Dear family and friends,

Summer is sliding by. We hope you are finding some safe ways to escape the heat and enjoy the sunshine. We took advantage of the great outdoors here in Colorado and spent time in the mountains. Some camping, some hiking, and an extended stay in the high country to horseback ride, tube the Yampa river and explore waterfalls.

July 18 was the 1 year mark of my official diagnosis. I added some Random Thoughts about that day and the time since then to the web pages I put together. As I state there, July 18, 2019 was the day I found out I have metastatic breast cancer, I was likely living with it for a year prior. I'm now on cycle 14 of my medication. A cycle is 4 weeks. A new cycle coincides with a visit to the oncologist for bloodwork and a general check in.

My appointment last week was uneventful as they usually are. I'm ok with that! My veins are not particularly cooperative so the worst part is if the nurse cannot get the needle in to draw blood or for my infusion. If I were getting chemotherapy they would likely recommend putting in a port. Since my infusion is only 20 minutes long once a month and the blood draw is only monthly, it is not necessary.

My blood work looked fine last week. The good news is that my neutrophils remain high enough to stay on the Ibrance. Interestingly, my glucose had a notable drop. Not sure why that happened but I'll take it. My tumor marker (CA 27-29) rose a tiny bit. (54.8 last month, 56.2 this month). I don't really want to see that; in talking to my oncologist he is not concerned, at this point. He suggested scans in September.

This is a frustrating time for all of us for many reasons. If you are looking for something to *do* - something that you can contribute to or make an impact - consider engaging with the 2020 Metavivor Virtual Stampede. I learned about the Stampede a few months ago and apparently it will go virtual (like everything else). Metavivor is an organization focused solely on metastatic breast cancer research, support and awareness. This blog post is a nice overview of the event and includes suggestions on how to get involved. The author is a lawyer from Florida who also has metastatic breast cancer. I came across her blog on Twitter, which is a treasure trove of helpful information.

We wish you a lovely end to summer. Please keep wearing those masks and advocate for a national plan to get COVID-19 under control. We are all in this together and we won't get out of it until we all work together.

Much love as always...