Sleep is for sissies

I wish I were more of a sissy got more sleep. Sleep is super boring and it's way more fun to watch The Walking Dead and hang out with my baby tough to come by these days...

And now I know exactly what I'm missing -- I got a device of curious workmanship Jawbone Up last week. It's a weird bracelet that has magical evil powers tracks your steps and your sleeping patterns. One of my MBA classmates challenged me to be less fat healthier, and he and I lament about our sedentary lifestyles share our activity levels with each other through the mystical dark forces guided by the ghost of Steve Jobs iPhone app.



I've only recently gained a willingness to be completely honest with myself and more open with others. It just took longer for me than for a lot of people. There's nothing like a Jawbone Up and a nasty medical diagnosis to help me recognize that sharing ain't so bad.

So I'm feeling overwhelmed with optimism today. We found out that the cancer is not really fueled by estrogen and not at all fueled by progesterone, which means that additional treatments to target those sources won't really help. But we did find out that the cancer is HER2-positive, which is actually a good thing -- it means that at least the doctors know a big reason why the cancer is growing, and it means that they can use other medicines as part of chemotherapy to specifically target the cancer. From the Mayo Clinic website (which I've been completely avoiding up until this point):

HER2-positive breast cancer is a breast cancer that tests positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the growth of cancer cells. In about 1 of every 5 breast cancers, the cancer cells make an excess of HER2 due to a gene mutation. This gene mutation and the elevated levels of HER2 that it causes can occur in many types of cancer — not only breast cancer. This is a gene mutation that occurs only in the cancer cells and is not a type of mutation that you can inherit from a parent.

HER2-positive breast cancers tend to be more aggressive than other types of breast cancer. They're also less responsive to hormone treatment. However, treatments that specifically target HER2 are very effective.

Blood work today, full body bone scan and abdomen/chest CT scan tomorrow, echo cardiogram Thursday... We should know what's going on and what to do about it by the end of this week. It's likely that chemo will come first for about 4 months, then surgery, then radiation thereafter. But we'll see.

Liz is a breast cancer survivor. Start planning the victory celebration.

Go Team Liz.