Happy Spring Everyone!

A few of you have been asking -- did I miss an update??? Nope. Just had not posted in a while. No super big news, which is good news. We've been riding the roller coaster but mostly 3-ticket ride coaster and not a 5-ticket loop de loop. We did have one scare. Cindy's blood tumor markers are rising, which is not good and can signal cancer activity, but after a stressful 3-days in one week at Hopkins, team decided her scans showed no visible growth and decided to stay the course. What that all means is this chemo regimen, which was very successful at shrinking the tumors in the beginning, is now only able to hold it back. As we understand it, we don't want to change approaches unless and until this chemo fails to keep the cancer stable, or until its side effects become intolerable. Changing her chemo to another approach will introduce a lot of new variables, unknowns and side effects so we will stick with the devil we know until the doc thinks we have squeezed out every last drop of efficacy it has.  This time may be coming, but it's not here yet and we are grateful for that. Today the oncology nurse called to say Cindy's Potassium is low and she needs to eat more bananas. So we asked if she can have it on top of ice cream and she said absolutely! So there you have it -- health care providers prescribing banana splits. Go Hopkins!

The body report. Still sleeping in a chair most of the time but Cindy can lie down on her side for a few hours a night, which is a good relief. She has also had to start taking a pancreatic enzyme called Creon when she eats to help her digest her food, or not good things happen. You don't want a doctor to prescribe creon unless s/he hands you, along with the prescription, gold bars to pay for it because it's crazy expensive. It's scary to think about how folks might be in a position to literally not be able to afford it.  Counting our blessings. And, the hair report is..... Cindy's hair went from a duckling, to Christopher Walken, to Jack Nicholson.  We haven't figured out what to call its present state, other than, "thinning," but that's no fun so we will keep searching for a better term. 

We of course have been cramming in some fun. We went axe throwing with Jesse and Emma when they were here for spring break. Of course Cindy got the first bullseye!  We saw Peter Pan at the National Theater, Company at the Kennedy Center and we saw the Indigo Girls documentary at the AFI. We saw Cherry Blossoms and a solar eclipse (not on the same day!). We had a trip to the beach with some friends -- we dyed our hair, went for a walk on the boardwalk,  had Kohr Brothers ice cream and played lots of games (two new faves -- skip bo, and spoons). 

Other family news....  In the last post I was in NC because mom had back surgery. She did great until the day I left, and it turned out the screw in her vertebrae fractured (ugh) causing serious pain. Sister Susan went to Calabash to help out because mom had to basically re-do the surgery about 10 days after the first.   So, I was back down there again last week to be a food shopper, gardener, cook and movie company.  Good thing she had two children ;-)

The biggest bestest news ever is that yesterday Cindy's niece Jennie had her baby -- her FOURTH baby girl. Mama and Baby are fine. Welcome Emersen Lillee.  Some pics attached. 

xoxo Lisa