an impressive and dramatic response

Those were the oncologist's words. Lumpy is getting very hard to find. After several minutes our doc thought she could feel the remains deep down, but there's no doubt the chemo is working. "That's why we do chemotherapy..." she said. Now remember, this is not an x-ray or CAT scan, it's just a physical exam. But these are practiced hands and Becca has been having these exams every month or shorter since we started.

Also, Becca's blood work remains great, which among other things means that we cannot attribute the extreme fatigue to anything but the drugs. Her body is dealing very well with them but it needs the rest and sleep to do it. So be it. (Easy for me to say, right?)

Super-nurse Jane offered to cut the benadryl out entirely this time, which was a big bonus in the immediate aftermath. Becca didn't have to sleep it off when we got home and pretty much felt like herself for the whole day. Alas, the insomnia was back with a vengeance though, so she kept on "feeling like herself" until 4 in the morning. Yow! Hopefully tonight will go a little better.

So now that she only has four more chemo doses, Becca is starting to focus on the surgery. The what, when, and how, and the how much, and the what after. We have decided to amass a series of questions for our plastics guy and the beloved surgeon, who we will be seeing the day after the last dose on May 14. I expect that will be a long talk, since the desired procedure will have to then be decided. I'm quite sure too that out of all our doctors the surgeon's is perhaps the opinion Becca will value the most, not because she's the one holding the knife, but because she has incredible depth of experience, breadth of knowledge, and heartfelt concern.

We had a great visit with our college buddy Tracy who came in from Natick for this chemo visit. She regaled us with stories of her twins and we all made the nursing staff laugh more than once. Because we're really just that funny. Really. You had to be there.

And the prize for most containers used in a food drop-off goes to... Kari. She brought over a make-your own taco/burrito spread that your favorite Tex-Mex place would have been proud of. Like 10 containers of all the different fixin's! Delicious. And even more amazing, the kids loved it so much they made their own lunches with it this morning. Trust me, this is not a feat to be taken likely.

Some of you may not know that Kari inspired the name of our venerable blog. Kari is a breast cancer survivor herself, and Becca made sure she was in the loop even in the beginning stages of all this. When Becca emailed Kari after we got the results of the biopsy back (which I don't mind telling you was a very hard time) the message that came back from Kari was clear: "Get your pointy boots on, sister, because you are going to kick this cancer's @$#!" I believe that was the phrasing. It couldn't have set the tone better. Pointy Boots was born.

If you're wondering, Sammy can tell you what the last word of that phrase is. Refer to the last post.