When I was close to finishing my active treatment (8 rounds of chemo and 33 rounds of radiation) my oncologist recommended I take part in a clinical trial.

I was so not sure of what to do. I mean, I had just finished the marathon of breast cancer stuff and with 2 kids, losing my job, and just you know life and wanting to get back to some semblance of normalcy I questioned my sanity for considering a trial.

The drug is called Ibrance and the trial is called Pallas. I was given the paperwork to think about and then went about trying to readjust to you know life.

But the thought of the trial was nagging me — I read the papers multiple times and could recount the 5-7 pages of potential side effects of the drug. I knew this drug was used to treat metastatic breast cancer but I was not metastatic — the point of the study is to see if this drug should be part of standard of care for early stagers as there is a plan for helping breast cancer patients stay progression-free and recurrence-free for as long as possible.

I was leaning towards signing up for the trial, in which I would have a 50/50 chance of getting the pill or not (there is no placebo). My husband and mom were like, “Are you nuts?” and you know, I am. I signed up and got the pills and now I’m 12+ months in to a 24-month study and I have been so damn lucky.

My wbc (white blood cell) count is low so if I run fever I do need to go to hospital for work-ups (which, knock on wood, my head, my missing breast, whatever) has only happened once — I am still taking the full dose of the drug (some people get it reduced to help with side effects).

So my post-cancer life includes no period since February 2017, daily anti-hormone pills, once-every-3-months Lupron shot and for the next 12 months, 3 weeks on Ibrance, one week off.

Oh and working out, running 2 businesses, blogging, being a mom, a wife, a daughter a friend, a sister and whatevs.

Look for a future post about what I wish you knew about living life as a cancer patient / survivor and about follow-ups. Oh and because I am so basic, I made two videos about this and could not decide which one to use — so here’s the other one :). Which is clearer / better?

Also, did you get offered a trial? Have you been on one? What can you share about it? Thanks! Super Mom Xoxo