to give the tumor more time to get comfy and grow. So instead, I had to go for 10 sessions over two weeks.

You have to lay perfectly still for radiation so that the beam hits the intended target. At my planning session appointment they created a mask. A mesh of warm plastic was placed over my face and head and molded to my exact shape. The photo of the mask shows me with a big smile – not that I’m super happy to be doing this, I just naturally smile for photos.

A spanking new mold of my face and head.

Then I got out of town. Drove Maddy to Cal Poly and then back home. The next day I jumped on a plane to Providence for work. Glen flew out at the end of the week and we spent the weekend (our first as official “empty nesters”) with my cousin playing tourist.

Beautiful fall weather made a boat tour of light houses on Naragassent Bay just delightful!

We got home late on a Sunday and Monday morning at 9am I had my first radiation treatment.

The photo shows me right after they finished a treatment. The mask mostly feels like a heavy blanket with a lot of holes draped over your head.

The mask is literally snapped to the table. You can’t move your head at all. You can kind of see through the holes and of course you can breathe. The round equipment above my head rotated all the way around the table that I’m lying on.

I had 10 treatments (M-F) over two weeks. Within those 2 weeks I also had my Enhertu infusion and got my flu and COVID boosters.

As soon as I finished radiation I headed back to the east coast, Washington DC this time to advocate on the Hill for funding for cancer research.

It’s been a lot, however, I refuse to let cancer dictate my life. Most of those days I was in bed before 9pm. I’m grateful that my side effects are minimal and I can still do “all the things”.

The side effects of radiation to your head are not pleasant. This week I developed a wicked sore throat to the point that I couldn’t swallow. Food doesn’t taste like anything. My fatigue has been ridiculous.

October is a little more quiet but more travel for work and fun.

I hope you all are living your best life and doing the things that make you happy and matter to you, whatever that might be.

Onward!

Our last family dinner before Maddy left for college.

☀️ More Radiation ☢️

Happy New Year!

I hope the new year is treating you well. We were fortunate to be able to spend time with family in Wisconsin and then Rob, Paul and Cara came out to do some skiing over New Years. Escaping to the mountains and Winter Park is always a good time!

It’s been sunny here – pretty typical for Colorado. I love the sun so I celebrated the winter solstice and the increase of solar radiation 🌞. I’m very happy the sunset continues to move later and later into the evening.

While I welcome more radiation from the Sun, I’m less thrilled with the fact that I will need to have some medical radiation ☢️. New pain developed in my left hip and leg a few days after Christmas. After an MRI and appointment with my neurosurgeon, we’ve confirmed the pain is real and related to progression of the cancer.

It looks like the L4 and L5 vertebrae are growing more tumor. Recall in October I had surgery to remove tumor on my L4 and L5 that was pinching my spinal cord. It’s grown back. It also looks like my S1 vertebrae (sacrum, just below the lumbar region) has notable progression. This is new cancer activity. Clearly the cancer is active and has grown back over the past 2 months.

I stopped taking Ibrance in September, I continued to receive Fulvestrant shots through early November. I started taking Xeloda (oral chemotherapy) in December. I continue to take Xeloda.

So, the cancer is active and we need to figure out how to stop it. The best path forward is to stay on my medicine so it has the opportunity to get the cancer under control.

Surgery would require me to stop my cancer medication. That’s not a great option because this would allow the cancer to continue to grow. My medical team has told me radiation is the best option.

At this point I’m waiting for the cancer center to call me to set up the appointments. I will have an initial appointment where they plan out what they are going to do and then I will go to the cancer center daily for the radiation treatment.

I’m grateful I have an option other than surgery and I’m looking forward to working with the radiation team to get started. In the meantime I’ll be working as I can and aiming to keep moving. My physical therapist has given me many good exercises and I’ve ordered some walking poles specifically designed for recovery. The poles should arrive this coming week and I’ll be getting outside as soon as I can with them. (Neighbors, if you see me, come on out and join me – I’d love the company.)

I hope that you all are having a great month and are doing all the things that make you happy and that are good for you.

Onward!