I wanted to get an update out as it’s been awhile. Not much has changed, Rebecca completed treatment number 6 this Monday, and is getting the pump taken off right now. We found out that treatments are just going to continue until we know more of what’s happening from the scan we’ll get in another week and a half. So treatment number 7 will happen on the 8th, along with a scan to see how things are going inside. My assumption is we’ll meet with the doctor soon afterwards and discuss whether we should continue on with this treatment cocktail or possibly change again. It was disheartening when we found out that we are going past 6 treatments as we were really looking forward to a break after number 6. All of the side effects that come with this regimen are exhausting, and although there’s things to try to assist with (drugs) they have their own side effects and don’t work completely.

So the pill popping, constant nausea, tiredness, weakness, never ending dripping nose (and now her eyes too), other yucky things I won’t mention, aches and pains, appointments, and then working, mom-ing, and wife-ing on top of that is exhausting…. for me to write out. What it is for her is most definitely more than exhausting. But God is good, and continues to give her strength and perseverance and hope (with a lot of naps in between 😀 )

We’ve been blessed to be sleeping with 4 bodies in the house the last few nights as Abigail is home from college for Thanksgiving break until she leaves Sunday morning. So that’s been really nice to have the family whole. Annabelle and Rebecca and I went to a place called Kyoto (Japanese hibachi) a week or so ago, and had a great time (picture).

Requesting prayer for Rebecca’s continued strength and attitude to stay positive, for her upcoming treatment and test on the 8th, and for her to find some combination of medication to help make her days a bit more comfortable and normal feeling for her body.

My apologies, I had to do a double take when I looked that the last time I posted and update was almost a month ago. Looking at a month like October with it’s 31 days it feels full and long with lots of space to do things both productive and unproductive, but in a blink of an eye (it seems) there is only a sliver of sun left on the month. I don’t like how fast time seems to move these days.

This month was fairly uneventful. There was a pain that started in Rebecca’s left side that led to us getting some scans, but with a report of nothing found and the disappearance of the pain we have chalked it up to the shots she was getting to keep her white blood cell count up. We had treatment number 4 today, and for the first time they said her white blood count was actually kinda high. This is contrast to 2 weeks ago that it was so low they had to get the doctor to sign off on treatment number 3 – was a good thing. Thankfully because the shots 5 times a week were not doing enough they moved her to a single “super shot” (my naming) called Fulphila which is similar to the 5 shots she was getting but seems more effective. The problem that this is solving is that chemo drastically reduces your white blood cells and some other things that could be described as your immune system (I’m over simplifying), so this makes you susceptible to infection and fevers which can run out of control pretty quickly. The medications focus on promoting your bone marrow to produce more white blood cells to help keep your immune system up. If you come down to low they won’t give you chemo.

Rebecca is still pretty normal. She’s definitely more tired these days, and a little weaker, but otherwise is still wanting to work and keep busy with things.

.. and busy we have been – this month has been full we went to a play, had a several day visit from Abigail, went to a nice apple orchard (picture above), decorated our car for a successful trunk or treat at church, a craft fair, some nice date nights, Rebecca has a ministry conference that she attended, Annabelle and I went to fright fest at six flags, and a bunch of other things i’m probably forgetting.

Looking forward – with us being on treatment 4 we are probably a month-ish or 2 away from another scan (the name of which escapes me right now) to see how this chemo is doing in the fight against things. Assuming things continue on track with chemo every 2 weeks I will do an update around Thanksgiving. If anything changes before then I’ll let everyone know.

Rebecca and I celebrate the anniversary of our first date 22 years ago this Friday. 22 years is a lot of time, but I still remember that first date really well. I’m such a lucky man to have snagged such a beautiful and smart girl. I wanted to say how I feel after 22 years with her, but there are just literally not words to describe how much in love we are, and how good that feels. And I’m ok with that, because she knows exactly what I’m not able to describe. And maybe that’s the best non-description I can give.

❤️

Last week we visited an ophthalmologist in Evanston and got the all clear on Rebecca’s eyes, and then had a brain scan and that also showed no issues. So Thursday we met with the oncologist and he wanted to move forward regardless of the eye stuff that Rebecca has going on. He wants to get moving with regular treatments and then see where we are at again.

So Rebecca had treatment yesterday. Her numbers though were quite low, but they did treatment anyway and now have her doing 5 shots (wed/thur/fri/mon/tue) to get her count back up (hopefully) for chemo/treatment again on the 13th. Treatment took some time as they were backed up yesterday, it tired her out a lot, and Clarice (what we’ve named the cancer/tumor in her lower left stomach area) was quite angry afterwards (Rebecca was in a lot of pain/discomfort). Today she’s just tired

Good things are that after spending time as a family of 4 together up in Houghton last weekend (18th – 21st) visiting Abigail for family weekend we got to see her again last week for a Twenty One Pilots concert that she flew in for on Wednesday night (picture above). We got to travel around through the UP and see some lighthouses and waterfalls and experience a whole lot of no cell signal while doing it. Also it’s getting colder, and we all like cold more than yucky summertime.

