My Trip to Vancouver, WA

My mom having lunch during her treatment on July 23rd

This summer I traveled to Vancouver, WA to spend 3 weeks with my family. It's so nice to have the summers off because it allows me to spend some quality time with my family and friends that I don't get to see all that often. For those of you who don't know, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer 6 years ago and we thought she beat it. Last May, we found out that her cancer had spread to her bones so she started chemo right away. I was with her last summer as she went through those treatments. Then in the fall, the doctor told us that her cancer had spread to her liver and so she wanted to switch treatments to a different chemo drug to stop the spread of the cancer. The good news about this new chemo drug was that she wouldn't have the side effect of losing her hair. It worked for a while but the treatment was so hard on her blood counts that she had to have a platelets transfusion because they dropped so low. At that point the doctor decided that since her blood counts kept dropping to dangerous levels she wanted to stop the chemo, even though it was working against the cancer because she didn't want my mom's counts to drop so low that they couldn't replenish on their own. Since then the doctor started monitoring her tumors to determine if they would stay the same size, or continue to grow. Unfortunately, once the chemo stopped, her cancer has continued to grow. A month ago my mom started on yet another chemo drug to stop the cancer growth. Unfortunately, this drug does make her lose her hair, and shortly after her first treatment she began losing her hair again. :(

She has been a trooper through all of these treatments and I have tried to keep her spirits up and stay positive. We're hoping that this next treatment will work, even though it makes her feel sicker than she has ever felt since the beginning of her chemo in 2002. The doctors remain positive and keep doing everything they can to make her treatment as painless as possible.

Today our family friend/hairdresser came over to "buzz" my mom's hair to a cute bald hair-do. If there is anyone in this world that looks cute with a bald head, it would be my mom! I truly think she looks like an angel! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and I hope she gets to feeling better as soon as possible!

The before...

The after, my cute mommy!