Loose Strife

Doesn’t the word “relax” look like the name of a drug? “RelaX ™, the new treatment by ABC pharmaceuticals, has been approved by the FDA for just about everything.” Laura’s been doing a lot of resting, especially since chemo. But this is now day +7 after chemo and she’s definitely in better shape. In fact, […]

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Saturday was yet another hot and bright day — not exactly what you expect for October in Ashfield. But after two months, it looks like the rain might finally be coming to cool us down and get Autumn going. About 70 people came to our house for a party of sorts — many with kids […]

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Right now Laura’s really exhausted. When I got home this evening she said, “I feel like I was hit by a train today.” My mother, who has thankfully stayed with us for the past 2 weeks, was frightened when Laura almost fainted late this morning. We’ve been trying to get fluids and calories into her. […]

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Laura began chemotherapy today. The 2nd opinion oncologist from Dana Farber finally made contact this morning and agreed with the treatment plan. So Laura spent the afternoon starting a chemotherapy treatment that will last through the end of the year and is administered every three weeks. She is taking “AC”, which is a combination of […]

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[ Ray’s going to be pissed off with me for sharing this, but hey, we all need some levity around here and, Ray, almost nobody from Ashfield reads this blog…. ] My neighbor, Ray, has helped me out too many times in the last year. Somehow I keep getting my tractors stuck in the mud […]

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Laura thinks that a move to chemo is inevitable at this point. I agree that we seem to have both come around to it. Just the same, we’ll be in touch with our “2nd opinion” oncologist in Boston hopefully tomorrow before making the next move. We thought that hormone therapy hadn’t been given enough time. […]

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Some folks are wondering why this chemotherapy decision is so important. Since most of us associate chemo as the standard cancer treatment, isn’t this expected? Well, the answer is mostly simple, but slightly complicated. Here’s a little cancer school. When cancer spreads to other organs, the cancer cells that have invaded are still of the […]

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You know what they say: no news is good news? With cancer, the opposite is true, too. We were driving to the hospital for Laura’s port surgery on Friday morning when we got a call from her oncologist’s office asking for Laura to come in to talk with the doctor after the surgery. We now […]

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Laura and I were toying with the idea of having an open house, belated housewarming party on the weekend of the Ashfield Fall Festival. But we weren’t sure she’d be up to it. Well Laura’s doing better and she told me on Thursday that we should go ahead and do it. So it shall be! […]

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Quick update to say that the swallowing test on Thursday didn’t indicate any tumors or other problems. So it’s still a mystery why Laura’s throwing up every morning. May be a drug reaction.

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