(First posted Oct 2015, updated June 2020; cancer timeline and treatment details at the end of the page)

I’m a fiercely proud New Englander and defender of all things Boston. I’m very careful in not saying that I’m a Bostonian, because I’m not– I grew up in and have moved back to the “City of Presidents”and the original home of Dunkin Donuts. So, if I met you for the first time, I’d tell you that I’m from “just south of Boston” because hey, if you’re from Edison, do you get to be a New Yorker? Or, uh, if you were from Hubli and tried to pass off as a Bangalorean, you’d be scoffed at. Which is to say that in Massachusetts, we’re particular about these things, or at least, I am.

I am also Asian American and of Chinese ethnicity. My heart will always belong in youth work. I’m getting received my doctorate in education (in 2019) and study Asian American youth and their identity development, educational aspirations, and civic engagement. Post-cancer treatment in 2016, I pivoted my research and wrote my dissertation on experiences of doctoral students with serious and chronic illness and the experience of illness on their academic identity. Sometimes I feel like I have a better chance at beating cancer than making progress on my dissertation. Turns out I finished my dissertation, but the cancer came back. Oh well.

I have Baudelairean dreams and when I think of beauty, I think of Calvino’s Invisible Cities, a luscious second arabesque, and a dog I once watched for a year and some named Melo. Though, in late 2016, I rescued the now love of my life, Fitz. My husband, P, a Bangalorean, doesn’t mind that I say that.

***

Cancer details, treatment, and timeline:

October 2015: Breast Cancer, invasive carcinoma, diagnosed at age 32, Stage II, 4 cm tumor, ER+/HER- (post surgery, tumor cells found across 8 cm span)

October 2015-February 2020: Ovarian suppression (Lupron)

November 2015- February 2016: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (dose dense AC-T)

March 2016: Unilateral mastectomy

April 2016-May 2016: Radiation, 28 rounds

May 26, 2016: Officially out of “active treatment” (i.e. assumed successful treatment)

June 2016-April 2020: Hormonal therapy- Tamoxifen

October 2016-October 2018: Joined PALLAS trial for targeted therapy pablociclib (Ibrance) for early stage breast cancer

April 2020: CT and bone scans show likely metastases to bones and liver; new diagnosis of metastatic (stage IV) breast cancer

April 2020: Begin lupron, fulvestrant (Faslodex), letrozole, Zometa and targeted therapy abemaciclib (Verzenio)

May 2020: After less than two weeks on Verzenio it was ultimately held because of rapidly suppressed platelet and white blood cell counts, as well as deteriorating liver and kidney function

May 2020: Hospitalized for acute kidney injury; undergo liver biopsy, results show invasive carcinoma consistent with breast cancer, ER+, HER2-

May 2020: start new chemo- eribulin (Halaven)