Wednesday, March 3, 2010

My Introduction from Suzanne

Hi all,

My name is Suzanne and I am very happy to be joining this group. I have been living with metastatic breast cancer for 5 and a half years. Mothering my 2 little ones. Grace (8) and Dominic (6) continues to be my biggest challenge.

I am 44 years old and live in CT. (Hey Cathy! We are practically neighbors!) I have been married for 18 years. My husband and I are both optometrists. We spent the first several years of our marriage working like maniacs to pay off our student loans.

When we decided to start a family, we had major issues with infertility. After several years dealing with that challenge, we finally had our beautiful daughter and a son to follow. I thought I was done with medical challenges. It was just beginning!

In 2004, I was diagnosed from the start with metastatic disease to the bone. I had dose dense chemo, mastectomy and was on hormone therapy for almost 3 years. (Thank god for lazy cancer). Last April things began to change and I developed lymph nodes in my stomach affecting my kidneys and liver mets. I have been back on chemo ever since. I started with taxol/avastin and am now on Xeloda. So far so good. Stable is my new favorite word.

I am a SAHM now and volunteer quite a bit at my kid's school, girl scouts, sing in a chorus and am vice president of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network. Life is good. Considering.......

4 comments:

  1. Welcome Aboard!

    I am also 44, married for 17 years, and on Xeloda. What do you take for your bones?

    Are you receiving any hormonal therapy?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi RivkA,
    I also take zometa, but only once every 2 or 3 mos.I was on femara for over 2 years and when it failed I tried faslodex for a short time. When that failed, I had to go back to chemos. Hopefully, I will be able to try hormones again, but for now we are assuming they no longer work for me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Where in CT are you? I'd love to connect in person. I'm in New Haven.
    Cathy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Suzanne, welcome to the club none of us ever planned on joining. I love hearing how you have gone so strongly foward with life. I praise God for stable!

    ReplyDelete