Thursday, January 27, 2011

Another Cycle Gone By
















Kay finished her first cycle of chemo after our Christmas chemo holiday and all continues well. She feels fine, and has had no concerns with the blood counts. The CA-125 was a still good, at 10.3, but we're not sure how we feel about this. Last cycle her nadir was abou 6.0, and after the 5th cycle now the CA-125 has inched up from 9.3 last time to 10.3 this time. Kay's oncologist assures her that this is all good, that there are normally minor hour-to-hour variations in the values, and not to worry. We're not going to worry.

Kay's 57th birthday was last week, and we took a 4 day weekend last week. We spent Thursday night in Vancouver, BC. Weather was really miserable, cold mist and stiff breeze, but we managed to have fun. We went to Granville Island Thursday afternoon and evening, where I managed to smile was we walked through a few shops full of cha-cha before we settled into a warm seat at a brewery and tasted their beer. A good dinner topped off the evening. Home early for a warm winter night.

Friday we hit both the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Modern Art Gallery at times when they wer down for putting up new shows, so only saw one floor at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It was an interesting show of Emily Carr and 4 younger artists who emulate her works. She was an early Vancouver artist who found inspiration from the Native American art and life of the late 1800's and early 1900's. You can see her work at the link on her name above.

Friday night we visited Ron and Linda Bahr in Bellingham, and enjoyed their hospitality. Sat and Sunday we birded the Skagit and Sammish flats, and had nice visiting time together.

This weekend Kay and I go to a cancer retreat at Harmony Hills. We look forward to and dread this at the same time, but we think it will do us good to have time together focused on this battle ahead. We need to look ahead while being present at the same time. A challenge.

Jean turned 24 this week, and is doing great, as is Brett. Kay has two new business opportunities and is excited about doing good work, I continue my medical blog and am working on a new site with Brett as a great online resource for sex education. It's not ready for prime time yet, but I think it will be an authority site with more work.

Keep Kay in your prayers.

Love to all.

Ed










Thursday, January 13, 2011

Kay is Doing Great



As Kay approaches the end of her 5th cycle of this second course of chemo she continues to be a chemo superstar. She will get the last PARP infusion portion of this course and take next week off. She did develop some anemia a while ago, and got a 2 unit blood transfusion, which went uneventfully and left her full of energy for our Cabos Christmas vacation. We've been back almost 2 weeks now, and all continues well. She will get at least one more course, then we are working with our oncologist to decide what if anything to do after that besides wait, have fun, and pray.

Kay's last CA-125 was down to 9.3, from 11.5 the time prior, so the downward trend continues. We pray that this PARP working with her chemo will lead to a much longer remission, maybe even a cure.

Jean has moved to an apartment in Bellevue for a short time as a sublease prior to her long engagement for her job in southern Oregon, so Kay and I are home alone again. We're jamming as much fun into life as we can. Last night we, really Kay, hosted our Rotary book club, after reading The Immortal Live of Henrietta Lacks. It was an interesting story of the HeLa cell line that has been used for most of the cell research in the last 60 years.

Brett is back to start his Senior year at Seattle University, and is doing well. He is working out a lot, having some fun, learning lots and trying to learn more about online marketing as an entrepreneurial pursuit.

DrPullen.com, my medical blog, continues to grow in viewer volume and on the search engines, and I am still having fun with writing.

Winter birding in WA is great, and I'm off to E. WA with a group this weekend, while Kay stays warm in Puyallup. The next week we are joining Ron and Linda Bahr, good friends, on a trip to Vancouver, and a weekend of birding the Skagit and Sammish flats for raptors and winter passerines. Then the next weekend off to a cancer retreat where we hope to renew and invigorate our spiritual and emotional reserves to continue the fight.

Hope this finds you all well. Keep Kay in your prayers, asking for a long remission and continued good health.