Hello All,

I hope you are well, happy, healthy, and adjusting to the time change and the early dark evenings.

First order of business is to clear up a misunderstanding...While I am working really hard at becoming cancer free-I am not yet! My Breast MRI came back showing no cancer in my left breast but the PET Scan and Lumbar MRI still shows cancer. In fact, the cancer in the L4 continues to get bigger. We are hoping that the treatment will kick in and it will begin to shrink but as of my last scans-it grew.

Hopefully a fluke, but my tumor marker went up at my last tx. Not "scientifically significant" (47-51) but psychologically significant. I want the numbers to go down-not up. I am hoping that the numbers are back down for my next tx.

I will continue to have monthly tumor marker labs and will repeat the MRI and PET in January.

Alayna, Darrell, Khaya, Mor and myself walked in the Annual Making Strides walk. Was a rainy and cold day but we did it and had fun. Thank you to those of you who donated to the American Cancer Society and supported us.

I have also decided to try a new oncologist down at Dana Farber. The initial oncologist down there was not the "right" fit and will embark on finding one who is. My local oncologist is in full support.

I have also been blessed with meeting and making friends with 5 other young upbeat women who have been dx with breast cancer. While I wish none of us have to go through this, it has been great to meet others, share stories, ask advice, get feedback, and experience similar fears/concerns/joys/etc.

Well, this is all for today. I hope you all have a great, happy, healthy, and fun week.

Take Care,

Lisa