7th Line's a Charm?

Here's hoping....

(some people living with stage 4 cancer refer to themselves as “terminal”and that language is very important to them - I respect their experience and their language for that experience - but it does not apply to my experience and I refuse to allow it to be applied to me or to anyone else who rejects it)

Hi, friends! Thank you to those of you who came to my TikTok LIVE Event tonight - and my apologies to those of you who tried to attend but weren't able to without opening a TikTok account (it wasn't supposed to be that way!). I was able to download the video and will try to upload it (or relevant pieces of it) soon.

I do want to go ahead and share one of the bigger parts of my update. On Sunday night, my oncologist and I decided it was time for me to move on to another treatment option - the last remaining “standard” option. It’s a chemo that is often the 2nd line treatment option for people with LMS (and it’s often the 1st line treatment for LMS patients with heart problems, because the other typical 1st line treatment is cardiotoxic).

This will be my 7th treatment line, which means we are well beyond knowing anything about potential effectiveness (each line of cancer treatment tends to dwindle in effectiveness, and most research, at least for rare cancers like sarcoma, doesn't typically test drugs beyond the 2nd line). Being well beyond what science knows about my situation is scary … but I feel like it can also be a place of creative, hopeful possibility.

Because time is of the essence, I got a call yesterday afternoon scheduling me to start this new regimen first thing tomorrow morning. That’s the quickest I’ve ever gone from making a treatment decision to starting the treatment!

I’ll be getting to the cancer center first thing in the morning for blood work, followed by “chemo education” (for this particular regimen), followed by my infusion (which is scheduled for 2 hours - but if previous experience holds true, it will go quite a bit longer while I wait for my drug to be prepared and then sent up to the infusion clinic).

I’m nervous, as I always am when starting a new treatment regimen. I’m also hopeful - hopeful that this chemo will work well for me (and for a long time, and with minimal side effects). As usual, I’d appreciate all prayers, good thoughts, warm vibes, and love, as I embark on this next phase of my adventure.

I will keep you posted on how things go, and I’ll also try to share some of my other major updates (one that was super disappointing and one that is super exciting) soon!

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