Last Letter from Chemo Suite

By John Bach

Julie holds a beautiful spring bouquette from ElizaJuneBlooms before leaving for her final infusion.

If all goes well, this will be my last letter from the chemo suite.

No, I’m not pulling the plug on the blog. I’m sure there will be plenty more to say about Julie’s healing. But today, thank God, we made what we pray is our last trip to the chemotherapy port room of the Barrett Cancer Center in Cincinnati. 

Today’s treatment represented her final Keytruda infusion. Keytruda is the preventative cancer drug that has been pumped into the port in her chest every three weeks over 17 sessions. If you are doing the math, that represents more than a year of her life when you factor in a few breaks.

Keytruda is an immunotherapy, so it is essentially designed to rewire the cellular process to boost the immune response against cancer cells. It is not chemotherapy, but her response to it has been hauntingly familiar. 

Julie was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer in the summer of 2021. She endured 16 rounds of chemotherapy, and even banged the gong in the chemo suite in January of 2022. As symbolic as it may have been, the sound of that gong was nowhere near the finish line of her treatment. Instead, it signaled the start of a 14-month marathon that included a double mastectomy, a hysterectomy, several breast reconstruction surgeries and tons more infusions.

By all counts, we’ve made somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 trips to this place in less than two years. In road miles, that’s roughly one coast-to-coast trip, but without all the cool sightseeing.

I couldn’t be more proud of Julie’s brave fight over this whole process. Her doctors recommended an aggressive treatment, and that’s precisely what she did. She's had a full response and is officially considered NED — that is No Evidence of Disease. Never once did she say she wanted to quit, though I'm sure she was often tempted.

While Julie may be finished with this phase of her treatment, we know this is a lifelong journey toward health and healing. And we are appreciative of all those who have come along, particularly the breast cancer support community in Cincinnati who have stepped into our lives in such special ways. 

I started this blog as a creative outlet to share our experiences, to keep our network informed and — if I’m honest — to keep Julie top of mind in your prayers. We didn’t expect the response it has received (more than 11K views!) but we thank you for following our story, and we especially thank you for sharing your thoughts and prayers.

Julie got to ring the bell on our way out from the chemo suite today!

Today is another milestone, and we feel incredibly blessed, particularly when so many others are getting pummeled by this deadly disease. We lost my lovely cousin, Joanne, to breast cancer just last week, so please pray for her family in Massachusetts. 

Thank You, UC Health Team

Julie will return every four months over the next year for bloodwork and a check-in, so this seems like a good time to thank a ton of people and wish them well. As strange as it may seem, we’ll miss you, but we hope we don’t see much of you anytime soon.

We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the entire UC Health breast cancer team for their expert care. We started with Dr. Elyse Lower, who is an absolute legend in the oncology world. After Dr. Lower retired from treating patients last year, we relied heavily on the amazing skills of nurse practitioner Diana Sutherland, whose steadying, kind and ever-listening influence was enormous. 

To surgeons Dr. Alicia Heelan, Dr. Amanda Jackson and Dr. Ryan Gobble (and your awesome support teams) thank you. A special thanks also to all the incredible nurses in the Barrett Cancer Center chemo suite. All of you were just so kind and caring, but we made a special connection to Brandi, Jill and Rachel. You administered life-saving care, but you did it with a very human and personal touch that was truly special.

Our family will be heading out soon for a celebration dinner, and we look forward to raising our glasses to all of you.