Out of the blue

So Steve brought in the mail today and look what was there!  A friend I haven't seen for far too long knitted this cap for my balding chemotherapy head so I can keep warm this winter.  I was surprised and touched.

There's a woman I know who, whenever I pass her and say, "Hi, how are you you?," always smiles and says, "I'm blessed."  That's the way I felt when I received my gift in the mail today.

I'm so far behind on my blog!  It's unusual for me not to post for several days but that's what happens when energy lags.  For the most part it's been a good week.  I'm a bit bummed today because my hair is starting to fall out and I'm afraid if someone stands behinds me and sneezes it will be all over.

But my visit with the oncologist on Tuesday went very well.  He tends to be pessimistic - I've been reading him for almost ten years - but this week he was positively upbeat.  My tumor marker had dropped after six days on Tamoxifen, before the Taxotere had even been started.  And this bunch of tumors are less aggressive than what I started with back in 2002.

I asked him what he expected to see in my next set of scans (after three or four chemotherapy cycles).  He expects a lot of shrinkage and that I can live for some time on Tamoxifen alone (a pill).  He expect this course of treatment to be a minor setback after it's all said and done.

Worst case scenario:  There is a long list of possible drugs available for me that we haven't even tried.

Whew!  I think I'm gonna make it through the year!