Author: Aaron

Makoto is finally feeling better and can get sleep again at night. Given everything else, that’s really good news. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind the last few days. On Tuesday we finally went to a deserted Urgent Care in the city to get her checked out. A battery of tests, including a CT…

The last MRI of the tumor was in April. This week Makoto got another MRI and Friday we heard from the surgeon on the results. THE TUMOR HAS SHRUNK BY 50%!!!!! MRI results are returned as a set of three dimensional coordinates. Front to Back, Side to side, Top to Bottom. In two of the…

This week was week 11 of the first round of treatment. It was the 4th week of the Carboplatin + Taxol treatment regimen. Next week will be the last week of Taxol + Carbo, then a week break. After that week there will be an MRI to see what impact the first rounds have had…

We got the MRI results back on Monday and were super happy to see that the tumor has started to shrink! It looks like it’s smaller by almost 7mm, which is good news! The “but” comes in the form of Dr. Oncologist wanting more. She had been hoping for more of a reaction to the…

A few years ago time and genetics caught up with me. I remember very clearly the day Makoto shaved my head the first time with clippers while I sat in the bathtub. It’s become a bi-weekly ritual for us. How odd it was then that a little over a week ago Makoto and I traded…

What a week. 2020 feels like a waking up from a nightmare into a new, somehow worse nightmare. San Francisco is now in a shelter-in-place mode. Schools are closed. Both our offices are work from home. It’s also raining a lot. My dad is here supporting us and has basically taken over Soren’s schooling, which…

Here are good things that have happened: Zero problems with the infusions. After the first week the surgeon said that on examination, the tumor has become soft. That’s good after a week. After yet another week the oncologist mentioned that the tumor has become quite soft now and is flatter. Another good sign. We heard…

Makoto and I both want to write a bit more about this subject in the near future, but Triple Negative Breast Cancer is an underfunded condition right now in terms of research dollars, etc. There are reasons for this, some of them historical, some practical, but others ugly. One thing that Makoto has thought a…

So far after this first round, the only problems for Makoto have been flu-like symptoms. Fever, chills, joint pain, aches, malaise, etc. Thankfully they can be mostly controlled through medication and it does seem like it’s getting better each day. While it’s difficult for her, she’s getting a lot of rest, and hopefully the symptoms…

Here are good things that have happened today: A nurse quietly whispered to Makoto, “You are so lucky to have Dr. Oncologist and Dr. Oncology Surgeon.” She also said, “You are so lucky to be on this trial. I’ve seen tumors just melt away!” Makoto had no allergic reactions or initial bad reactions to any…