4 Down, 2 To Go

     Chemo #4 today (on a Tuesday instead of Monday, because it was closed yesterday for Remembrance Day) - it's nice to be well over half way through this process. Beth was a little more concerned about treatment this time as it feels like she's going into it already feeling tired. She found herself needing to rest (and falling asleep) more during the day over the past week. Our youngest son, Joel, was able to come from London today to accompany her to the appointments.
     Beth had a couple more encouraging conversations with doctors last week. She talked to the GI specialist on the phone about her blood work, and while some of the numbers are still not where they should be, he doesn't think that any cancer has spread to her liver. However he will retest things in a couple of weeks and if things haven't changed he would consider doing a biopsy. On Wednesday Beth was able to see her chemo oncologist and she said things were going well as far as the treatment is concerned. When she feels for the breast tumour she can tell that it has reduced in size by about half. She too feels that the liver is not involved, that there has to be some other issue happening which is affecting her levels.
     On Thursday Beth had an appointment at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto where she is seen every couple of years as followup to her thyroid cancer back in 2002. Actually she was seen there way back in 1983 when she first received treatment for Hodgkin's disease. Josh drove her back and forth (they weren't too thrilled when it took 2.5 hours to drive home) and Beth was glad to see her original thyroid doctor as the last several times she's met with an associate. She caught him up with all that is happening now and he recommended that if she has her parathyroid gland out (which is seeming likely at some future point) that she should consider having the surgeon who took out her thryoid at PMH as he is highly skilled at that kind of surgery.
     Joel also was home on the weekend and we ended up doing a pretty big cleanup/reorganization on Saturday as he needed to get some stuff out of the attic so Alison can bring the rest of her things from the apartment. We went through a lot of material and it felt good to get rid of at least a few things (lots of paper got recycled). As well, we're having some renovations done in our family room by Starkey Contracting (James is a friend of the family and does good work so we'll give him a free plug here - click the link) so things on the main floor are in a bit of an upheaval too. Things are looking great though and we'll soon be set back up in front of our fireplace.
     On Sunday it was wonderful to have the whole family together at our place to celebrate my mom's 74th birthday for dinner. A highlight of my day was after church when I came over to David, who was holding Lindsay, she reached out her arms to be held by me - a first! That night we went to see the movie "About Time" - it was a neat concept, although the time travel stuff is filled with lots of holes. However, in the end it's message is great: take the time to "relish this remarkable life." Important words, but difficult to live out, especially at this time, when dealing with major health challenges. Still, we work hard at staying positive and hopeful.