Welp, Elizabeth’s scans are in and it is far from what we were hoping for. I’ve been figuratively staring at this screen for ten days trying to figure out how to communicate the situation. Every time I have explained the results to someone in person or on the phone, it sounds horrible. And while Elizabeth does have more cancer popping up, of which I will explain momentarily, we ask for something a bit different this time from your response to it.
Just a couple months from now it will have been five years since her original diagnosis. The roller coaster of emotions over the years has been something to behold. Having people showing empathy and being in the trenches with us for help has been so needed. It still is. But for the immediate future I have a big ask for you… Don’t be sad or distraught for us, especially in person.
What we need more than anything is the joy of our favorite people, the encouragement of our faith community, and to see your strength and hope. This is not us putting our head in the sand to the reality of what cancer does. We are far more aware of those possibilities than almost anyone. Here is another truth: people beat cancer at all stages and types, all the time. We have been processing this information since the scan results came in on July 10th. We don’t want to relive the initial pain of processing that info every time someone else processes it for the first time when seeing us.
Here’s the thing, we don’t want fake either. You are welcome to acknowledge it, then stay chipper lol. “I’m sorry to hear about your news, but glad help with a positive outlook!” That is a good example of possible interactions. We want real and genuine, but no hopelessness. Because there is hope. Lots of it. If you have read this far, you have probably already spent time being sad for us. Feel free to skip that part this time.
Okey dokey, now that we have laid the groundwork, here are the deets. After the bloodwork came back showing her two original tumors (breast and liver) were stable and not increasing their circulating tumor cell presence, Elizabeth’s scans showed a new 6x8x2 cm mass on the upper left chest wall (kind of under the collar bone area), and two vertebrae with lytic lesions of 2 cm in them. So to put all that mumbo jumbo into layman’s terms, there is a new mutation/phenotype of cancer in three spots. We won’t know what exactly they are without further testing.
This upcoming week we will be meeting with a surgeon to talk about biopsy options and assuming that happens, next steps on treatment will come from that. As you know from previous decisions, we are also weighing all our options of integrative and alternative treatments as well. There are several we have found in the past that we have up our sleeve still to throw at this thing. No, we are not looking for any suggestions in that area.
Now that I have poured a Canadian wildfire smoke cloud over your head, let me bring some joys we are experiencing that we are always excited to talk about:
Elizabeth and I just celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary! Boom.
We are heading to one of our favorite places of peace in the next couple weeks, Simpson Park Camp.
The boys all grew well over an inch each in the last six months.
Every fish in our pond has been caught at least twice this summer.
Some amazing friends gifted us a camper!
God is SO GOOD.
Specifics for prayer for us:
Healing for Elizabeth
Discernment on treatment path forward
Financial resources to become available for desired treatment/therapies
Continued and increased peace of mind and body
We love you all dearly,
Dunc & Eliz
