Danelle Fights Cancer

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and your new year is off to a great start. We celebrated Thanksgiving in Raleigh this year followed by Christmas in Raleigh too. Then all 5 of us piled in a car and headed south to Florida. We made a few pit stops along the way until we landed at cruise terminal A in Miami and headed off with my family to the Caribbean for the week. We had a wonderful time and were thankful for the warm weather and the memories.

In early December, I joined a clinical trial and started on a new medication called Rina-S (Rinatabart sesutecan). The medication is in phase 3 of clinical trials at this point, and the doctors at Duke are encouraged by what they are seeing in other patients receiving the medication.

I received my first cycle of treatment on 12/10. I was thankful for an uneventful afternoon! With clinical trials, there are several extra appointments for closer monitoring of labs, so I am going in a bit more frequently than before. Thankfully those ‘extra’ visits stop after cycle 2.

Thankfully the worse side effect has been fatigue. I usually don’t plan too much the weekend post chemo, except for lots of naps 🙂 I am still working during the week, helping out in the high school program at church and teaching the kids on Monday nights at BSF. I slow down when I need to , but I am so thankful that God has enabled me to keep up with a normal schedule.

Scans are also more frequent when you are getting a trial medication. My first CT scans since starting the trial are tomorrow, Wednesday 1/21. A friend asked today, “How is the ‘scanxiety’?” which as you can imagine can be quite high sometimes before scans. I think after 15 months, 3 different types of chemo and countless scans, God has taught me that scan results don’t define my life. Scans give us more information to help make decision about my care. Don’t get me wrong…..I would LOVE to hear “Your scans are clear!” one day.

Thank you to all of you who have reached out and who continue to pray for healing. He is faithful and listens to every one. Please pray…

…..that this scan shows improvement and the cancer is shrinking

……that the doctors are able to make good judgments and decisive next steps

…….for continued strength during this fight with little/no side effects