Hello family and friends,

Well, here we are again, another fall. In some ways it seems like 2020 has lasted forever. I'm reluctant to see a new month on the horizon and what it will bring. For September we are managing fine. The girls are well into week 4 of all online school. Glen and I continue to work from home for the remainder of the year.

Last Monday I had scans - both a CT scan and bone scan. The anxiety doesn't get better the more you do these. Both of the scans went fine process-wise. I take a day off of work and spend lots of time drinking barium, getting shots and getting scanned. Is stable Mable still my BFF? Maybe, maybe not.

The CT scan came back "clean" which is great. That means no evidence of cancer moving to any of my organs or the intestinal lining. I have lobular breast cancer which is more likely to migrate to unusual places like the peritoneum. So this is great news!

The bone scan was mostly good. The report says "relatively stable" with the exception of equivocal increase uptake in spine and ribs. So, is this bad? Maybe, maybe not. The report also says the uptake is "potentially may merely be due to differences in window and leveling of the imaging." Clear as mud, right?

I met with my oncologist on Thursday afternoon. It was a good visit and we talked a lot about the scans, as you'd expect. He agreed it's not clear. He stated that nuclear medicine can be challenging. He was pleased that the CT scan was clear which is really important. He suggested we stay on the current meds and do scans again before the end of the year. (I'm still taking Ibrance (or here) and Anastrazole orally and have a monthly shot of Lupron and infusion of Zometa.)

We also talked about exercising - I really miss running (although I don't know I have the energy for it!). He felt like it was fine for me to run and do other high intensity and potentially impactful sports. So, yay! I've been on bone strengthening medication for 15 months and that should have helped with any potential problems. I've never had any fractures visible on the scans.

So, for now we are celebrating a clear CT scan and continuing few side effects. I'm still working full time (that's a story in itself) and able to do pretty much everything I normally would. Last week I did get my hair done which sounds small but with COVID it's not, and I have hair to color and style (it has not fallen out due to treatment)! We've had the earliest snow on record and found time to relax in the mountains - without snow!

This has been and continues to be a hard year for so many of us. Celebrate those little wins, seriously - it's important. Please wear a mask in public and respect distance. While you may be the picture of health, that person next to you in the produce section of the grocery store might be fighting stage IV cancer and is risking their life by going out.

Be well, stay safe.

Donna & Glen

Your monthly science lesson: I have invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) (breast cancer). This means that in addition to forming in lumps, the cancer cells tend to form in strings. It means that you can have lobular breast cancer and never feel a lump. If a woman has dense breasts it makes it especially hard to see lobular breast cancer on a mammogram. 30% of all lobular breast cancers do not show up on a mammogram and this article by Johnson et al., 2015 about imaging ILC call the appearance of ILC on mammograms "dangerously subtle".