This is what my world looks like today...

Having never been through something like this before we have decided that we will share with all of you what we know. This info may come in fits and spurts (as I hope to stop being awake from 3 am to 5 am) but for me this is the best.

It has been made so abundantly clear to us how deeply you care, how strongly you are behind us and how important your faith perspectives are I will just make the information available to you.

Do with it what you will-as long as it is positive and serves the greater good. If this gets one woman in for her “mammo that she has been meaning to do” or one of you guys “decides to get that funny looking mole checked out” and it is nothing then we all win.

July 17, 2007

After starting out on this journey on July 9th we had finally completed all of the testing. In the end I have had a chest X-ray, a mammogram, a breast ultrasound, a MRI breast, a needle guidance biopsy, labs, an oncology consult, a MRI brain, cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral spine, a PET scan, a CT scan or the abdomen and thorax, a porta-cath placement and the final 3 hour oncology consult last night and WE STARTED TREATMENT!!!!!!

I have been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer with lymph node involvement and extensive metastasis to the skeleton (the mets are from the top of my femurs, through hips, pelvis, rib cage, sternum, spine, collar bones, skull, shoulders and neck. While scanning I look like a Christmas tree all lit up with radioactivity.)

The good news is that my cancer is very responsive to hormone treatment. So much so that we will start with hormone therapy first and see how I respond over an 8 weeks period of time. No chemo for now. I will be put into menopause (started last night with a big ole’ shot in the buttocks of LUPRON,) my body will cease to make estrogen. Then I will take a daily oral drug called TAMOXIFEN which will block any other estrogen that is being produced in my body. Ongoing drug therapy and I will also be given bone growth enhancers. Not like baseball players but more like the Boniva you see Sally Field pushing on TV. My drug ZOMETA is 1,000% stronger than the drugs women take for osteoporosis and I get it in an IV. This will help the bones re-grow strength so that they become impermeable to the invasion of more tumor growth.

Success of the hormone therapy is measured by how I feel, cancer cell markers in my blood and scans. Apparently, one of the best measures of how well I will do is how ‘hardcore’ the “flair” is over the next 3 to 14 days. My little cancer cells are going to be mad about be cut off at the estro-bar of Michele. They are going to let me know. Feel for Matt and accept my apologies in advance. Likely, I will be quite the unhappy, rotten feeling, witch.

Additionally, I am on strict restrictions as to the use of my spine. No bending, deep stretching, lifting, and tilting. My spine is compromised at multiple levels and an accident or a slip or a bad lift could cause grave damage to my spinal cord. YOU ALL HAVE PERMISSION TO MAKE SURE I AM 100% COMPLIANT!

I am so encouraged by my meeting with Dr. Hank Kaplan. We are lucky because we have so many options.

Eventually here is what to come:
· Removal of my ovaries (oopherectomy just think it is a cool word)
· Hysterectomy
· Bilateral mastectomy
· Radiation to the spine
· Vertebral reconstruction
· Breast rebuild

Every aspect of treatment is a contingency: If this works à then. If this responds à then.

We are ready. Your words, your support, your faith and your love with these we will beat this. I am 100% certain that we were chosen for this. Ultimately, this will be life changing for our family both large and small. I had a spiritual epiphany yesterday and I really believe that TDUB (the divine universal being) has a plan for me.

I would love to take to time to thank each an everyone of you personally but I cannot. We appreciate you so very much. All your support, and words or wisdom, your jokes, your ideas, your assistance, your prayers but mainly your presence. It is each of you that we will be relying on to carry us through.

Thanks, I go to sleep at night knowing that I am loved, that you would do anything for us and that my girls will come out of this enhanced, better people with a depth of knowledge and empathy that many wait a lifetime to get. Matt is my rock. He is the greatest man and to see him in this role is the most amazing thing I have ever imagined. I knew he was a great Dad but he is wonderful caregiver too. Simply amazing.

This is a lot of info. If this is not your thing arrange for a different method. If you don’t want to hear just delete. Some people do better with information than others do.

For know we are optimistic, we have a plan, we are moving forward. Each of you plays a role in this success.

With love,

Meesh