I’ve been laying low for a while. It’s really taken time to recover from the experimental drug. Now that I’m feeling better, I appreciate how knocked down I’ve been. Perhaps I can finally spend less time on the couch and more time out walking! Shari, Jenna and Brent have been very patient with my walks which have been more like strolls. Plus Shari has a great swing in her back yard. Very therapeutic to sit by the woods. It’s nice to feel my energy slowing building back up.
The treatment for the past three weeks has been a daily oral chemo called Tarceva and the weekly gemcitabine infusion. It’s been nice to drive 10 min (instead of 3 ½ hrs) to the local hospital for MD visits and gem. Next week will be my week off for infusion. No week off for the oral. For those of you curious about side effects, I still have my hair : ) however the Tarceva is known for it's skin side effects. Now if you know me at all, you know a skin side effect has my name written all over it. So, it's a full face of an acne like rash for me! The encouragement from the Doc is, "oh, you want to have that reaction". When I think of how much money I spent on accutane thirty years ago.......
We’ll run the same drill through May and return to Duke for the next set of scans and follow up on the 24th and 25th. A decision to continue this course or move on to something else will be made based on the scans.
May is going to be a busy month. Jenna turns 20 on the 4th! A special decade birthday that we’ll celebrate by going to Virginia Beach so she and Jim can go diving together Memorial Day Sat and Sun. What a great excuse to spend the weekend with Don and Molly! Before that we’ll be in Fairfax on Friday May 14 for Luke’s graduation from George Mason. He’s not quite finished but will be by the end of the summer so he’s allowed to “walk” anyway.
Might as well share Brent’s latest news. He has been accepted to JMU for the fall! He has been working at the Homestead and taking a full schedule at the local junior college for the past 2 years. He’s excited to move on and plans to be in the Integrated Systems and Technology Program.
Thanks for all of the continued prayers and encouragement!
