Recovering, biking, relaxing

Meg has been relaxing at home after finishing her combined chemotherapy and radiation treatments: she starts chemotherapy cycles (5 days/month, higher doses) in mid-March. She's regaining her appetite, though her sense of taste has been affected by the chemotherapy. She's often got lots of energy, but some days she's very tired.

On Saturday we went for a 28 mile bike ride on the Interurban and Green River Trails: we're sticking to paved off-road trails for now. The Interurban Trail is straight and rather industrial, passing by motels, warehouses and factories (and under a freeway) but makes up for it with stunning views of Mount Rainier. We returned via the Green River Trail, which runs along the top of the levees that keep the meandering river in its banks. We'd forgotten that miles of sandbags had been used to raise the levees, due to a failing upstream dam. The trail was "closed" but still passable and being used by other cyclists, so we gave it a try. It was challenging at times, but we persevered and enjoyed the views and the sunshine. Late in the day we decided it was prudent to return to the Interurban Trail, and found the GPS & Google Map on my new iPhone to be a wonderful navigation aid!

Meg enjoyed a visit from her brother on Sunday, and is now looking forward to visits from our kids: Nick stops by this weekend for a couple of days on his way to a conference, and overlaps briefly with Elspeth, who'll be here for a week for her Spring Break.

No more radiation!

Meg received the last of her 30 radiation treatments today, and got to take home the plastic mask that was used to immobilize and align her head during radiation. Her radiation oncologist was very pleased with her progress. She now gets a month off (with an Avastin/placebo infusion halfway through) before she starts her schedule of 5 days of chemotherapy a month and an infusion every 2 weeks.

In honor of Meg's graduation I presented her with a home-made "chemotherapy/radiation/craniotomy Barbie", who is now manning her computer in the lab, awaiting Meg's return to work in March. I was spurred on by the recent announcement that Barbie will (by popular vote) become a computer professional.

Presidents' Day update

Meg is eagerly awaiting her final radiation treatment, which will be on Wednesday February 17th (Nick's birthday). She continues to look balder and more burnt, but seems not to be getting any more tired.

The last few radiation treatments are more focused, and Meg felt stabbing pains in her right eye soon after the first one. These were followed by "flashes and floaters" in her eye. The doctors sent her for an MRI, and she was examined by her opthamologist. She's suffering from a minor retinal detachment, not unexpected for a short-sighted person of her age, and apparently unrelated to the radiation treatment. She'll have a follow-up checkup for that next month.

We also visited Dr. Henson, the cowboy boot wearing neuro-oncologist, to discuss the findings, and were very happy to hear that the MRI of Meg's brain looks very good.

Valentine's Day was our 29th wedding anniversary: we celebrated with a dinner that was sent to us by a friend of Meg's in Maryland, who'd found a service that delivers meals anywhere in the country.

(here are some February pictures)

February 7th weekly update

Radiation and chemotherapy treatments continue, and we are using this Andrew-made chart to count off the days till the 30th (and final) radiation treatment: radiation is Monday to Friday, with the last one on Nick's birthday, February 17th.

As a result, Meg continues to get balder (mainly on the right side, but now some thinning on top and the other side), her head is swollen and somewhat painful, and she's starting to have some radiation burns on her face. Her energy level varies, and she's often rather tired in the evenings. Nonetheless she's finding the energy to enjoy assorted recreational activities, and to get some crystallographic work done.

She's got out her recorders and is busy relearning the fingerings, so that she can make music again. The clarinet, her usual instrument, would probably be too hard to blow at this point. Assorted other instruments, including Elspeth's harp, are lurking around the house, should she want a change.

Saturday was a lovely sunny dry day, so we drove out to Snohomish county and went for a 25 mile bike ride on the Centennial Trail, a paved trail that used to be a railroad. The neurosurgeon had OK'd this activity, provided Meg wore a helmet and didn't go too fast. We had a great time and enjoyed lovely distant views, thanks to the leaf-free trees. On the way back Meg was noticably faster than me, as I am still fighting the cold that's been dogging me for weeks.

On Sunday afternoon we went out to a concert by Philharmonia Northwest, another local community orchestra (not the one Meg plays in). We enjoyed Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite, a Danish trombone concerto and Dvořák's New World Symphony. Pleasant "comfort food" sort of music, a change from the rather obscure stuff that Meg's orchestra's conductor often chooses.

The evenings found us watching the first DVD of Ken Burns' "National Parks" TV series. This opening episode was about the founding of the US National Park system, and concentrated on Yosemite and Yellowstone. Meg greatly enjoyed identifying the locations shown, familiar to her from her many childhood trips to Yellowstone, and backpacking trips to Yosemite (and some trips with our family).

We again thank you for the gifts of food (see right side of blog page to see what's in stock) which we have dipped into several times, and I note that Monday will be my 61st birthday.

Some cheerful news

1) As scientists we can get hung up on numbers, but shouldn't forget the wise words of Steven Jay Gould:
"The Median Isn't the Message".  Among other things, Gould notes:

 Attitude clearly matters in fighting cancer. We don't know why (from my old-style materialistic perspective, I suspect that mental states feed back upon the immune system). But match people with the same cancer for age, class, health, socioeconomic status, and, in general, those with positive attitudes, with a strong will and purpose for living, with commitment to struggle, with an active response to aiding their own treatment and not just a passive acceptance of anything doctors say, tend to live longer.

Gould, of course, never knew Meg, but he's described her attitude pretty well! (More about Gould)

2) My former neighbor (and recent visitor) Liz Ellis pointed out this newspaper article from her neighborhood: a woman whose story sounds much like Meg's and who now has no discernible trace of her tumor. You can read more about her story on her blog: the most recent posts are especially inspiring: 9 MRI's in a row with no signs of a tumor.

Assorted blog notes, for fellow novices

• Blog updates will (I hope) get rarer, as things get less and less exciting. You might consider getting blog updates by E-mail - see the box on the right of the page or click here (rather than checking in by hand)
•  The "feed" is  reliable and doesn't generate any spam. It sends you an E-mail with copies of new posts: the format isn't as pleasing as the actual blog (and it omits the "gadgets" down the right margin), so you'll probably want to return to the actual blog (probably by clicking on a title line in the E-mail).
• You can view enlarged versions of most photos by clicking on them.
• Note the links to photo albums, also on the right margin.
• The words in blue in the blog posts are, of course, hyperlinks to lead you to things I think you might want to know about: do let me know if they don't work. You could do so by clicking on this one!

Thank you again for all your concerns, kind thoughts and prayers. Meg and I are both comforted greatly to know that you care so much about us.

The freezer in the basement

When people first learnt of Meg's illness, many of them kindly brought us dinners and offered to bring us dinners in the future, for which we thank you. With the family home for Christmas, and with Meg recovering rapidly from her surgery, we were well supplied with food in the short term.

We have now (thanks, Vicki, for the urging) bought a freezer, which is slowly filling up with peoples' kind donations. Radiation and chemotherapy are taking their toll on Meg, and Andrew is back at the lab, so we'd be happy to take you up on your kind offers at your convenience.

I'll add a few suggestions below: click on "read more" to so do.