You know what? This stuff actually works.
I had an MRI last week, and the good news is that the tumor has shrunk.
Significantly.  To just over one-third of its original size.
And my lymph nodes all look normal. Which they did not before.
So… wow.
I was confident before that things would improve, and that science rules.  But it’s so lovely to actually see the results.
I still have plenty of chemo to go, but we do know that we are on the right track. For sure.
Meanwhile, I sort of overdid things last week, trying to get my Day-Job ready for me being out for an extended period.  This involved lots of sudden creation of documentation for the more arcane procedures that I do weekly and monthly.  The company did not bring anyone in to cover my work — they’re just shifting it around to other people. All these other people have jobs of their own to do.  I’m not sure how high a priority they’ll make the additional tasks. I suppose that time will tell.
So, I actually put in over 40 hours last week, including Saturday, which did wear me down some.   But as of this week, I’m out of the office for a good long time.
On Monday, we switched chemo from one combination (Adriamycin plus Cyclophosphamide, called AC) to another (Taxol plus Herceptin, called TH), but since the side-effects of chemo do accumulate, I’m still feeling the build-up of all that AC.  I’m very run down, and this is a week were a lot of sleeping is taking place.
Reading is tiring this week (as is concentrating), so I’m mainly doing audiobooks. What I’m listening to: Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon & the Journey of a Generation, by Sheila Weller. I mainly bought it because of Joni Mitchell, who was so, so influential in my life; but I’m finding Carole King’s story just as fascinating, and Carly Simon’s illuminating in a different way. King was lower middle-class/working class, Mitchell was solid, stolid middle-class Canadian Prairie, and Simon’s background was upper middle-class, and very privileged.  Between the three of them, serially and overlapping, they cover a period when women’s lives and what was possible for women to accomplish were changing wildly — and the hippie culture, and drugs, and birth control were all coming in around the same time.
The author, Sheila Weller, is a bit uneven, occasionally overblown, and seems sometimes to heavy-handedly speculate towards the most dramatic interpretation of ambiguous events… But mostly she’s fine, and is revealing exactly the sort of information I want to hear.
Ebook update: No ebook update this week, sorry to say.  Just too beat to accomplish anything worth reporting.   Next week is an off-week for chemo (only the H of the TH combo), and I’m hoping to get a bit more energy in the next few days.
Lastly: Here’s a TED talk I liked when I first heard it, recently heard again, and found I still like it just as much.
February 27th, 2014 at 10:46 pm
Oh, most excellent! All hail science! May you and your doctors continue to out-strategize the rogue cells.
Greer
February 27th, 2014 at 10:53 pm
Yay–what great news!!! Feel free to accomplish more of the same at your earliest convenience.
February 28th, 2014 at 2:20 am
Fantastic. Keep going!
February 28th, 2014 at 4:23 am
Good good! Carry on, and DO get plenty of rest and food, your body needs all the help it can to heal!
February 28th, 2014 at 7:10 am
Working is excellent. Glad to hear you’ll be taking it easy now!
February 28th, 2014 at 9:17 am
Most excellent news (heartfelt sigh).
February 28th, 2014 at 1:36 pm
Yes, I am so happy for the good news. What touched me most was your beautiful style in the telling of it. It’s great to read “anything” you write!
February 28th, 2014 at 7:03 pm
Yay for good news! Keep taking good care of yourself and get all the rest you need (says the would-be Jewish grandmother).
To go along with your Carole King reading, if you need some pure comfort listening, maybe King singing the soundtrack to Maurice Sendak’s “Really Rosie”? It’s a children’s musical, but she wrote all the songs and they stand up to adult listening. If you grew up reading Sendak, I recommend it.
March 1st, 2014 at 4:42 am
I am so glad to hear your news!
March 2nd, 2014 at 10:18 am
I am so very happy to hear the good news, Rosemary! Looking forward to the next time we meet — expect a big hug.
March 9th, 2014 at 2:24 pm
Really good news. I’ll be here often catching up.