ML King Day

Today was not a holiday for the radiation techs at Swedish Hospital, so Meg and I walked from home to the hospital for her radiation, and on from there to the Hutchinson Cancer Center, where we had lunch at Duke's Chowder House with Sue Amundsen, a longtime colleague of Andrew's. We then walked home via Broadway, total distance about about 4.75 miles. Meg walks to her radiation sessions most days, but this expedition did seem to tire her out rather more than normal.

She's now had 9 of her 33 radiation sessions (and takes chemotherapy pills every day): she's doing remarkably well, but is clearly starting to get a bit tired as the treatments affect her blood cell production.

Danielle Vermaak, a former colleague, her husband Chris and their daughters Maddie and Josie came over this afternoon: Meg and I were cleaning out the basement yesterday (to make room for the freezer, which arrives on Tuesday) and we realized that we probably wouldn't be using all those Legos ever again. A chance Facebook observation, a couple of E-mails, and Maddie and Josie were eagerly running off with all the Legos, and a selection of Barbie dolls and accessories to balance out their life experience. And they kindly left us with some beef from Chris's father's farm, to inaugurate the new freezer!

Meg confirmed her tired state by providing a warm and peaceful bed for the cat, after Danielle and family had departed. Meg is pacing herself well, and is managing to make progress on assorted lab-related projects. She went into the lab for a couple of hours on Sunday, to get some data and to help a lab member, but decided that was as long as she was up to for now.

Radiation and chemotherapy go on till Feb. 22nd, and the clinical trial starts near the end of January, with the first of her (every two weeks) IV infusions of Avastin or placebo. After a month's rest the chemotherapy resumes: a higher dose, but only 5 days a month. We are, of course, hoping that Meg will do as well with that regime as she has so far.