Jill and Chuck Living Well With Metastatic Breast Cancer

 Hello all, Team Chill here with Chuck doing the update.  We have not posted in a while and have had some requests for an update.  We are honored and humbled that y’all are holding us in your thoughts and prayers.  We draw inspiration and strength knowing this. I want to make up for an unacceptable non-acknowledgement from our last post.  We shouted out the names of folks that helped us with the move.  Formal thank you notes will be going out soon.  Shortly after we posted we realized that we did not recognize Langley Heating and Air.  On the day of our move (The hottest day of the year by the way), wouldn’t you know that the A/C went out at our new house.  Jill called Langley and Kaleb personally came out and got us up and running on a Saturday.  That was above and beyond the call of duty and we were and are so appreciative of Kaleb and his crew.  They are awesome!! Now for the update…First off…we are doing well.  We have some...

 It's been a while since our update and so we made a video for you!  HUGS, LOVE TO YOU ALL! LINK TO VIDEO

Hello all, this is Chuck writing.   First off, I want to thank all of you for walking this journey with us.  The prayers, calls, texts, messages, food, cards and visits have meant the world to us. Jill just completed her 2nd week on the medication of Ibrance.  So far so good…The side effects have been fairly minimal and her blood counts are good.  She is still adjusting to the hormone therapy and is experiencing on/off fatigue, pain and some nausea.  The side effects have lessened from the 1st medication since she started the anastrozole several weeks back.  She is stronger emotionally and is a trooper and our hope and prayer is that these medicines are working to suppress her cancer from moving and reappearing.  She will have a Pet Scan in a few months to determine how effective the radiation and hormone therapy has been.  We are confident that they are doing their job! Just to add a little more stress to our lives,  as you know, we are...

 Dear Friends and Family, Ibrance started yesterday (Wed., June 11) - I take all my meds at night after I eat. I've definitely been anxiously nervous about taking it and the side effects that can happen, so say a little prayer that they will be mild and I can stay on this for a very long time. I am laying low for a couple of weeks, not going in public/crowded places while we see how my white/red blood cell counts will do...which can tank. I cannot be around anyone that is sick.  Ibrance works by targeting and blocking specific proteins (CDK4 and CDK6) that cancer cells need to grow and divide. By slowing down the cell cycle, it helps stop the spread of hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative or positive breast cancer, especially when combined with hormone therapy of anastrozole that I am on.  Think of it like...anastrozole blocks the estrogen in the cancer cells from the bottom and Ibrance latches onto it from the top and makes it die off.  I saw Dr. Kritz last week...

 Hi Friends and Family - Here we are, the last day of May - can you believe it? Time sure does fly, that's not just a saying...that's for real.  Tomorrow, June 1, will be 2 months since we first met with my oncologist and hear him say, "I think this is your breast cancer metastasized to your bone".  In some ways, it's hard to believe it has been 2 months already, and in others, it feels like yesterday.  From day 1 (probably from birth), I've been complex. I've lived a somewhat complex life in my growing years and beyond at times, and this breast cancer since 2010 has been a little out of the norm - a little complex.  In my primary cancer in 2010 (remember....if you're metastatic, the original breast cancer is called "primary"), my breast surgeon at the time, Dr. Stocks, said "this is Sheryl Crow style cancer - you have one little tumor...we'll do a lumpectomy and radiation likely and that is it."  Well...nope. I ended up having ...

 Happy Memorial Day Weekend Y'all!   I hope you all enjoy some down time doing exactly what you love this weekend!  Here's a quick, good update!  I mentioned that I've been having some pain in my femur, in a pinpointed spot that shoots down my leg. Of course, the worry about that is that the cancer is there since it's not uncommon when have mets to the bone for it to be in the femur. But, NO....... It's sciatica.  I've been rather limpy walking for the last 6 weeks because of the right hip pain, putting most of my weight on my left foot when walking, sitting on my left butt when sitting, sleeping on my left side, so I got myself all out of whack. And, I do have some inflammation from radiation, the biopsy, the cancer., all a good recipe for sciatica. They sent me for an Xray to make sure I didn't have any fracture (which is fairly common for bone mets) and if there were a cancer lesion on my bone, it would show up. NO LESION, NO FRACTURE!  Also, the ho...