I had a visit with my oncology team today. All my lab work looks great. They drew tumor markers at my prior visit and they dropped significantly (good news). We will repeat them at our next visit and see how they are trending. They had been rising consistently which was one of the reasons we changed chemo treatments at Thanksgiving. At least it would be nice to know that the chemo that nearly killed me had a positive impact on my cancer. She could not find the enlarged lymph node that we found at Thanksgiving and the liver was smaller by palpation. All in all a fabulous visit!

Mom and I visited the cardiologist, Dr. Lander’s today. He is please and amazed with my progress. He said time will tell if the damage to my heart stays as is, progresses or gets better. He usually makes this determination at 4-6 month most incident. He added two more meds for my heart failure. He wants me to start walking 3-4 times a week for an hour. He said if I get too exhausted to break the walk into sessions just as long as I get an hour of walking in.

I can’t believe how much better I feel in a week. Today Mom and I went to clinic. It is my 1st clinic visit since getting out of the hospital. I have tons of questions. We have decided to hold on chemo for a while so I can get stronger and work on my nutrition. I will continue to take Avastin, Zometa and Faslodex. Faslodex is a monthly injection. I received my 1st injection the day I left the hospital. I received my Avastin & Zometa today. Neither of these infusions are chemo but more supportive meds for cancer. Next clinic visit is in two weeks.

Faslodex is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer after other hormonal treatments, such as aromatase inhibitors or tamoxifen have stopped working. ERDs, or estrogen-receptor down regulators, block and break down estrogen receptors. With fewer hormone receptors available, fewer cancer cells receive the signal telling them to grow. This is how ERDs stop or slow down the growth of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer cells. The only ERD that’s available is Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant).

Hey Fellow Talented Ones!
 
What a wonderful weekend I just had!!  Saturday, I had the privilege of visiting Stephanie and David at home!  When I got to her house, she greeted me at the door with her official Team Talent Signature shirt.  We visited, we ate pizza, we made fun of David…you know…all in a day’s work :-)    Seriously, I have to tell you all how incredibly well Stephanie is doing.  She was perky, chipper, happy, and most of all…AT HOME!  I can’t tell you how good it felt to finally be able to wrap my arms around her.  God is so good.
 
Sunday, Mary, Megan, Elizabeth and I went with the goodie baskets from Team Talent.  Unfortunately, Jennifer wasn’t there for us to watch while she opened hers, but David was pleased as punch and I think is excited to go shopping.  We watched the 3-day commercials on their big-screen tv, and then, while we surfed on the 3day website, we found more talent material!  I can’t remember exactly where, but I’ll find it and email you how to get to it…it’s more videos, updated pictures, etc.
 
Sorry if I’m talking in circles, but I’m giddy Stephanie, you are our angel, and we’re so glad you are home!
 
Love to you all!
Amy Stoker

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PS: Jennifer came home from work and opened her goodie basket before she changed clothes. She loved all the girly stuff. She appreciated the college supplies and she can’t wait to go to spend her giftcards especially her Bath and Body Works card. You guys did an awesome job and both Jenn and David love the care packages. You all ROCK!

The support you all have given to myself and family during this hospitalization has been wonderful. My folks have really enjoyed getting to know each of you. It is hard to imagine this all started with one weekend (4 days) in LA working for Komen. God is great and full of grace. We love you all — Stephanie, John, Jennifer & David

AMAZING! They are sending me home today. They had talked it would be next week and I would need home oxygen as I continue to recover. Instead I am going home today without home O2. God’s power to heal should never be doubted. His grace and mercy are enormous.

Today before I left the hospital I received a couple of very special visitors: Kait and Chava from RadarWorks were in town from LA visiting with Komen to discuss a new project. They extended their stay a few hours so they could stop by and see me before they headed back to LA. I felt very honored for them to take time to see me. Lois and Jewel were also there.

Sometimes it is important to know where you’ve been to know how far you’ve come and then again somethings might be worth forgetting. I will need John and my folks to fill in many of the earlier days as I have “missing days” for me this hospitalization. Today I was moved from the CC-ICU to the Oncology Floor. It was big day for all of us and a day many, many prayers were answered as we continue to make steady progress in my recovery.

Stephanie is in the CC-ICU and sleep is coming in 2 to 4 hour intervals. She has yet to get real sleep and truly rest.  Low blood pressure & low xygen levels plus the morphine and other meds have made her mind quite fuzzy. These things are playing dirty tricks with her mind.  In her confused state she was taking off her high frequency oxygen and non rebreather mask dropping her oxygen level into the 50’s and adding even more problems.

By 2:00 AM the staff were ready to restrain her for her safety.  She was growing more agitated, threatening to sue the hospital and caregivers for cutting up her IV and oxygen tubes into little short pieces.  This was as real to her as you could imagine. They called us and we arrived shortly thereafter and reassured her everything was ok.  By the time we arrived her caregivers had giving Steph her laptop, her ultimate adult pacifier and she was a bit calmer.

I had a visit from Elizabeth, a member of “Team Talent” today. She came over from Dallas. She brought us a gift card from the 3-Day Team for Super Suppers, a bamboo plant and a bright pink “Team Talent” blanket. I can not have plants so John took the plant home. It was the first time to see any one from the group since our trip to LA. We reminisced about our LA weekend. It reminded me how grand our weekend was. She pampered my feet massaging lotion into the less tender areas and lightly oiling the tender areas. It rocked. Marti, my nurse, took a picture of the two of us.

For those of you that are thinking: What? Who is Team Talent? This is the group of 15 to 17 that was selected to participate in the 2008 Ad Campaign for the Komen 3-Day Walk. David and I traveled to LA shoot a couple of magazine, TV and radio ads. The day we arrived we were handed an envelope with our food allotment for the weekend. The accounting paper work identified each of us as “Talent”. We joked about it the entire weekend.