Sara has now spent the last two months or so undergoing the combined treatment of chemotherapy and daily (M-F) radiation.

Since the last update, Sara’s doctors proposed a new treatment schedule. Instead of chemo every other week and daily radiation (M-F), the new chemo schedule was extended over more days but at a lower dose, with the goal of reducing the severity of side effects as the radiation alone can result in side effects of its own (extreme fatigue, digestive issues, etc). So Sara received her chemo infusion on Mondays and wore the pump all week long until it was removed on Fridays. She had the weekends off, and then the same cycle started again the following Monday. The daily radiation treatments last for about 30 minutes. According to her oncologist, the efficacy of chemo is increased by up to 50% when combined with radiation treatment, so that is another motivation for the combined treatment.

Sara has stayed tough and hung in there – tomorrow her chemo pump is removed and chemo is over – hopefully for good! The radiation treatment will continue for a few additional weeks. Then it is time for more scans and tests to see how she fared with the treatment and some time to rest and recover before the upcoming surgery.

This June was a big month for Rylan – “graduation” from elementary school, and Sara was able to be present – especially important as the elementary school where she has taught for many years (Black Diamond Elementary school) and where her children attended elementary school is going to be renovated over the next year, so this was the last look at the school which is such an important part of their life. Rylan also traveled to the East Coast to visit with Sara’s family friends and relatives, which was a great experience for him.

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