MD Anderson trip and cancer update

Once I had found out that my cancer had returned, I sought out a new oncologist at Huntsman, Dr. Werner. My neighbor with ovarian cancer had been seeing her and liked her a lot. I am so glad I switched to be under her care! She is so caring and was ok with me using alternative treatments as long as they didn't interfere with my medications. She agreed to do a further workup of my cancer biopsies to see if it was high or low grade. This would make a huge difference in the choice of treatment because low grade doesn't respond to chemotherapy. I later learned through more testing that my cancer is 80% estrogen positive and low grade. I also had tumor profiling done and learned that my cancer carries 2 very rare genetic mutations. Dr. Werner wanted me to take an estrogen blocking medication called Femera (Letrozol) to see if it can slow the growth down. Of course, this medication has side effects of hot flashes, bloating, weight gain, joint pain, and bone loss.

After recovering for a few weeks from my surgery, I was finally able to travel to Houston Texas for a second opinion that I had scheduled months earlier. I had found Dr. Gershensen, who was at MD Anderson Cancer Hospital in Texas. He has specialized in low grade cancer for 40+ years and I wanted to see if he agreed with the low grade cancer diagnosis from Huntsman. He agreed with this as well as Dr. Werner's plan for further treatment. I traveled to Houston Texas with my Dad and we tried to make the best of this trip by visiting Galveston (where the beach is). We ended up getting there just as it was getting dark.

 I returned home from Texas and had yet another CT scan and a DEXA scan in December to check my bone density levels. I was very surprised to hear that in one year of being without estrogen my bones have already weakened and was diagnosed with osteopenia. I started taking Calcium and Vitamin D and continued to take classes at the gym to keep up my strength. The CT results weren't great, in fact, very shocking to me. A new cancer tumor was seen in my right psoas muscle which was a few mm. This stuff is nasty and sneaky....I have been doing everything I can to prevent more cancer from coming back and couldn't believe that 2 months after my surgery it had come back. I will continue to have CT scans every 3 months to keep an eye on things. Unfortunately, we learned that we can no longer use my CA-125 blood marker to track the cancer because it was a 12 (lowest it has ever been) when I had recurrence.

Cancer rears it ugly face again

October was one of the most difficult months for me this year. Earlier in the summer (August 18th) was when recurrence of my Ovarian cancer was discovered. It was initially re-discovered during my surgery in August by Dr. Hancey. I had wanted to remove a massive lipoma that had grown on my low back because it had been giving me more pain and I was almost unable to lay flat on my back. I met with Dr. Hancey, a plastic surgeon at Alta View and also discussed an abdominoplasty to fix my diastase recti (which ended up being a 4 inch gap!) During that 6 hour surgery, Dr. Hancey found 2 abnormal masses that were on top of my left abdominal muscles.  He thought it was just abnormal tissue and sent them off for biopsy. A week after surgery, I found out that they tested positive for metastatic ovarian cancer.

When I first heard this news, I was in shock as I had not had any pain or symptoms! It actually took quite a while for this to sink in. For the first few weeks after this news, I wasn't too concerned and figured all of the cancer was removed now. I healed quite well from the surgery with no complications and only took 2 weeks off work. A month after surgery I was told to go in for a PET scan, which is more sensitive to picking up new growths. This scan showed that I had more tumors in my body. I was told by Dr. Zempolich that I would need to undergo exploratory surgery ASAP to remove more cancer. I was devastated as I had just finally healed and able to lift things again and would be starting all over again! I was also concerned because she would have to re-open my abdominal muscles that were just sewed back together a few weeks earlier!

On October 4th I had surgery at St. Marks Hospital. Dr. Karen Zempolich along with my plastic surgeon, Dr. Hancey performed a 7 hour surgery to remove more sneaky cancer.
   
During the surgery with Dr. Zempolich, cancer was discovered on my liver, my left abdominal muscles, left groin- which was wrapped around my nerve and blood vessels in the femoral triangle (which was the area I had complained about pain earlier in the year), along with a shocking huge mass that had perforated my sigmoid colon, which 12 inches of bowel were removed.

 This surgery was a very difficult recovery for me. I stayed in the hospital almost a week due to complications following surgery including a blood clot in my lungs, low oxygen saturation, and poor wound healing.  My parents took turns staying the night at the hospital taking care of me while Jeff took care of the kids at home. I was finally discharged home with a wheelchair and on 3 liters of oxygen that I had to wear all day and night. I was able to wean off the oxygen within the next week and was sure glad to have that cannula out of my nostrils! Along with the side effects from surgery, I lost 20 lbs from not being able to eat for almost a month. I was placed on a no fiber diet for 3 weeks and couldn't eat any raw fruits or veggies (which is primarily what I had been eating before).  I had a lot of difficulty getting my bowels to work since a foot of them had just been removed. I was also restricted for quite a while on any lifting due to a large piece of abdominal muscle removed and having my abs pulled back together for the second time.  I remember sitting at home just wishing I could have my normal day to day life back and go to work and take care of my children. I also ended up having difficulty battling more depression from the recurrence of the cancer and the stress that Jeff brought on, as he was unable to handle taking care of all my needs at home.

