Up For A Fight

My hidden bald spot. Soon to grow larger! ;)

I feel as though I may have given a wrong impression in my last newsletter. Lloyd is not winning. I am not moving to Pennsylvania to settle in for my final year. We are simply preparing to kick Lloyd’s ass, again, in a new location. 

My tumor has not suddenly turned dark. We look at it every two months and this time at the bottom there is a small growth. It is, unfortunately, in a spot too far down to surgically remove. Therefore, we are attacking it in other ways.

And so we commence! Yesterday I was at Hopkins getting my new plastic face mask for the zapper. I will receive five weeks of radiation on my left side, just a few minutes a day, five days a week. I did the same thing at the beginning of 2012. 

I’ll also be taking chemo pills; at home, five days, one week per month. This won’t make me sick, but I remember after a few weeks last time things started tasting funny. By which, of course, I mean “bad.” I couldn’t drink coffee for months. Coffee!!! *Fingers crossed* it won’t be the same this time. 

Our plan to move to Pennsylvania is still on, but we aren’t going quite yet. Being 15 minutes away from JHU for the next five weeks of daily zaps is obviously the right choice. After that, we will head up to the Delta area to be near my parents and sister. We will only be an hour from Hopkins and Baltimore.  (My father, Tim, drove to work from Delta to downtown every day ❤️) 

I will be beat-up and tired when I move, and having my family around me will help (both me AND Mark!) But that doesn’t mean I’m done, or think I’m done! Not at all!!! I am doing all of this to get better, and I will. I know it, and I feel it. I know I am not done. It is going to be a rough few months, but it will be worth it. It always is.

Love, -Kristina (&Mark) 

Head holder for radiation (zapper) 2012; sent home as a gift