Thursday, June 07, 2018

May 2018

In our house, everything happens in May.

For instance, May 10, 12 and 18 are diagnosis days 2 (2012), 1 (2006) and 3 (2016) respectively.  When diagnosis day 4 came in January of this year, it was a huge shock, not just because it was shocking, but because it's supposed to happen in May.

This year's May in particular started with Anne-Marie's Xeloda/Tykerb treatment going not so well.  If you've been following this story, this was no surprise.  As I posted a few weeks ago, Dr. Smith reduced Anne-Marie's dose of Tykerb by 20% and we went away hoping.

Over the next week, things started to improve and Anne-Marie's strength started to return.  We went to church as a family on Mother's day and by the time we hit the 19th, Anne-Marie was able to attend Ethiopian Orphan Relief's annual charity auction (both times in a wheelchair, but still).  We had such a great time, I forgot to take pictures.  Whatever.  I got a cool painting at the auction and Anne-Marie was celebrated with all the other great moms at church.

My cool painting from Ethiopia
The 24th was the revised chemo plan follow-up with Dr. Smith.  Let's just say he was thrilled with the progress made inside that time.  This means the plan is a plan for now.  The side effects are still a battle, but if we can prove this is working, we will stick with it.  It's a good thing the chemo plan worked as well as it did because the kids year-end concert for school was the night of the follow-up appointment.  The kids did great.  (Tiny video of Mariah below.)


But that was just one side of things because it was Anne-Marie's birthday week.  I think she had four different birthday parties.  Tuesday she was at a friend's house for a birthday lunch, Thursday she was taken out for lunch and dessert, Saturday was a giant birthday breakfast for friends and Monday another big breakfast party with family.  Yeah, she's spoiled.  She even got a song this year, because being in love is worth looking like a dummy.  (I actually sing more than most of you realize.  Happy 39th, Anne-Marie.)


I'm sure there's a few other things that happened last month, but I'm tired of thinking of stuff and so I'm going to stop typing now.  Next for us is an oncologist consult on 6/13 to track the progress of the chemo and a brain MRI on 6/27 to better understand the effectiveness of April's gamma knife surgery.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Anne-Marie sweetie. You're my hero. Thinking of you. Love & Prayers... -Kelda

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