reunion

Back to Needham today for Herceptin; no more need to do it in Boston. It was very nice to be with our favorite chemo nurses again but the star of the show was our just-returned-from-maternity-leave oncologist. The last time we saw her we were preparing for surgery, which seems ages ago. So finally, we could recap and say boy we sure are glad that stuff is over. And then we could talk about the future.

First, there is general agreement that we should not be doing any more scans for at least three months, so we won't know what the radiation has done until then, and even then the bone scan could be mighty hard to read, as many of you longtime readers know.

The onc was not overly concerned about the twinges Becca has on her left side when reaching, etc. She defers to the surgeon on this, who we will see again in 2 weeks. (*cough* handstand! *cough*)

Along with the Herceptin today Becca got Zometa. Chances are side effects will not be as bad as last time, but we shall see.

It is also time for Becca to start a Tamoxifin regimen, which has its own set of fine print that I will not scare you with because it is just as rare as the exploding spleens and heart attacks we have read about before.

We also talked about how long the Herceptin treatment would last. The oncologist said there is increasing evidence that staying on it for a bit longer than a year (from March, in Becca's case) is also beneficial to women who have cases where her-2/neu cancer has spread to other parts of the body, as with Becca's sternum.

So that's it for today's appointments. I can't tell you what a relief it is to be back under the watchful eye of this oncologist. Not that her substitute wasn't great too, but we have been through some very scary times with this doctor. Like the surgeon, she knows the whole deal, and never needs to look on a chart to know exactly where we are coming from and why we need to ask this particular question etc. It's good. It's all good.

Sorry it has been so long since the last post, but there really was not a whole lot else to tell up until today. No news continues to be good news. I know there are a few of you that would be just as happy to learn about our regular family news in christmas-letter fashion here but alas, we must remember the point of the blog. Or should I say the pointy of the blog? (badum sss!) I have also resigned myself to the fact that I am just not as inspired to write about regular goings on. Hopefully I'm too busy just living them, ya know?

But I will throw you few a bone: we are newly with kitten. Thanks to Jodi I picked up a 7-week-old beige fluffball last week on my way home from Hartford. Here he is on a 4-inch by 4-inch square of blanket. He is all kitten, through and through, and we are enjoying this immensely. Even Fred the 1-yr-old is coming out from under the bed once in a while to play with him. It took a few days for the whole family to agree that his name was Scooter. Well, his full name is Fuzzball McFluffypants the Third. But we'll call him Scooter.