Lloyd the Leech

The fall went quickly, and I got better.  Going off some drugs did me well and there was nothing to report. “No changes” are always great, but sometimes I feel like I’ve got nothing to report so I wait an extra scan before I write: talk about asking for trouble!  Two weeks before Christmas my scan showed a new change.  The team reviewed it the following week and decided to scan it again in 4 weeks.  This is not something I’m sending out during the holidays, friends. 

When we went last week, both Mark and I felt prepared for treatment plans.  When my scan showed no change we were shocked.   Dr. G had left us both with the impression that another round of treatment was about to be started, but Lloyd the Leech (Level 3, round 2) is apparently just hanging out doing nothing.  Let’s hope he stays happily in place with his level 2 buddies sleeping all around.  

I get to decide when to go back, sometime between 4 and 8 weeks.  I believe Dr. G thought it would be good for me to choose.  First, though, we’re going to the British Virgin Islands this week for a few days of relaxing with family, and there are very few things I like as well as snorkeling.            

     

We were invited to the Walters Gala.

My brain workings have held firm and I am delighted to say that I have used it to read and read. I’ve finished several books on my “Hundred Greatest Books” list, which contains 124 books.  I’m currently reading, “The Bell Jar.”  I’ve also got my family tree so far back (descendants from 800 AD) that I had to uproot the whole mechanism and I’m using three different programs to try to sort it all out again.  I know how silly that sounds if you don’t like ancestry, but for those of us who do it’s a laugh riot.

  This years theme was Elvis.

Things here are great.  I am well, Mark is well, and we are happy.  I feel better than I have in a year, and I’m looking forward to staying that way.  I know that finding a way to live with this is simply a matter of time, and I hope very much to be one of the lucky ones at the threshold of turning this disease around.  It is already happening. 

Cancer recovery leaves doctors dumbfounded

A woman who was diagnosed with one of the deadliest cancers in her mid-20s now has no trace of the disease left, a recovery that has left doctors dumbfounded. Heather Knies of Phoenix was diagnosed with two brain tumors by the age of 26, and told that one—an aggressive stage 4 glioblastoma—would likely kill her within months. But Knies was recently given the all-clear after six years of intense treatment. “Her survival is remarkable,” said surgeon Dr. Robert Spetlzer. Knies even gave birth to a baby daughter last year, despite undergoing radiotherapy that often leaves women infertile.   Link to the article 

Love,

-Kristina (&Mark)

Mark won J.J. Hardy's bat.