In Romans 5:5 Paul says “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit“.
God is good and his love that has been poured into our hearts, and the peace that comes from walking with him sustains us and gives us hope of what is to come. Please continue to pray fore Rebecca: for her pain to subside, for her energy to be renewed, for her to have peace in whatever God has in store for her, and for her to feel her heart being filled up to the brim and overflowing with God’s love.

Sorry for so much time going by since the last update. We ended up talking to the Chicago oncologist several weeks ago, and although she had some concern about the gallbladder she didn’t have us change our current path of treatment to switching from FOLFOX to using FOLFIRI. So Rebecca got treatment last Monday. It was pretty much the same thing, taking the same amount of time, just they used a different drug for part of it.

Side effects were also similar (except that she no longer has any cold sensitivity with this new drug – yay!). Still makes her nauseous, and tired though.

We met with the Oncologist today for our pre-treatment. Rebecca mentioned that she is having some strange vision issues in the morning with seeing lights in her vision and some other things. They decided to hold off chemo now on Monday, and we will be instead seeing a ophthalmologist to check her ocular nerve (and eyes in general), and they also want to do an MRI of her brain to make sure nothing is going on up there ( trying to hold back from making a joke here). This is just a precaution though as they feel like it’s probably just a side effect of the treatment, but they want to be sure. So for now the next chemo is postponed to the following Monday (29th).

I’m writing this from the car as we are on our way up to MTU to see Abigail for Parent’s Weekend! We are going to hang with her until Sunday, and then back home late Sunday night. Also Abigail is back in town this coming week for us to all go to see Twenty One Pilots.

Picture above was an impromptu visit to Main Event to bowl a little and play some games with Annabelle.

I’ll provide an update later next week when we know more from doctor visits (probably seeing ophthalmologist in Evanston Tuesday morning, and then we’ll find out if Rebecca has a brain Tuesday evening, followed by oncologist on Thursday).

It’s been a busy few weeks, Rebecca got chemo on the 11th, and then Annabelle started her sophomore year of high school, then we brought Abigail up to Michigan Tech over this last weekend.

Rebecca got a scan done (CT of chest, abdomen, and pelvis – with contrast) on Thursday the 14th. We met with the doctor today to discuss the results, chatGPT sums it up well…

Overall Impression

• The biggest changes since March are:
  • Worsening lymph node involvement in the abdomen and pelvis (clear disease progression).
  • Gallbladder changes (thickened wall and distention) which could represent either local tumor involvement or severe inflammation.
• Good news: No spread to lungs, bones, or major organs (other than nodes and gallbladder changes).
• Concerning news: The cancer is spreading through the lymphatic system, with several nodal groups enlarging since the last scan. This usually indicates disease progression and may require a change in treatment strategy.

… so the plan is now to change drugs as the first-line chemo drugs don’t appear to be effective. He’s also having a couple sugeons review the CT scan to see if they think they can grab a new biopsy so that they can analyze it to know if it has mutated with the goal of being able to effectively pair a drug against that mutation. The plan now though is going to be to switch from FOLFOX to FOLFIRI, don’t know what that means, chatGPT to the rescue again…

What FOLFOX and FOLFIRI Are

• FOLFOX = FOLinic acid (leucovorin) + Fluorouracil (5-FU) + OXaliplatin
• FOLFIRI = FOLinic acid (leucovorin) + Fluorouracil (5-FU) + IRInotecan

Both are standard chemotherapy regimens for colorectal and related gastrointestinal cancers, including mucinous adenocarcinoma.

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Why the Switch?

Doctors often switch from FOLFOX → FOLFIRI when:

• The cancer shows progression on scans (as in your wife’s case, with enlarging lymph nodes).
• Oxaliplatin (the “OX” in FOLFOX) has either stopped being effective or is causing too much side effect burden (like neuropathy/nerve damage).
• FOLFIRI offers a different mechanism of action (irinotecan works differently than oxaliplatin), so the cancer may respond better.

The good news is that this means no more cold sensitivity (that was a side effect of the FOLFOX). The doctor called off treatment next week, as Rebecca’s numbers are very low (even with all the shots they are giving her), and he also wants her to be in good shape in case they want to do a biopsy (surgery). He’s also in touch with our Chicago oncologist, and we are meeting with her next week to make sure that this makes sense to go in this direction.

So probably no update for another week or 2. Thank you all for your prayers and love.

Today we were set to see the doctor, then get blood/urine tests, then head to the hospital (adjacent building) to get chemo treatment number 6. But upon arriving to the hospital they told us we hadn’t made our numbers (white blood cell count) 😠

So that pushes us forward another week, and another week of no treatment, but there’s not much we can do about the white blood cell count other than taking the shots that she’s already doing.

So now next Monday will be treatment number 6, and on Wednesday (13th) we will do scans to see how things are going. Followed by doctor visit on 22nd to talk about what scans show.

