Marking Time

April 17, 2008

O Best Beloveds, this month’s markers are at 149–wait, I think, Steve’s told me twice (I wasn’t home when the call came in) and I can’t quite remember. Well, something like that, anyway. The point is they went up another 29 points whereas last time they went up 30, so it’s about the same, but it does represent a smaller percentage increase. Further, it was no more and actually a bit less than Dr. W. anticipated. Between stopping the no longer effective Xeloda and that Aromasin needs two to three months to ramp up, he figured there would be a rise, but allowed for something larger than that.

I actually realized, at least two weeks after I had started it, that I was on Aromasin at exactly this time last year, and that it worked at first and then quickly didn’t work at all, which is what started this whole Xeloda fandango in the first place. I guess it slipped my mind because it was such a brief interlude of inefficacy. Dr. W. didn’t forget; he just thinks that after having had nearly a year’s worth of additional chemo that the goop might be more effective this time around. Certainly, it’s worth giving it a go since whatever is happening to me is happening slowly. And if it does work, then yippee!

So once again, a kind of limbo, but one I’m enjoying. There’s nothing like having one’s hands and feet begin to return to normal to remind one of just how cruddy they were. The timing couldn’t have been better, given the Paris trip and the about-to-be-embarked upon annual Jazz Fest pilgrimage, this year featuring an additional swing through Richmond to cheer as Steve and Linda get married. I can walk, I can dance, I’m a week away from crawfish and couchon de lait, and you know how I anticipate such things, and I don’t have to worry about going back on chemo for at least another month or two. I’m treating this period as a kind of early summer vacation, since the moment I get back I have to dive into a long hot summer of travel book writing, paper writing, German learning, really really hard German translation test taking followed by a long cold fall and winter of really really really hard test studying. Put it that way and…pass the mudbugs and pork, please.

Walkin’ to New Orleans, as the song goes.

Not really, but my feet claim they are just about up to the challenge now,

Mary, Mona and Steve. But you probably guessed that. New haircut replaced by winter hat hair.