Thursday, 30 March. Herceptin infusion number 14 went smoothly as did the blood test and the visit overall.

As Karen posted in the last update the hot flashes have subsided and she is sleeping better. It is believed the reason for this is her body was preparing for her cycle and the increased hormones gave Karen the relief. Her being able to sleep is the upside. The downside is with the return of her cycle the tumor in her breast has grown from 8x6 to 8x8 centimeters. As you can tell estrogen and progesterone levels increasing in Karen’s body clearly feed the cancer. She began taking Zoladex injections for this reason and has had three of them so far with the last one being on 23 March. If the Zoladex works it will signal her ovaries to turn off which should greatly reduce estrogen levels in her body effectually starving the cancer. It can take several doses (in Karen’s case obviously more than 3) to take full effect. She is scheduled for another Zoladex injection on 20 April.

The results of the last blood tests showed marked improvement in Karen’s platelet count. He liver function is fluctuating in and out of normal ranges which could be indicative of the cancers growth or the liver attempting to compensate for the scarring left behind. Because the medication she takes to help prevent blood clots (Coumadin) can stress the liver the dosage was reduced from 2 mg daily down to 1 mg.

Until next week, thank you for checking on Karen.