I’m unsure what to hope for with the scans, as none of the scans in the past showed anything other than that her lymph nodes were enlarged, yet there was already stage 4 cancer stuff going on inside. So if this new one “shows” anything that means it’s even worse/spreading, but if it shows nothing we don’t really know what’s going on at all either – which doesn’t help at all for the the doctor to know if we should continue on this treatment or change treatment – so who knows what to hope for.

Rebecca and I had a really good time together for 4 days in San Antonio hanging out at the riverwalk (picture), so that was neat. Lots of relaxation, sleeping in, pool time, reading, talking, and much food. We both really enjoyed the time together just the 2 of us, and the girls had a nice time of no Dad and Mom in their hair also, so good times had by all I guess.

In 2 weeks we’ll be in Houghton moving Abigail into her dorm, so it’s a typical busy month for us.

Rebecca got pretty upset about not being able to get treatment for the second time, and what that means for things growing/spreading inside, so pray for her. It’s never easy to be not in control of things, and even more so when things are not going in a good direction. We continue to be thankful for our faith, family and friends.

July 7th we missed our numbers, so Rebecca had 2 weeks off and it felt really nice. Cold sensitivity went away, she felt normal, it was nice. But by the end stomach pain had started intensifying, so it was good, but there was a reminder at the end of what the chemo was helping hold back.

We had a really good time in Michigan for Abigail’s orientation visit. We were all shuttled between a lot of buildings, so we started getting the lay of the land much better, Abigail met some other incoming freshman, and got to feel more comfortable on campus. Beautiful weather, and we got to drive during the day for the first time up and back, so we got to see the scenery in a different way.

We met with oncology on Friday, and got labs. They want to start giving Rebecca injections to help with her white blood cell count. We did make counts for today’s treatment, but it was close, and she had 4 weeks since last treatment. So treatment was today, and now we are home with the pump, pump comes off wednesday, then she’ll go in for injections thursday, friday, and monday. We take off to San Antonio on Wednesday morning, and then back Saturday night. Then Monday (that’s the 4th) we will meet with the Oncologist early in the morning, and do labs, then over to treatment number 6 at 10a. So a busy next couple of weeks.

After treatment number 6 we will be getting scans, we’re still unsure what that means and what types of scans they will be. We don’t even know if it will show much (since none of her other scans really have). It’s strange because we don’t know whether to hope it shows something or not.

Man this year is moving fast, I can’t believe we are already past half way done. Rebecca and I have been spending a lot of time together, so that’s been real nice. We are so happy to have our faith in God, and for all of the good things that He has blessed us with. Despite the current stinky situation we are in, we are happy and in love, and I can’t ask for much more than that. Thank you for your continued prayers and well wishes. I hope you all are enjoying your summer as well, it’s going to be gone in what feels like a blink. Love you all.

Today should have been round 5, but Rebecca didn’t make her numbers, so they want us to skip this round. So a little bummed on having to skip, but excited at the same time to have 2 weeks of normality as well.

Abigail’s graduation party went well and we had a great time seeing family and friends. We then spent a lot of relaxation time the last few days, and saw some good fireworks last night.

We are off to orientation in the UP this weekend for a few days for at MTU for Abigail

We’ll have updates after our doctor’s appointment on the 18th

Sorry, I thought we took a normal photo, but I guess it was only a goofy one at the fireworks 🙂

Chemo treatment round 4 yesterday. Everything went well, some of Rebecca’s counts were a bit low from the blood test on Friday, so they needed to test again onsite but we were back up again and able to get treatment. So far things aren’t too different, she’s just tired.

Things have certainly been busy lately (I can’t believe it’s almost July). We have been preparing the house and finishing up things to be ready for the graduation party for Abigail this Saturday. The heat certainly doesn’t help.

Rebecca is trying a new drug that may help with sleeping and nausea. It’s an anti-psychotic, so I’m super thankful to the doctor for that fun nugget I get to rib her about now 🙂

We were able to get to a roller skating rink right by us for an 80s night skate time (picture). So that was fun. And we are very excited to see family and friends this weekend.

Sorry for the disjointed report, just wanted to get something out. Please continue to pray for our upcoming scans (probably around treatment 6) to show that these drugs are actually doing something. For her to be able to get better sleep at night, and for her nausea to stay low (or just go away).

Love you guys.

3rd round of chemo today. We were given this very nice blanket that was sewn by some kind people in DelWeb (retirement community out by us) for patients of the cancer center. It is very sweet and the patterns are pretty. It helped keep Rebecca warm, although that didn’t keep her from taking advantage of the nice warmed blankets that they provide her as well.

Last round of chemo seemed to affect Rebecca more than the first. She was pretty tired and a bit more nauseous then the first time, and the cold sensitivity was pretty bad, and never let up. So we are a little anxious (understandably) about how this time will go.

We are getting things ready for Abigail’s graduation party on the 28th, and looking forward to seeing a bunch of friends and family. Annabelle’s been in driving school, and I took her out on 90 for the first time Saturday to her dismay 🙂 Also we are looking forward to getting a new kitten friend added onto our family sometime in the next few weeks. So lots of activity here at the Suarez household.