Two months since my last update. Hmmm. Time isn't slowing down much. One day leads to the next, and the rest is history. 

After that lung biopsy I still had the cough. They supposedly don't treat the bit of fungal infection I had, so I'd pretty much planned to deal with the cough, even though it was better. One day I was visiting my favorite chiropractor, and she suggested taking oregano would help. I bought the pills from her, and found that she was right. The cough pretty much disappeared, except for when the trees unloaded all their fluff and the whole county was coughing. My oncology doc said it was worth a try and to keep doing it if it was helping. Sold. 

Both Percy and I have had our share of health issues, but finally we were both feeling somewhat normal. We talked to our docs, got the green light, packed up, and headed out to drive the Alaskan highway, something we'd talked about for a few years. No more delays. We left the end of April, which was well ahead of the summer tourist crowds. A disadvantage of leaving then is that not everything was open, but it's impossible to do everything anyway. We literally planned one day at a time. Hotels all had room, so it gave us a ton of flexibility. 24 days, 7300 miles, unbelievable scenery, and close to 250 wild animals later, we arrived home again. I'd definitely recommend putting a trip like this on your bucket list. I'd even give you a few hints about places to visit! We got to the end of the highway, toured some of Alaska, but spent most of our time in Canada. Just what we needed, to say the least. 

After getting back we had a flurry of appointments. I finally got some good news, which doesn't often happen with Stage 4 folks. The PET scan suggested some healing of lesions, and little or no new growth. The CT scan showed improvement in my lung. The cancer marker dropped 10 points, and my doc suggested stretching out to 3 month appointments rather than every month since I'm doing so well. I'll still need to do blood work every month to make sure the medicine isn't wrecking my organs, and have the option to schedule an appointment earlier if I feel the need. I know that my cancer won't go away, but yet again, I have cancer and it doesn't have me. I haven't fit the mold yet with any of this adventure, and I'm determined to keep it that way as long as I can. 

To add to the adventure, we adopted a dog from the shelter in Hibbing.  Luna. She's about 2, 75 pounds, one blue eye and one brown.  We may learn about her breed(s) when her DNA test comes back. She'd been abused, spent a big part of her life in the shelter, and is a flight risk, but is settling in quickly. She's not aggressive, is playful and cuddly, great on a leash, and has me out logging more miles on the walking trails. Win-win. Mosquitoes love us, unfortunately. One downside. Oh well. 

I hope this finds you doing well. I'm so thankful to have people who care and glad that I'm feeling ok in spite of thinning hair that thinks it should curl or just stick straight out. I will not complain since I'm able to stay vertical and live my life to the fullest. Bless you all!

Luna is pictured above.