The evening I returned home, I was really out of it still and was having difficulty keeping my oxygen sats up. My parents got me settled at home and left Jeff in charge to care for me. About 20 minutes later, I was having a lot of difficulty breathing and in tremendous pain. My parents came back to help take care of me at my house. The events that followed that night ended up being a nightmare! My dad came into our house and was very frustrated with Jeff's inability to watch my oxygen levels for 20 min and Jeff started yelling at him. Next thing I know, I was in my dad's truck and was heading back to the hospital due to my poor condition. Unfortunately, things just got worse and I never ended up going where I really needed to! I told my mom to call for help because Jeff was getting out of control and I was worried he was going to hurt somebody. I was afraid for my life...he wouldn't allow my parents to help me and was blocking them and me from my own home while I sat helpless on oxygen, in a wheelchair, and inability to move without pain. I along with the kids, got into the truck attempting to return to the hospital and be in a safer environment. Then I look out the truck window and 3 or 4 police officers show up at the house. To make a long story short, Jeff's family members came over and were out of control! His brother yelled at my parents while the police officers were questioning everyone. Jeff called over the newly called Bishop (who he thought would "talk sense" into us) but ended up standing there watching everything. How embarrassing for us! The kids were buckled up in their car seats in my Dad's truck until Jeff attempted to pull them out, which just made things worse. I was told by an officer that I was being charged because I had scratched Jeff! Which I never recall doing! I was in shock! How could I go from trying to recover peacefully after a huge surgery to now getting a court date for "domestic abuse!" while trying to get back to the hospital.  Jeff and I were unable to talk to each other until our court hearing a few days later, on our anniversary! Emotions were quite high and communication was not handled well during this incident. I have forgiven the terrible words and actions of Jeff and his family at this time and will not allow their negativity to pull me down! I had to stay positive and strong to fight this cancer so I can be here for my family and beautiful daughters!
Due to the complications and slow healing, I didn't return back to work for a month.

November

During November, we were lucky enough to have quite a warm fall and played outside in the leaves.
The girls loved rolling around in the piles and burying themselves as we raked in the yard.

Aubs and Brynn at Cabelas with Grandma Susie looking at the animals.

                                                       Thanksgiving dinner at the Baths
Aubrie loved to sing her favorite song "Turkey Dinner" every day!

                              We also went to see the new Disney movie Moana, which the girls loved!

Brynnley is 17 months old now and has become more independent. She loves to get an apple out of the fridge and munch on it herself.
 - She also has 8 teeth now...4 on top and 4 on bottom.
 - She loves to dance and especially if you tell her to "Shake your booty" she does a cute little bum shake and grins at you.
 - She also loves to play with toys including Barbies, play kitchen food, dolls-feeding them bottles, and cuddly stuffed animals.
- She likes to hold your hand and walk around.

Shannon and Joe's Wedding

On November 11th, Shannon and Joe got married at the Salt Lake Temple. We were so excited to attend her sealing and am so proud of them!

The girls were excited to run around on the temple grounds and see Shannon's "married dress"

Shannon's reception was held that evening at Cactus and Tropicals in Draper. Her colors were coral, teal and silver. It turned out to be so beautiful and the girls loved getting all dressed up to be Shannon's flower girls.

Aubrie also loved getting to help hold Shannon's train of her dress as they walked around the temple grounds.

                                                           I Love my littlest flower girl!

Halloween and 2 cute Bumblebees

This year both girls dressed up for Halloween as Bees. Aubrie proudly annouced that she was not a bumble bee, but instead she was a Meat Bee and was a mean one! LOL! She learned this term we used during the summer to describe the bees that come out when we are eating outdoors.

Both girls were so excited to go Trick or Treating and this year I actually had some energy to walk a little way with them. Aubrie loved the reeces and Brynnley loved the suckers.

At my work our theme this year was the Wizard of Oz. I of course was picked to be Glinda the good witch.

Fall Fun

October was a tough month for me as I was trying to recover from my second large surgery in 2 months. I tried to enjoy the time off from work to spend with the girls with various fall festivities.

                                                 Picking Pumpkins at Peterson Farms
                                                     (Brynnley 1 yr and Aubrie 4 yrs)

Brynnley decided to have a little accident and hit her eyebrow on the corner of the coffee table on October 1st. She split her eyebrow open pretty good and was rushed to Families First Peds to have it glued back together. She was so brave while the nurses cleaned it out and glued it....she never even cried once!

Jeff and I were able to attend our final concert of the year at Usana. We got to see Luke Bryan (who I missed seeing last year because of chemo), Little Big Town, and Dustin Lynch.

                                                                  Dustin Lynch

                                                                     Luke Bryan

I also made time to go to Cornbellys at Thanksgiving Point with the girls to play.

Brynnley started walking a few steps on her own on Oct 3rd at 16 months.
She loves to say hi and waves. She also loves playing with big sister and her toys and watching mickey mouse clubhouse. She is such a sweet and easy going girl, but is starting to love her independence. She also loves to cuddle us with her blanket and soft toys.

Aubrie enjoyed all the rides, while Brynnley enjoyed eating her Kettle Corn and watching the animal sing along shows.

On October 15th, I had returned home from my surgery a few days earlier and was eager to send Aubrie to her first birthday party....Brody Bunker (Lindsay Siebenhaar's son). Aubrie wanted to dress up all cute for her boyfriend Brody. She returned home from the party with a sore left arm, which I told her was fine. Later that night, she was complaining about how bad her arm hurt and I decided to take her in for an x-ray. Sure enough, she had broken both her radius and ulna mid-forarm by being stepped on at a bounce house during the party.

Aubrie was placed in a sling and splint for a week until she could get it casted at Primary's. Of course she chose hot pink for her cast. I must say that a broken arm was much easier than a broken leg like last year. This girl has good timing for breaking bones when mom is at her sickest points :)

Little Brynnley's favorite thing to do lately is to sit in the fridge and watch what is going on in the kitchen. She also has a new love for dum dum suckers....especially the blue ones that turn her mouth bright blue!

Prior to my surgery in October, I had to get my first PET scan. It is easier than the CT scan and actually picked up tumors!

I sure love these two munchkins and they love each other! Aubrie loves to help Brynnley get her toys, blankets and binkies and Brynn loves having the attention and playing with her big sister.