Comings and goings

Radiation finished 2  weeks ago, and Meg's in the middle of a 4 week "vacation" from chemotherapy, which starts again (at a higher dose, but only 5 days/month) in 2 weeks. So she was well rested and recovered when our "children" turned up to visit. She's still somewhat tired, balding, and suffering from assorted smaller complaints (itching, disturbed sense of taste, flaky skin) but is managing to enjoy life. She does some science, all the cooking, some relaxing, and is looking forward to starting back in the lab on March 8th. She greatly appreciates the prepared meals, supplied by colleagues, that wait in the freezer for the days when fatigue and hunger coincide. Many thanks to all!

Nick arrived Friday evening, despite lots of snow in Philadelphia, on his way to a conference in Los Angeles, where he gets to present his thesis work. He'll be getting his Ph.D. in May, and helped us make  plane, hotel and train reservations for our trip back to the East Coast. We'll spend the weekend with him, attend his graduation, meet his boyfriend Dan and explore a bit of Philadelphia. Then we'll take a train down to the Washington DC area and stay with a couple of friends. We're planning to visit assorted museums, galleries and other sights in the DC area, and will also be visiting the National Institute of Health for a consultation with the head of neuro-oncology: he'll be able to advise us about the best next-stage therapies for Meg, if/when that becomes necessary. Our two friends (undergraduate colleague of Meg, former graduate student in Andrew's lab) are also planning assorted other activities for us. On Monday,  Nick accompanied Meg to her latest (every 2 week) infusion of the drug/placebo, and then flew off to his conference.

Elspeth flew out here on Saturday evening (also battling snow) and is spending the week with us. We went out to her favorite restaurant on Sunday (Than Brothers phở on Broadway; see Wikipedia for description), stopped by Molly Moon's ice cream, and enjoyed assorted flavors of ice cream on our return home. Elspeth and Meg have been relaxing together at home, while I'm off at the lab, and they treated themselves to a Thai lunch on 15th Avenue today: better  Pad Thai than Elspeth can get in Ann Arbor. Elspeth's hoping to find a lab in Seattle where she can do the thesis research for her University of Michigan Master's degree, so that she can spend some of the summer with us.

In summary, Meg seems to be healing well and enjoying life and family, despite the inevitably harsh side effects of the assorted treatments she's received, and is hopeful that the upcoming rounds of chemotherapy will be as easy to tolerate.