Morning...I had treatment in Madison yesterday and also got to chat with the doctor again. There are two issues that have been on my mind and we were looking forward to meeting with the doctor to get them settled.



One issue was the CT scan from last week and the great results. Yes, the tumors are showing "significant" decrease - but I wanted to know exactly what does that mean? Does that mean I am in remission? (He said "no") Well, then, exactly what are we talking in the whole scope of things? He said it is a "step in the right direction" that we hope continues. I am by no means "out of the woods". He mentioned the study being a 6-round study but that he hoped, as long as I was showing progress, that I could continue longer than that. I hope so, too. It was a little more sobering than last weeks all-out good news, but encouraging for sure. We are headed in the right direction. That's enough for now - it certainly is way better news than we've had any other time during this "thing"!!!!!



The other issue - the abdominal/back pain. Ha! Batten down the hatches!! Katie, bar the door!! I'm constipated!! Not again!!!!!!!! I know - you're thinking that this woman doesn't know a thing if she doesn't even know when she's, well, you know. I'm telling you - I don't have trouble in this area and believe I am the one who would know!!!! But the problem isn't "lower", it is the entire mid-section of my abdomen and he said it's "massive". We came to this discovery because nothing "cancer" in this area showed up on the CT scan. His only course of action, now, was to send me to a GI man for tests. Ugh. He kept asking, though, are you sure you're not "c". Well, I guess I'm sure, but would the CT scan if I was? Yes, probably, but maybe not - but he looked it up anyway. Don could see his face - I could not. Don said his eyes brightened when he pulled the scan up - and I think he chuckled, though he wouldn't dare at this point! That's when he said it's a massive and wondered how the CT readers could miss it, except they were looking for cancer not the other "c" word. That concerned me a bit, that this would be so obvious, when you're looking for it, but you could pass it up if you weren't? There's a life lesson there!!

Anyway...I'm taking something for this issue and hope for good results here soon. I could write an entire book on this issue - the humor is just begging to be told. It's rather like waiting for labor pains to bring the baby!! And Don - bless his heart - I can't walk by the bathroom without him asking "anything yet?" Oh, what life has brought us to. Oh, and by the way - I went into the drugstore for my own stuff this time (Don came along, though) and he said when we got back into the car that now that he knows what he's looking for, he can buy it next time! No disguise or anything!! Isn't love grand???

Pressing on...
Don & Deb