I’ve been waiting for this news for over three months… I recently received the results of the first post-radiation brain MRI… (insert drum roll)…there are no new tumours in my brain, and all of the existing ones have shrunk by about 50%…woot woot!!

The other good news is that I do not need to have any further treatments at this time…I get to resume normal-ish life and can plan some travel for the future. I also confirmed that my cancer is technically brain metastases, not brain cancer… this is my 2017 breast cancer that has reappeared (metastasized) in my brain. So yes, I do have metastatic brain tumours, which are cancerous and living in my brain, but I do not have a primary brain cancer… which is a good thing!

The funny thing about this “it’s technically not brain cancer” is that I may have recently had the brain cancer ribbon permanently inked on my back… this might be splitting hairs, but I’m kind of thinking that the grey ribbon now needs to become pink…or I can leave it as is and have a funny story to tell…

The other big question that I asked the oncologist… and I’m sure some of you have also wondered about this too… was regarding my life expectancy. Obviously having five tumours in your brain is not ideal! While a specific time frame is hard for an oncologist to predict, the good news is that there is nothing that I need to imminently worry about. Others in similar situations have easily survived five, 10 or even 15 years… so my goal is at least 20!

Some additional updates are that my energy levels are coming back, I’m eating more, and I’m running more (to balance out the eating more!), and the oncologist thought that physically I looked great. I’m also returning to work and have been going into the office as much as I can. Seeing my colleagues in person brings me great joy 🙂

To recap the recent tests: the bone scan was good, the CT scan was good and the brain MRI was also good! I owe a lot of these good results to medical science, but I also owe some of this to the prayers and positive energy from all over the world, the power of crystals, angels, and acorns, and who can forget the incredible 1,000 paper cranes! Thank you all…and keep ’em coming!