Statistical Cliffs & Other Joyous Things

TL;DR: No sign of cancer! It’s very unlikely to come back at this point. WOOHOOO! Hope you all are doing well! We are so grateful on so many levels!

Hi everyone! I know it’s been an incredibly long time since I posted an update here. However, I have some good news and I wanted to share it with you.

First off though, I hope you all had a joyously wonderful holiday season and are having a wonderful new year! For those of you getting blasted with cold, snow, wet, and all manner of winter this weekend…I’m sorry. I hope you all stay safe, warm, and dry!

As the saying goes…no news is good news and that’s what I’m ecstatic to report here. Things have been going well on the post cancer front (Dare I use the word remission? Not sure…my doctors don’t…but we’ll talk about statistical cliffs here soon).

Late last year I had several great medical things happen I figured were worth sharing.

1. Bloodwork was all normal
2. Ultrasound was performed and all normal
3. I get to see the oncologist & surgeon every 6 months now vs every 4 months – yay! As much as I love the City of Hope team, I am not sad to see them less.
4. A statistical cliff has been reached and I have happily jumped off!

So, in short, lots of good news and no signs that the cancer is returning which is beautiful, wonderful news! Let me tell you a bit more about #4. For my type of breast cancer, Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) if it doesn’t recur within 2-3 years of your surgery date and since I had a pathologically complete response (PCR), it is very unlikely you will have a recurrence of TNBC. Not impossible, but a statistical cliff shall we say. I believe there is another one of these cliffs at 5 years ish or so, but we will happily jump off this first one with success!

So, thank you! Thank you for supporting myself and Mike through this. I remain so grateful every day for all of your love and support and I thought you’d want to celebrate with us! YAY!!!!!!

In case you’re wondering what else we’ve been up to, it’s been busy, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want and need to stop running at 1000 mph all the time.

While I like running at warp speed, I need more rest, and I enjoy rest a lot more than I used to. I’m also working on my physical health. The last year saw me gain a bit more weight than I wish I had, and since weight is a big risk factor in this whole cancer world, I’ve got to work at losing that and eating a bit more healthily.

To that end, I’ve started exercising more, meeting with a health coach, and trying to schedule rest for myself. (More protein and strength training anyone?) I’m also trying to be better at my work/life balance…which for me is always a challenge since I’m lucky enough to enjoy my job.

On the hobbies front, last spring I took a silversmithing class to make jewelry which was a ton of fun! I’ve been trying to get back into it but the class fills up so quickly I can’t get in. Time for plan B and I’m trying to think of alternatives to keep leveraging that part of my brain. I’ve told several people how lovely it was to melt things to a mess in class and fall on my face while learning and have it all be fine. It was a mental exercise in practicing failure which was wonderful too.

I’ve been voraciously reading again this year which is great fun! Thank goodness for Libby, Audible, and whispersync so I can transition to listening while driving to the same spot in my books from the comfort of our couch.

We celebrated Mike’s birthday last Fall with a trip to Spain & Portugal. We also traveled to New Zealand last January so…a lot in one year, we’ll likely be sticking a bit closer to home this year. We are so lucky to be able to see so many wonderful places in the world and meet new people.

We enjoyed a wonderful summer at the Hollywood Bowl and I can’t wait for this upcoming season too. It’s one of my favorite places on Earth!

We got to spend time with a lot of our family and friends in the last quarter of 2025 and we loved it. As always, we love seeing our friends and talking to those of you who are far away too. You, the people we love, make this all worth it and make our life so full of joy…thank you!

In short, I feel a lot like “pre-cancer me”. I’ll never be the same, it’s not the same, but I’m pretty happy with where I’m at and I’m so grateful to be disease free. What a blessing! I don’t think about cancer a lot anymore, and that’s also wonderful. One thing I am still grateful for is my wonderful support group. Every two weeks I still meet with lovely people who have either fought cancer or who are fighting it. It’s wonderful to be able to offer more support now that I feel I need, and the community and support is so wonderful.

We’re thinking of all you and sending our love and best wishes for healthy, happy, and terribly fun 2026! We hope to see all of you soon!

The now “standard” note at the end of posts for website navigation help:

Thank you for taking time to keep up with us and see how we’re doing as well as all the help!  Because, I think like me, much of the world does nearly everything on their phones…I’m adding this note to the end of posts to make website navigation easier if you are on a phone.  If you’d like to read other journal entries, please click here (oldest post is at the bottom of the page).  There’s also a “hamburger” menu in the top right of the webpage that can help you navigate between the journal, ways to help page, stay in touch, and welcome pages.  Please know that reading this page and thinking of us is help!   Thank you for your support in all forms! If you have any issues, please email [email protected].